Ecolab , a history of hygiene
ROBOTICS
Ecolab , a history of hygiene
Founded in 1923 under the name
Economics Laboratory , the company ' s first successful product was a dishwashing detergent called Soilax .
During World War II efforts turned to keeping soldiers in the Allied Forces safe from dysentery by sterilising their mess kits with a germicidal product called MikroKlene . ™ Throughout the decade that followed , the company expanded in the US and beyond , and a dairy division was established to enable producers to clean miles of pipes and valves with the push of a button .
By 1970 they held 2,200 patents worldwide , a number that almost doubled over the next decade . Among their most innovative products were a heavy-duty bathroom cleaner and a food safety management system ; in 2011 Forbes named them one of the world ’ s most ingenious companies .
In the healthcare space their current products include a smart monitoring system to improve hospital hand hygiene compliance , along with their operating room programme .
in 1923 , Ecolab is a global specialist in hygiene and infection prevention , addressing challenges including pest control and sanitising water over the years .
Ecolab ' s expertise - and existing initiative for operating rooms - meant they were well positioned to respond to the pandemic ' s demands . " Variance for cleaning times in operating theatres is a big challenge " explains Howard Wilkinson , area VP for Healthcare , northern Europe . " We built a programme that can really bring a repeatability to cleaning and remove variance . Then we took the idea from cleaning to also disinfecting ."
“ UVC light is not new in hospitals but it is a very manual process . It ’ s simple physics that the light shines in a straight line , so the challenge is shadowing - you have to keep moving it . One of the biggest challenges in the health system is resources , so we want to reduce the need for someone to move
70 April 2021