Biomaster shows microbes a clean pair of heels

Contamination control is a major and growing concern in cleanrooms, critical areas and controlled environments. Industry test show that 80% of all contamination is picked up on shoes and on the wheels of carts, then tracked into the critical area. 

It doesn’t matter how shiny your workplace floor is, particles below a size of 30 microns, Invisible to the naked eye, could be posing a real threat to your business. They can become suspended for hours in the surrounding environment where they quickly spread polluting the atmosphere. 

One single microbe in a batch of aseptic drugs could cause the entire batch to be quarantined or scrapped, leading to supply shortages, financial consequences, product recalls, FDA warning letters or even company shutdown. 

Controlling contamination and cross contamination at or near floor level, therefore, is an essential and fundamental part of any integrated risk management policy. Regulatory bodies such as the FDA, MHRA, EMEA and other professional auditing teams all recognise the importance of controlling contamination by implementing an effective contamination control flooring system. 

Dycem, which has headquarters in Bristol, is a world-leading manufacturer and supplier of contamination control floor solutions for critical environments. Dycem polymeric control mats and flooring work by effectively trapping foot, wheel and air borne contamination on their surface, thereby eliminating the risk of cross contamination. 

Dycem products incorporate Biomaster silver ion technology. When Biomaster is added to a product it prevents bacteria from multiplying. A bacterium landing on a Biomaster protected surface is unable to replicate and therefore it dies. The technology works 24 hours a day to inhibit the growth of microbes and has been proven to be effective on at least 20 organisms including MRSA. E. Coli and Campylobacter. 

Dycem has seen great success in reducing particle counts within food production areas by up to 99.99% contributing to the elimination of cross-contamination concerns. 

Away from the food industry, Dycem polymeric contamination antimicrobial mats and flooring is also used in thousands of clean rooms, critical areas and controlled environments. The company’s contamination control systems find application in diverse industries from pharmaceutical, biomedical, electronic and optical to automotive, aerospace and packaging, with customers including Sony, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Motorola, Roche, IBM, Pfizer, Rolls Royce, Nestle, Intel, Nokia, Honda, BMW and Heinz. 

Addmaster Marketing Manager Karl Shaw says: “Dycem are one of the great success stories in demonstrating how Biomaster antimicrobial additives can work in hygiene critical environments for the smallest, to the largest company.” 

For more information about Dycem polymeric matting and flooring visit www.dycem-cc.com.

*Please note that Addmaster was acquired by the Polygiene Group AB in January 2021, so all news articles prior to that date will still be branded as Addmaster.