Personal respiratory protection and resiliency in a pandemic, the evolving disposable versus reusable debate and its effect on waste generation

Hicks, Andrea; Temizel-Sekeryan, Sila; Kontar, Wissam; Ghamkhar, Ramin; Morris, Mónica Rodríguez

doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105262

“…Single-use gowns have yet to be recognised as important sources of pathogen transmission in clinical environments, likely due to the instructions for ‘single-use’ and immediate disposal [12, 13]. However, with pressures on clinical resources, time and economics, especially during the COVID19 pandemic, HCW compliance to ‘single-use’ may decline [36]. This compliance may also be compounded by the fact that society is currently attempting to reduce plastic waste in an effort to combat climate change and protect the environment [37].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Isolation of Clostridioides difficile PCR Ribotype 027 from single-use hospital gown ties

Waterfield

¹

,

Ahmed

²

,

Jones

³

et al. 2022

Journal of Medical Microbiology

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Background. Clostridioides difficile is a spore-forming pathogen responsible for antibiotic-associated diarrhoea. In the USA high incidence of C. difficile infection (CDI) in clinical environments has led to interest in C. difficile spore transmission. Hypothesis. Single use hospital surgical gown ties act as a reservoir for C. difficile spores. Aim. This study sought to examine whether single-use hospital surgical gown ties used in surgery, from an acute healthcare facility, harboured C. difficile spores. Methodology. Used surgical gowns ties worn by clinicians in the healthcare facility were examined for C. difficile spore presence via spread plate and anaerobic culture. The colonies isolated from each gown tie were subcultured on C. difficile selective agar for phenotypic confirmation. Presumptive C. difficile colonies were examined using C. difficile Quik Check Complete, 16–23S PCR Ribotyping and MALDI-TOF analysis. Results. In total 17 suspected C. difficile colonies were isolated from 15 gown ties via culture. C. difficile Quik Check Complete found two isolates as possible C. difficile . MALDI-TOF and PCR Ribotyping confirmed one isolate as C. difficile PCR ribotype 027 associated with clinical outbreaks. Discussion. Our study revealed the presence of hypervirulent C. difficile ribotype 027 spores on single-use gown ties. This highlights the potential of gown ties as a vector of spore transmission across clinical environments, especially when gowns are not worn appropriately. Conclusions. Appropriate compliance to infection control procedures by healthcare workers is essential to prevent spore dissemination across clinical facilities and reduce CDI rates.

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“…According to the International Standard Organization guidelines (ISO14040‐14044), LCA is comprised of four steps: goal and scope definition, inventory, impact analysis and results interpretation (ISO‐Norm, 2006; Wu et al., 2020). In the goal and scope definition, the motivation for performing LCA, product system boundary, functional unit, and data parameters is defined (Hicks et al., 2020). In the inventory stage, resources consumed and emissions to the environment at all stages of a process's lifespan, from the raw material extraction to the disposal of waste, are quantified (Guinée, 2002; ISO, 1997).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of environmental and economic implications of a cold‐weather aquaponic food production system using life cycle assessment and economic analysis

Ghamkhar

¹

,

Hartleb

²

,

Rabas

³

et al. 2022

J of Industrial Ecology

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Aquaponics, in which fish and plants are grown in a symbiotic closed-loop industrial metabolism, are promising test beds to implement industrial ecology in food production at a commercial scale. These systems have the potential to enhance the environmental and economic performance of aquaculture systems by reducing the overall burden on natural ecosystems (i.e., reducing resource and emission-based impacts per unit of food produced). To holistically evaluate the environmental and economic implications of aquaponics, specifically in a cold-weather climate, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Economic Analysis (EA) were performed on a Midwestern United States aquaponic system, using data from 3 years of annual operation cycles with varying fish species production; tilapia, conventional walleye, and hybrid walleye. For the LCA, environmental impacts were quantified using 10 midpoint indicators. Assessments indicated that 1-kg production of live-weight tilapia, conventional walleye, and hybrid walleye resulted in 20.2-13.8-11.7 kg CO 2 -eq, 23.0-7.8-3.9 g N-eq, and 0.2-0.3-0.4 kg SO 2 -eq, consecutively, using the investigated system. The most sensitive parameters for environmental impacts were heat, aquafeed, electricity, and infrastructure (in all scenarios).For EA, benefit to cost ratios (BCRs) and three other widely used indices were analyzed for production cycles. The BCRs were 0.47, 1.16, and 1.75 for tilapia, conventional walleye, and hybrid walleye, respectively (using a 10% discount rate and a 20-year horizon), highlighting the necessity of optimizing both cash inflows (e.g., energy costs) and outflows (plant and fish revenues) to achieve practical enhancement of return on investments. The major cost contributors were infrastructure, labor, and heat (contributing to >89% of total costs for all cycles). Suggested steps for in-effect improvement of the investigated aquaponic system's environmental and economic favorability include heat and infrastructure optimization by (a) applying effective heating strategies (e.g., advanced insulation techniques), and (b) expanding the system's operational lifespan (e.g., prevention of waste accumulation).

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“…A 20% response rate for the purpose of this survey is a reasonable outcome, as it meets the purpose of incorporating producers’ realistic scores within the analysis, which was often lacking in previous MCDA studies. We should also note that many fish farms are teetering on the brink of closure right now due to the COVID pandemic, , which means that there may be even fewer farms in Wisconsin than are listed on the permit registry. As many of the surveys were returned as undeliverable.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Aquafeeds: Using Aquafarmer Preference to Inform a Multi-criteria Decision Analysis

Ghamkhar

¹

,

Hicks

²

2021

ACS Agric. Sci. Technol.

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Aquafeed is a major contributor to the sustainability of food production using aquaculture. Therefore, improving the environmental, economic, and societal performance of aquafeeds provides an opportunity to significantly enhance the sustainability of aquaculture practices, which make up the fastest-growing food sector. Fish meal and fish oil are traditionally the main sources of essential nutrients (e.g., protein and fatty acids) in aqua diets. However, increases in supply prices and limited natural resources (e.g., forage fish) have encouraged some stakeholders to seek alternative nutrient-rich options. This work provides a multidimensional assessment of current and promising future aquafeeds, utilizing multi-criteria decision analysis. The considered parameters include cost, environmental impacts, and nutrient inclusion. The results based on varying stakeholders’ perspectives indicate that the replacements of fish meal with plant-based soybean meal and fish oil with plant-based canola oil are the most favorable alternatives among those investigated to enhance the overall aquafeed performance in aquaculture food production.

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Personal respiratory protection and resiliency in a pandemic, the evolving disposable versus reusable debate and its effect on waste generation

Cited by 20 publications

References 43 publications

Isolation of Clostridioides difficile PCR Ribotype 027 from single-use hospital gown ties

Isolation of Clostridioides difficile PCR Ribotype 027 from single-use hospital gown ties

Evaluation of environmental and economic implications of a cold‐weather aquaponic food production system using life cycle assessment and economic analysis

Sustainable Aquafeeds: Using Aquafarmer Preference to Inform a Multi-criteria Decision Analysis

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