Copper bedrails may fight hospital infections as copper wipes out microbes on contact, according to an article on the NPR website.
"Bacteria, yeasts and viruses are rapidly killed on metallic copper surfaces, and the term 'contact killing' has been coined for this process," wrote the authors of an article on copper in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
A study of the effects of copper-alloy surfaces in U.S. hospitals shows promising results. Using copper reduced the number of hospital-acquired infections from 8.1 percent in regular rooms to 3.4 percent in the copper rooms.
There are a lot of options for how to incorporate copper, according to the article. In addition to bed rails, IV poles, feeding tables, night tables, even mattress covers can incorporate copper.
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