The silver bullet for contamination

At Vectair Systems, we believe in protecting customers as best we can against harmful bacteria on surfaces. That is why our manual soap and surface dispensers, and our feminine hygiene disposal unit, are protected by Invizi-Touch® silver ions protection.

Like vampires and werewolves, bacteria have a weakness: silver.

The precious metal has been used as a natural antibacterial for thousands of years. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates wrote that silver had both healing and anti-disease properties. In the Middle Ages, the wealthy fed their children using a silver spoon to give them protection against disease – hence ‘born with a silver spoon in your mouth’. It was such a powerful idea that some thought that the use of silver cutlery might provide protection against the plague.

American pioneers travelling west kept their water and milk fresher for longer by putting a silver coin in the storage barrels and early settlers in Australia placed silver forks or spoons into their water tanks in order to keep the water clean. In the First World War, silver was used by physicians in bandages to dress wounds. Up until the widescale use of antibiotics in the 1940’s, colloidal silver was used by physicians as a mainstream antibiotic treatment

The discovery of penicillin, however, changed everything. The benefits of silver in healthcare were largely ignored or forgotten. The ancient treatment, however, is still helping deal with the thoroughly modern problem of bacterial contamination.

Invizi-Touch® pioneered the modern day use of silver-ion technology in 2004.  When bacteria come into contact with a Invizi-Touch® protected surface, the silver ions prevent them from growing, producing energy or replicating, therefore they die.

Invizi-Touch® protection is incredibly durable, long lasting and highly active. When added, it is dispersed throughout the entire item and becomes an integral part of the product. Silver is inorganic and non-leaching which means that, unlike organic antimicrobial technologies, it stays within the item to which it is added and doesn’t leach out. The active ingredient provides maximum antibacterial protection for the lifetime of the product.

Controlling contamination is an essential and fundamental part of any manufacturing process. Invizi-Touch® antimicrobial technology is used in thousands of clean rooms, critical areas and controlled industrial environments, finding application in diverse industries from biomedical, pharmaceutical, electronic and optical to automotive, aerospace and packaging.

Silver could also make a comeback in mainstream healthcare.  A recent study found that the ability of dissolved ions to attack bacterial cells could potentially be harnessed to make today’s antibiotics more effective against resistant bacteria.

Many antibiotics are thought to kill their targets by producing reactive oxygen compounds. When boosted with a small amount of silver these drugs could kill between 10 and 1,000 times as many bacteria. The increased membrane permeability also allows more antibiotics to enter the bacterial cells, which may overwhelm the resistance mechanisms that rely on shuttling the drug back out.

To find out more about the Vectair products that carry Invizi-Touch® protection, visit our Sanitex® MVP Soap dispenser page, our Sanitex® MVP Surface Cleaner Dispenser page, or our Femcare™ MVP sanitary disposal unit page.