WELL AND TRULY IN IT!

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By William H Harriss. 01/13/2024. [email protected] [email protected]

Once again, I am saddened because I have been unfortunate enough today to read an article regarding an outbreak on a cruise ship where nearly 100 Celebrity Cruises passengers got sick in a Norovirus outbreak during a sailing that ended last Friday.

Among 2,056 guests on board, 92 reported being ill on the line’s Celebrity Constellation ship, along with eight crew members, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC]. Their main symptoms were vomiting and diarrhoea.

The news marks the first outbreak of gastrointestinal illness on cruises that have met the CDC’s threshold for public notification this year. The health agency logged 14 in 2023 – three of which occurred on Celebrity ships – higher than any year between 2017 and 2019.

But Norovirus on cruise ships is only the tip of the iceberg. Ben Lopman, a professor of epidemiology at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, said last year that cruises constitute a “tiny minority of Norovirus outbreaks.” Most of them take place in healthcare settings like nursing homes.

Last year, there were reports of outbreaks at a London hospital, on college campuses in Washington, D.C. and New Jersey, and at a Canadian hotel, among other hotels. They are all the type of places where the dreaded “Noro” occurs because—despite its unfortunate identity as “the cruise ship virus”—this nasty virus spreads easily in enclosed spaces everywhere.

Norovirus [NoV] is an enteric non-enveloped virus which is the leading cause of gastroenteritis across all age groups. It is a highly contagious virus and the most common viral food-borne illness. According to the CDC, every year in the U.S., Norovirus leads to 71,000 hospitalizations and 800 deaths. Likewise, each year, food-borne Norovirus illness costs about $2 billion, mainly due to lost productivity and healthcare expenses.

While medical guidelines previously said Noroviruses are spread by touching contaminated objects or eating food or drinking liquids that contain the virus, a study showed it can be and is also airborne. Researchers from Canada tested air samples at eight hospitals and long-term care facilities affected by gastroenteritis outbreaks. They found that the virus could spread by air up to several meters from an infected person. The study results were presented in an issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases. Caroline Duchaine of the Université Laval and the Québec Heart and Lung Institute Research Centre, "Our lab is equipped to do this. Other studies have supposed it could be present because of epidemiological evidence, such as transmission of diseases with our droplets or direct contact."

Cruise ships have suffered from Norovirus now for the longest time. Each time there is an outbreak on a ship, huge, extra careful cleaning regimes begin, and everything is wiped down with bleach solutions of varying strengths.

Ship housekeeping scrub and sanitize the showers and toilets. The laundry washes the bed linen and pillowcases in water containing bleach. Housekeepers learnt from the onboard hygiene specialists long ago that alcohol-based chemical wipes did not kill the virus, so bleach is used wherever it will not inflict damage.

The staff onboard are usually the main suspects in spreading the disease. Housekeeping and kitchen staff are regularly tested. Over the years, the so-called clever PR departments for all the cruise lines have blamed the water, the ice put in drinks, the food, and most of the puddings and sweets such as Jello. But they have never found the source, or at least never admitted to finding the source and publicly identified it.

So, we must ask ourselves, is there something they fail to clean properly? That can be a definite source of continuing contamination from Norovirus and many other viruses, I must add, such as COVID, influenza, tuberculosis and a thousand other varieties of bacterium and viruses.

The answer is simple, and you do not have to look far for the answer. Two things in a cabin, suite or even in a stateroom that are neglected to be washed, cleaned, disinfected, or, more importantly, sterilized are pillows and bed comforters, sometimes known as bedspreads.

Almost every Pillow in the world becomes contaminated by the human head. Undried heads straight from the shower, sweat, dribbling, coughing and sneezing, fluids from the ears, eyes, nose, mouth, and throat are the greatest source of viruses and bacteria that the body stores and easily emits. In fact, just breathing into a pillow can transfer all kinds of pathogens from the lungs, throat and mouth. Many people carry germs that do not show symptoms in the carrier and are immune to them. But they can still transfer those deadly germs to others in unwashed pillows, blankets and comforters. If fabrics are not thoroughly sterilized, they can harbor Noroviruses for up to 14 days. The virus can also survive on surfaces or on food for up to four weeks.?

Pillows cannot be washed in bleach or chemicals because residues from those chemicals, in most cases, can cause a life-threatening allergic reaction in users. So, washing a pillow using bleach or chemicals may be a death warrant for unsuspecting guests. Most pillows will not withstand high-temperature washing or high-temperature drying. Washing changes the feel and quality of the pillow; it makes them feel clumpy and uncomfortable. Washing pillows shorten a pillow's life from three years to six months. The consequences of washing pillows are astronomical in terms of the increased replacement cost.

Pillows should be sterilized between every change of guests. Pillows in staff accommodation should be sterilized every time the bedding is changed or someone different sleeps in a bed or bunk. The Norovirus can re-contaminate kitchen staff every time they put their head on their bed pillow. Norovirus can be caught numerous times and show symptoms every time; there is no limit on how many times you can catch it. But some people in the kitchen may carry it without symptoms. They enter the kitchen and touch surfaces and food while preparing and serving it. We now know they can also cough and breathe out the virus, contaminating everyone around them, surfaces, and uncovered food.

If you should not wash pillows, how about dry cleaning them? We definitely know that sterilizes them! The fluid used in dry cleaning creates a residue in pillows and bedding that is even more harmful in creating allergic reactions than bleach and washing chemicals. So that is an even more dangerous situation than traditionally washing pillows.

Now, let's discuss the comforters on beds. Comforters on beds are another source of grossly disgusting contamination. Because once more, they are rarely, if ever, washed and certainly never sterilized. Like pillows, they should be sterilized between every change of guests. Comforters and unwashed blankets in staff accommodation should be sterilized whenever the bedding is changed, or someone different sleeps in a bed or bunk. People use the shower or just go to the toilet, then come back into the bedroom nude, sit on the end of the bed, and flick through the TV programs with the control. There are as many as one trillion germs on one gram of poop. Their bottom is in direct contact with the comforter. Contaminates from their bottom are transferred to the comforter. Next, a crew member or client inhabits the room or cabin and sits nude on the same spot on the comforter where the contaminates from their bottom are exchanged or co-mingled with those of the previous inhabitant. That can go on for days, weeks and even months.

But there is an answer, and an answer has been available for a long time. Pillows and comforters can be sterilized against every pathogen, germ, virus, and bacteria known to man, which is 99.99%. The answer is ozone gas treatment. Here in Mexico, we are fabricating chambers that produce their own ozone gas from the oxygen in the room's air where they are located. The chambers look like large stainless-steel double-door refrigerators. They are absolutely noiseless when working and use no water, no chemicals, and a tiny amount of electricity. Isolated from the chamber in the top section of the cabinets, there are two ozone generators. The air from the room is drawn through ceramic tubes in which a constant 4,600 high voltage low amperage charge is applied as a spark or flash, something like a lightning bolt. This operation takes the oxygen in the air [02] and divides the two atoms. When the mixture exits the generator, it naturally reforms with a third oxygen atom, so now there are three atoms, which is now oxygen converted to ozone gas [03]. Ozone (or trioxygen) is an inorganic molecule with the chemical formula 03. Ozone gas is short-lived and reverts to oxygen each time it destroys any pathogen, renders it inert, or destroys chemicals. It also naturally reverts to oxygen, usually in about fifteen minutes. Being a third heavier than oxygen, it is more liquid than oxygen. However, the actual quality of ozone is that it soaks into pillows and bedding more easily than oxygen because of its extra weight.

I mentioned how it makes chemicals inert; it has a destructive oxidation power 3000 times more powerful than bleach, without the harsh action of bleach on the item it is sterilizing.

I recommend that pillows be washed in ozonated water once or twice yearly, using no other chemicals. Then, dry treatment with ozone gas between every client or crew member's changes occurs. Using ozonated water in the washing process of all bedding, not just pillows and comforters, will eliminate any heavy chemical residues by oxidization, allowing them to dry faster. Typically, drying times can be reduced anywhere from 10% to 30%, depending on the ozone system used. Pillows will last the normal three years by using this procedure.

Although it is not recommended if you want your pillows to last three years, you can wash them using bleach or chemicals or even dry clean them if you process them in one of our chambers afterwards. Our ozone chamber will make all the residue chemicals from those processes inert by the oxidization process and render them harmless to people who are subject to chemical residue allergies.

Ozone sterilization during the oxidization process produces a chemical reaction that renders almost every chemical contaminant harmless. The by-products of this reaction are carbon dioxide, oxygen, and water. The byproduct of oxidation, in this case, is 0, a single oxygen atom which sticks to the bacteria and destroys it. The mechanisms of disinfection using ozone include direct oxidation/destruction of the cell wall with leakage of cellular constituents outside of the cell, reactions with radical by-products of ozone decomposition, and damage to the constituents of the nucleic acids.

Remember, ozone leaves no chemical residue itself; it is, after all, temporarily converted oxygen that reverts to being oxygen again, not some malicious chemical or its residues.

Besides the importance of our chambers in the laundry and for housekeeping, they are also a fantastic tool in the kitchen. One of our chambers in the kitchen can be used for all food received and delivered to the kitchen, as well as all food before serving in the restaurant. The effect of treating food is that the ozone gas destroys all pathogens on the surface of food. It also renders inert all bacteria and viruses along with chemicals and pesticides on fruit and vegetable skins.

Food coming from the kitchen for service can also be treated 15 or 20 minutes before service, and that will eliminate all bacteria and viruses on its surface.

It does have its limits; what it will not do with food is kill pathogens within the food, and only surface pathogens will be eliminated. But remember, most of the viruses like Norovirus are surface-borne diseases.

The American government FDA has determined that ozone gas is harmless to all cooked and uncooked food and will not change the flavor or reduce its quality. It is FDA-approved for sterilizing water, all meats, fish, fruit, and vegetables.

So, my cruise ship friends, why not invite me to come and talk with your experts on the best way forward in helping eliminate not just the Norovirus but all those pathogens that people are prone to catching and passing on to your passengers and staff? Let us discuss a program that is easy to work, without a huge cost. The technology is there and ready to apply, even tailor-made to fit is possible.

The ChemWipes such as Clorox? can kill Salmonella and H1N1, but they are ineffective against Rotaviruses or Noroviruses. The chemical companies hate our ozone chambers and ozonated water technology for laundries.

If you do not like what I tell you here, you can continue to do nothing; the choice really is yours.

Please contact me; I am ready and willing to help you combat this business destroyer and tourist destructive problem.

Best Regards

William

Please pass this on to whoever in your organization should have the information. Your comments are always welcome and respected.

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