Locker Room Infections a Growing Threat
Studies Find a New Way to Kill Bacteria*
What do the Washington Redskins, Toronto Blue Jays, Cleveland Browns, St. Louis Rams and Atlanta Falcons have in common?
They are all professional sport teams that have millions of dollars invested in their franchises. And they've all recently made headlines for having to battle a costly, and potentially deadly, infection in their locker rooms or among their players-namely, a virulent pathogen called Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
This particular bacterium not only can be lethal, it has also proved extremely resistant to antibiotics, making it very difficult to treat. As a result, MRSA has become an all-too-common source of infection in hospitals. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hospital acquired infections now kill as many as 100,000 people each year in this country alone. And the MRSA microbe is the cause of many of these fatalities.
Hospitals are not the only place these dangerous bacteria live. Health experts are beginning to recognize that places like locker rooms, gyms and other public sports and recreation facilities-even schools-can also harbor MRSA and similar disease-causing organisms.
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Joseph Vignogna is an American Council on Exercise (ACE) certified personal trainer and New York State physical education teacher. He recalls that MRSA awareness in his school district began to increase in the summer of 2007. "Throughout my education, I've never received any training in preventing or dealing with MRSA," Vignogna says. "When [MRSA] started hitting news headlines, both the school and the health club I work at sent a great deal of information about not sharing clothes and washing hands much more frequently to students, teachers and members."
"I'm really not sure what else can be done to further prevent this problem. Perhaps teachers can provide more information to students directly, or schools and health clubs can implement stricter rules around sanitizing."
Within the past year, Cleveland Browns tight end, Kellen Winslow, was sidelined by a MRSA infection, and the New England Patriots' star quarterback Tom Brady was infected following knee surgery with what is believed to be a staph infection, however, that was never confirmed. While not every staph infection is MRSA, or life-threatening, the fact that many are has health and public officials worried.
Although certain bacteria are increasingly resistant to antibiotics, help is on the horizon, but from an unlikely source-outside the medical and pharmaceutical industries.
Copper along with familiar copper alloys such as brass and bronze, are inherently antimicrobial. Carefully documented studies over the past few years have shown that, when cleaned regularly and used to supplement routine hygienic practice, uncoated copper kills more than 99.9 percent of MRSA and other bacteria* within two hours. After EPA approved testing, five groups of copper-based alloys are now registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as antimicrobial solid surface materials-a designation that legally allows them to be associated with public health claims, including killing specific disease causing bacteria* such as MRSA.
The Medical University of South Carolina is one of three hospitals in the U.S. that are currently conducting clinical trials to determine the effectiveness of copper in reducing the amount of MRSA and other bacteria in the hospital setting. Michael Schmidt, Ph.D., a professor and vice chairman of the university's Department of Microbiology and Immunology, acknowledges that hospitals and healthcare facilities are not the only areas about which public health officials should be concerned.
"Locker rooms are probably worse than hospitals for the spread of MRSA," Schmidt says, "because they don't undergo the rigor of hospital cleaning." Sports facilities in particular are at high risk when it comes to spreading bacteria. Contact sports including football, rugby and wrestling, or any other activity that has the potential to cause abrasions or open wounds only increase that risk.
"The human body is like a walled city, and microbes are constantly trying to breach the walls-all it takes is a cut," Schmidt explains. "Our skin is like Velcro for microbes. Any time you go into communal situations, like locker rooms or whirlpool baths, you're opening yourself up to infections."
Today, sports franchises, high schools and colleges have another tool to reduce the number of potentially harmful bacteria* that can be found in athletic facilities.
Uncoated copper or copper alloys, which are solid materials, provide durable, continuous antibacterial action that doesn't wear off, or wear out.
There is a growing list of copper products and appliances that owners, coaches and managers can install in their facilities to kill harmful bacteria*. Experts like Schmidt recommend that, along with these antimicrobial defenses, proper hygiene regimens also need to be followed, particularly where sports and other physical or contact activities are conducted.
"I think what's going to happen is that when team owners begin to appreciate copper's significance with this subject, especially in sports locker rooms, they'll be willing to make a modest investment in them to protect their the athletes by killing MRSA and other bacteria*," Schmidt says. "Copper is a practical and inexpensive solution."
"MRSA has moved from the hospital to the community," Schmidt adds. "People are more aware of it because it's coming to everyday America." Cu
*Testing demonstrates effective antibacterial activity against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and E. coli O157:H7.