A German children’s hospital tracked down the source of a outbreak of Klebsiella in their neonatal unit recently leading to trashing an energy efficient washing machine. Thankfully the infants were only colonized and none were infected by the potentially harmful bacteria. Normally any hospital laundry would be sanitized by special machines, but this wash was being used to wash the little boots and mittens which kept the infants warm.
It appears that energy efficient washers use lower temperatures to save on your electric bill but this may allow more bacteria to survive the cleaning process.
I am not saying you should trash your energy efficient front loader, but you do want to keep it clean so you don’t end up with your own contaminated laundry. Living a healthier more abundant life means watching out for all sources of bad microbes.
Thanks to Science Daily:
American Society for Microbiology. “Your energy-efficient washing machine could be harboring pathogens: Lower temperatures used in ‘energy saver’ washing machines may not be killing all pathogens.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 27 September 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190927135202.htm>.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
