Bite resistant clothing has now been launched to protect mental health care professionals. Cut-Tex® PRO, a recently developed ultra high cut resistant textile is now being used to manufacture this new type of protective clothing.
PPSS Group, the company behind Cut-Tex® PRO have already developed a range of bite resistant garments in order to improve especially the personal safety of these professionals. Bite wounds may be contaminated with bacteria, even if there are no clinical signs of infection. However, transmission of viruses e.g. hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV, following human bites is much less common.
Robert Kaiser, CEO of PPSS Group said: “Bites from humans are relatively common in some settings and these can become infected. Human bites frequently occur in care settings for children or people with special needs, challenging behaviour or autism.” Debbie Townsend, Physical Intervention Training Manager of the Oxfordshire Learning Disability NHS Trust (Ridgeway Partnership).says: “Bites can cause both physical injury, risk of infection, soft tissue damage and psychological distress to staff. Whilst our staff teams are usually aware of the potential for bites from records of previous incidents and preventative steps are taken, additional measure to protect staff from a bite may be beneficial.”
The Health Protection Agency gives clear advice on how to deal with bite injuries: “Where a bite wound occurs in the workplace, staff should inform their manager. Staff experiencing a bite that breaks the skin must report these as potential blood borne virus exposure to the appropriate Occupational Health Department for follow up.”
“Bite resistant clothing using Cut-Tex PRO can help prevent such injuries”, says Robert Kaiser.
However, he also points out the following: “This type of bite resistant clothing eliminates only the risk of human teeth penetrating the other person’s skin, but does not stop the potential bruising due to the pressure and force being used.”
An even higher bite protection level can be achieved by adding either very thin layers of leather, rubber or other more advanced materials. This type of bite resistant clothing would also substantially reduce the pain created and also the risk of bruising.
For further information please contact the industry experts directly. Please visit www.cut-tex.com or email [email protected] or call +44 (0) 845 5193 953
