By Josephine Reid
Some are horrified at the sight of seeing medical personnel in their scrub attire in public settings like restaurants, supermarkets, and specifically the public transportation, in fear of the spread of harmful bacteria and sickness streaming from scrubs wearers' place of work.
The amount of 'scary' germs on the bus itself may be greater, with a study concerning public seats such as buses, concluded that "there were so many organisms on these seats that they may have never been cleaned or rarely cleaned.” Nearly 28 percent of the seats contained traces of E. coli. More than half, 52%, of the samples showed indications of fecal matter.
Flu viruses can travel in the air via tiny droplets that get released when someone coughs, sneezes, or talks. In an airplane, train or bus, the flu is particularly easy to spread because you of the close proximity to others, so we are more likely to come across these droplets. As you can see, no mention of medical scrubs contributing to this germ fest.
There is no evidence that bacteria on medical scrubs spread disease, and a large number of hospital personnel wear medical scrubs. Nor is there evidence that bacteria on other objects such as ties, white coats, stethoscopes, shown to be contaminated, has made people sick.
It does help the level of cleanliness if one's medical scrubs have soil release, as seen on all Dress A Med scrubs, which removes soil from the fabric and transfers it to the detergent. Soil release treatment protects the fiber from attack by soiling matter; it prevents re-deposition of soil which has been dissolved or dispersed and lastly it prevents dust from being attracted and held by electrical charges on the fabric surface.
Just like a butcher wearing a bloodied apron should stay in the meat shop, soiled medical scrubs should of course stay in the hospital. There however is no proof of disease spreading through scrubs themselves.
