Hospitals don't clean air ducts: report

October 5, 2005

NTR

id=d031e2d9-6516-4199-a73c-74910601b290

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Montreal,Quebec,Canada

Some Quebec hospitals have never cleaned their ventilation systems,

despite the death of several patients in the Royal Hospital

due to mould in 2001.

According to a Radio-Canada report, many hospitals clean their air

ducts every five years to eliminate infection risk, but that's not

the case at other hospitals.

For example, St. Jérôme's Hôtel-Dieu Hospital, which was built in

1976, has never cleaned its ventilation system . The hospital says

that it has an excellent preventative maintenance system and it

changes its air filters regularily which they say makes it

unnecessary to clean the ducts.

At Sacré-Coeur Hospital in Montreal, the ducts in the intensive care

unit have not been cleaned in 25 years. The hospital's technical

services department says that its air samples indicate that air

quality is good, but an outside engineer, Claude Mainville, said

that good air samples don't guarantee that the air is clean.

Dirty air ducts can carry mould and mildew which can kill patients

with fragile immune systems.

October 5, 2005

From: " tigerpaw2c " <tigerpaw2c@...>

Hospitals don't clean air ducts: report

Question: other than tearing out the air ducts and replacing with new ones

what would be a safe, non-toxic way to clean air ducts without using some

harsh chemicals that might affect the seriously ill patients in the

hospitals. Reason I'm asking we had mold in our home air ducts and had to

replace them all along with two A/C and furnace systems in the attic.

Thanks,

Rosie

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