Yonago Acta medica 1998;41:83–88
Warming and Sterilizing Towels by Microwave Irradiation
Yoshinori Tanaka, Shoko Fujiwara, Daisuke Kataoka, Tomonobu Takagaki, Shuichi Takano, Shoko Honda, Michiko Katayose, Yusuke Kinosita and Yuko Toyoshima
Department of Bacteriology, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, Yonago 683-0826 Japan
A steamed and sterilized towel was easily obtained using a home microwave oven. A small piece of gauze (7 × 7 cm) containing approximately 5 × 108 organisms in 1 mL of saline was rolled up in the moist towel which was wrapped in heat-resistant vinylidene polychloride film (wrap film). Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans in the towel were completely killed by microwave irradiation for 1 min. When three towels were irradiated simultaneously, it took 2 min for complete killing of the bacteria. In another experiment, the small gauze containing the bacterial suspension was set in a sterile plastic dish and completely dried using filtered air for a period of 3 h. After a 5-min irradiation in a microwave oven, the survival rate of S. aureus was 17%. These results indicate that a sterile steamed towel can be obtained by microwave irradiation of a moist towel wrapped in wrap film.
Key words: Candida albicans; microwave irradiation; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Staphylococcus aureus; sterilization
