You can listen to Episode S4E3 right here!
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Hello, and welcome to the Third Age design podcast, sharing essential information on senior environments. I’m Lori Pinkerton-Rolet. And this month we begin a two part series called “Game Changing Flooring for Health in Senior Environments.” Just kind of rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? And today in part one, we’re going to blind you with science from Australia, as we speak to the developers of a carpet described as self- sanitising. With integrated infection control. No, I mean, how can this possibly exist? Keep listening, and you’re going to find out how it came about the testing and r&d, which made it possible and much more. In fact, I’m betting This is the first you’ve ever heard of this right here on the TAD podcast? See, I mean it, we share essential information you need. And in this month’s ‘Innovation Spotlight’, we’ll look at the research conducted by the Australian Royal Commission into aged care quality and safety around food and nutrition, and how one company is coming up with some very innovative solutions to an issue identified as high priority. French actor and all around the swell guy Maurice Chevalier, said, “Old age is not so bad when you consider the alternative.” This also sounds very much like something my aunt Donna would say. And while we don’t have much of a choice on whether or not we age, we do have many options on the environments in which we choose to live our third age, or indeed, as we architects, designers, or developers actually get the choice to design,. We do have that choice. And with that comes responsibility. And what supports that choice is research and information. And that’s why we’re here to share information, which improves senior environments everywhere. And if you haven’t already done so why not go to our website at Third Age Dot Design and hit the ‘Join Us’ button, and you’ll automatically receive this quarter’s, ‘A TAD Extra’, exclusive information for our community members. And like all of the best things in life, it’s entirely free. Okay, let’s get started. How often have you been asked to make sure that all flooring surfaces, particularly in a care facility, are vinyl? Or you may have asked someone in the immortal words of John Luc Picard to “make it so?” Why is that? Well, my guests today are going to share a development which is so radical, that it may just turn your opinion on this topic entirely on its head. Let me introduce you to our expert guests. Shaneel Deo is managing director at Milliken Australia, spearheading cutting- edge strategies that shape the future of that organisation, a sharp focus on sustainability people and culture, he’s dedicated to driving innovation in key market segments. A lifelong learner Shaneel holds an MBA from the University of Auckland, and has completed executive education at the Harvard Business School. You’ve heard of that I’m sure. With over 20 years of experience Shaneel brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the flooring industry. Also, we’ve got Victoria Harvey, Chief Operations Officer at HealthGuard Corporation, Australia, boasting extensive expertise in biotechnical surface modification treatments. She’s earned a Bachelor of Commerce before joining HealthGuard full-time 13 years ago. Recognising regulatory hurdles, Victoria pursued a Bachelor of Laws and obtained her postgraduate legal diploma for admission to the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2020. Amid the pandemic Victoria teamed HealthGuard up with Melbourne University’s Peter Doughtry Institute of immunity and infection, achieving developments in antiviral fabric treatments effective against the live human strain of SARS COVID–2. Victoria’s leadership garnered global recognition, earning HealthGuard international acclaim and being personally awarded the global Victoria woman’s award 2023. And Victoria, we already established that they didn’t name it after you. It was named after the area of Victoria. Is that correct?
Victoria Harvey
Yes, that’s right.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Welcome both of you to the Third Age design podcast. Thank you so much for being here.
Shaneel Deo
Pleasure. Thank you.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
My understanding is that the MGUARD product is a self sanitising carpet with integrated infection control. Now that’s completely incredible because designers and architects were always fighting against false people slipping on vinyl flooring and especially acoustic issues as well. What was the origin of the concept for this particular product?
Shaneel Deo
The concept was developed In the early days of the COVID 19 pandemic, as evidence started appearing on the ability of the virus to remain active on surfaces, there was a major focus on hygiene and sanitization. So locally in Australia, there was a burst of activity around cleaning protocols on surfaces. And around this time, we also started getting inquiries from our customers and how to sanitise carpet. So that was sort of the catalyst of the R&D project. Then we started looking at if there was a treatment that could be applied to the carpet that had efficacy against an envelope virus, like the COVID-19 virus, and we couldn’t really find anything that was readily available, so the R &D project was started to find a solution that could be applied on carpet, and be there for the long term. The criteria we set for the treatment was that firstly, it had to be free of any red list chemicals, right? Secondly, it had to be safe on skin. And thirdly, it did not create any VOC issues that will impact indoor air quality. And then fourthly, we had to have a strong bond with the fibre so that it was there for a longer term to ensure durability.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
So that was driven actually by your clients. Originally, you heard and then you you decided to develop is that correct?
Shaneel Deo
Yeah exactly. The there was. If you think back at the time, there was a lot of information that was coming through in the early early days and and there was a level of panic as well around how to sanitise interior spaces. So there was a lot of inquiries around carpet being one of the largest surfaces in an interior. And there was it one of those that I guess surfaces that doesn’t necessarily get cleaned very well, all the time. So, so sanitising, having a carpet that had the had some form of treatment against a virus or bacteria or mould wawas quite a, an attractive proposition at the time.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
And Victoria, how did the collaboration between Milliken and HealthGuard come about? Who who did what and who approached whom? I’m guessing, that Millikan contacted you in some way? Is that correct?
Victoria Harvey
Yeah, so that so for quite some history, Milliken and HealthGuard had a very long-working relationship. And given the fact that we were the Biotech, we are the biotechnical technical experts in this space. The team at Milliken had contacted us to develop an anti-viral for the carpets. At that point in time when they contacted us we did have available and off-the-shelf anti-viral treatment that had been tested by the Peter Doherty Institute with outstanding results. But we needed to make a product that would work in the manufacturing system that was compatible with the finishing treatments that was Milliken were preexistingly applying to their carpets. So we’d ran some trials with our off the shelf product. And unfortunately, we had some compatibility issues with their finishing treatment. So we basically began this product from bottom up to ensure that we were using chemistry that would work with with the Milliken process and the finishes. It was a ground up development, and from Milliken side we had for the R&D and development, doctor’s (unclear). And from our side, the founder and president of our company, Dr. Christopher Harvey.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
So without giving away any trade secrets…how did you do this? I mean, it sounds as if from what you said so far, this is a sort of proprietary treatment that goes on the top of the carpet is that is that correct?
Victoria Harvey
The MGUARD+ bonds to the carpet fibre, and it breaks down the outside of the virus or bacteria. So when we’re discussing the destruction of virus, MGUARD+ performs by number one, breaking down the glycol-protein wall, and two, the capsid wall to expose the NRA to the air which quickly destroys the virus. A similar action takes place on the cell wall of tested bacteria. However, there’s only one wall to break down in comparison to virus which is the peptide dyglokin protecting the sistoplasmic membrane. So once this is done plasm is exposed, the bacteria is destroyed,
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Easy for you to to say!
Victoria Harvey
Not even quiet, not quiet. And to put it in a layman’s term the DNA of these virus and bacteria and exposing it which destroys it. So, we achieved this action by preservatives bonded to the the carpet fibre which are commonly used in leave on the skin, cosmetics and everyday household products in very minute quantities.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Which is why Shaneel was saying it has to not affect skin etc. as one of the criteria for the development of the product itself. Shaneel does the pile height make a difference in using this product? So are there only certain Milliken carpets that are able to have this treatment at the present time.
Shaneel Deo
So the application process is such that pile height doesn’t matter. So we have tested the MGUARD+ treatment on a variety of pile heights from 2.4 millimetres to 6.3 millimetres. The process right now we are applying the treatment on our Printworks carpet tiles, which, which is applied at our North Mead facility in Sydney, Australia. So we it’s not offered on the full range of products. So there’s about 300 different patents and there is extensive range of custom options that is available on so there’s a wide variety of products that are currently available to a differentiated technology called Printworks, that this treatment is applied on.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
So…you’ve got it antibacterial, quote, unquote, self sanitising carpet, by the time you get to a transition strip within an interior, does that start to create an infection control issue at that point at that joint of the carpet?
Shaneel Deo
I would imagine that would because the treatment is applied on the fibre. So where there is no fibre there is no protection.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Okay, so that would need additional cleaning of some sort for people using it in a health care situation. And the website states that the duration of the protection varies with use, and it sounds as if it’s been bonded on during the manufacturing process. Can…can the treatment be topped up in any way? Or is that not required?
Victoria Harvey
The long lasting protection of this product was just determined by accelerated wear testing, which is undertaken by a hexapod abrasion.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
We have another one that’s easy to say, Victoria. What does that mean?
So I think Shaneel would be best to describe what…
Shaneel Deo
The hexapod testing is, is really looking at the wear. So the 15,000 abrasion test is emulating a hard wearing heavy duty wear environment. Plus, on top of that, we also we also did 10, hot water extraction, cleaning cycles on it as well to see how it will perform against heavy duty cleaning. And through that process, what we found is that the efficacy dropped from 99.6% to about 98.22. So there was about a percentage drop in efficacy. After that much of accelerated way testing, so it is a pretty, pretty robust product.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
It’s incredible that it exists just as a as a concept. It’s just incredible. The HealthGuard kind of states the purpose of your company, Victoria, Milliken is known for carpets but also for being carbon-neutral and offering sustainable products which I think Shaneel, you call your M-Pact. How does this product fit into that particular corporate mission?
Shaneel Deo
Yeah, exactly. The the I guess the key criteria when we started was to ensure that whatever we do should not have a negative impact. So ensuring that the the chemicals are radicals free was a key thing. The VOC’s was important. So it’s like met all our sustainability criteria and it also ensured that our third party accreditations that we use to determine how well our product fits, the environmental conditions were all met. On top of that Milliken is renowned for manufacturing excellence and innovation and at the heart of our purpose is to positively impact the world around us for generations to come. So creating innovations that will better people’s life is really part of our DNA.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
And reaching out to other companies with other expertise forming those collaborations, I’m assuming must be a very important part of that process.
Shaneel Deo
We believe that you can’t do everything alone. So it’s always good to have partners that are experts in the field that can work together to create these innovations that at that time was was and still now is is, is very much needed. In the markets that we work in, especially the health in aged care market, you could say Age care, or Senior Living in the UK. it,
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
It changes, depending on who’s saying it, we use many terms and a very fluid kind of kind of way. Victoria does this sort of process lends itself to other endeavours as well, or is this really quite specific? I know you said you had this product already developed when you tried to use it on carpets, it required testing and changing but is, is that general concept applicable in other areas in terms of surfaces.
Victoria Harvey
I believe in my experience, we have never undertaken so much R & D for a particular purpose. And the reason I say that is with the difference in carpet. So for example, on a standard fabric, it’s a single surface, or it might be a multi-layer surface. And it might be a submerged in a pad bath for an application, but you will effectively treat the whole entire fabric. So for example, in garment, in towelling manufacturing, and sheeting manufacturing. However, the carpet is very different, because you’ve got a tuft on the top that’s attached to a backing. So there was a lot more extensive R & D to ensure that this product was performing on the surface for that purpose. So this project has given me a very strong background in relation to treating carpets. But I don’t think the application would easily translate to, for example, to garment manufacturing or towelling or sheeting. I think it’s very specific to the carpet industry, given the type of the nature of the piles and the fibres that attach backing.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Right, and Shaneel, when can we get this in places other than Australia and New Zealand? Because I’m telling you, I really believe a lot of our listeners will be terribly interested in the infection control aspects of this and the benefits that carpet has over vinyl. I mean, it’s it is game changing. So when when do you think this will be rolled out kind of worldwide?
Shaneel Deo
So currently is only available in Australia and New Zealand, but we have the ability to export it to anywhere in the world. So if there is demand, we’ll be able to export from Australia. Right now we meet all the regulatory requirements to export to the UK. And if there is significant demand, the technology is such that we can easily implement that at our UK facility manufacturing facility for production in the UK. So at the end of the day, I guess it comes down to the demand from the different regions and will be able to supply to this to that demand.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
So this will be developed and rolled out in in other places in the world as well. And the ones that you can, as I understand it, supply to now from a regulatory standpoint your you can do from Australia. Is that correct?
Shaneel Deo
Yeah, exactly. That’s correct.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Yeah, that’s, that’s fantastic. And a lot of people will be hearing about this first on this podcast, they can watch the space, we will do a follow up as part of the ‘Innovation Spotlight’ segment on a future episode to track kind of where this is going in terms of further development. And I just thank both of you very, very much for bringing this into existence, and for sharing it with us today on the podcast.
Victoria Harvey
Thank you very much, Laurie.
Shaneel Deo
Thank you, Larry. It’s been a pleasure.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
So just a reminder, in case you missed this, the MGUARD treatment has been simulated in a 10 year accelerated wear and tear regime with tests including a 15,000 hexapod abrasion cycle, and 10 hot water extraction cycle tests, after which it showed 98.22% effectiveness against the Omicron BA2 virus. You’re gonna find more information on this technology on the resources section of the podcast page for this episode at www Third Age Dot Design Now, while our main focus here at TAD is improving interiors in senior living, our ‘Innovation Spotlight’ sometimes goes a bit off piste as we don’t want you to miss anything. For example, food and nutrition came under the spotlight in Australia during the 2021 Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety and was identified as a priority. And Australian review of technology in aged care concluded that there are areas like food surfaces, where there are not enough technological developments specifically designed for older residents. The review suggests 10 points of focus for the sector, including improved meal choice and quality, alternative food service delivery models and innovation and dining room ambiance. Now there’s a whole podcast on Dining Room ambiance with guest Diana Chella from April of 2023. So you might want to check that out through our website. But I’d also like to share with you an exciting response to the concept of alternative food service innovation. The Australian based Embrace spelled EMBRAYSE has developed, among other solutions, 3D food printing. Dysphasia apparently affects between 40 to 68% of adults living in care homes down under. So people with swallowing difficulties are often fed texture-modified food moulds, which are called timbales. These do reduce choking risks but can also reduce appetite leading to malnutrition. As the quote unquote ‘food doesn”t look like food. Embrayce scans of food item, let’s say chicken drumstick and then they use a 3D food printer to make the timbale look like an actual drumstick. But, it still has a safe texture for people with dysphasia. Clever no? Trials are underway with the University of Technology Sydney and Edith Cowan University… and like self-sanitising carpets you heard it here first on the Third Age Design podcast where you can see the drumstick example for yourself on the Resources section of the podcast page for this episode at www Third Age Dot Design. A quick look at the TAD industry events calendar tells us that the Senior Living Executive conference 2024 will be held in Phoenix, Arizona, USA from the 29th of April to the 1st of May. Also in the United States, Philadelphia hosts the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference from July 28 to the 1st of August. Other countries and events are also on our website, and you’ll find these on the industry events page. Next month, we’re bringing you part two of Game Changing Flooring for Health in Senior Environments. When we’ll prove that vinyl flooring can be sustainable and designed specifically for people with dementia. Intrigued? Thank you to today’s special guests Shaneel Deo of Milliken and Victoria Harvey from HealthGuard. And as always to Valerie Adler of The Right Website and our producer, Mike Scales…and to you for joining. I’m Lori Pinkerton-Rolet, and I do hope you’ll join me for the next one.