UK Sport

Innovation fighting infection

Gym environments can be a prime source of infection
Phil Searle/Digitalscape

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EIS 11 March 2009

Infections can have a significant impact on athletes training schedules with gym environments, where athletes train in close proximity and use the same equipment, a prime source.

To address this, English Institute of Sport (EIS) Director of Medicine Dr Rod Jaques, through the UK Sport Research & Innovation team, has liaised with Chemical Associates to develop an antiseptic hand wash to combat such infections.

“With infections causing such disruption to training schedules and often impacting upon performance, we identified the source of infections in gyms as one we could combat” says Dr Jaques.

“In gyms, infections can be easily transferred through athletes coughing and sneezing into their hands then touching equipment and passing it on to the next athlete as well as a member of the public and staff brining in infections too. We decided that a hand wash could reduce the spread of infection, however the hand sanitisers on the market left residue on the hands, which could impact performance or even cause injury when lifting equipment. So we needed to find a product which could kill infections, not leave residues on athletes’ hand, that would not cause an allergic response and which was pleasant and convenient to use” he adds.

With an understanding of the requirements, Chemical Associates used their knowledge of the European Chemical Industry to source a product which had the required characteristics.

“The product selected is an aqueous blend of biocides and surfactants which accredited tests have shown to be effective against a wide range of organisms” explains Peter Smallwood from Chemical Associates.

“PolyBiotech developed the blend to fight infections in hospitals and areas used for food preparation. It was modified for use by athletes and was launched as ‘Gym Shield’. It is hypoallergenic and does not contain alcohol, colouring or fragrances” he adds.

Gym Shield is dispensed from individual 50ml bottles whenever the athlete starts to work out on new piece of apparatus. One or two squirts of the sanitiser into the palm of the hands and rubbing them together provides an effective coating which kills microorganisms. Within a minute or so the athletes’ hands are dry and they are able to continue training.

“We have begun a trail of the product at the EIS High Performance Centre at the University of Bath” said Jaques. “Preliminary results would show that we have had a fall off in upper respiratory tract infections in the South West Region as a result of Gym Shield’s usage. Once we have more data back we will look at rolling out this product around other EIS gyms around the country.

“Getting the athletes to use the hand wash on a regular basis is critical for the success of the intervention. Gym Shield and hand washing needs to become part of an athletes’ normal habit in public arenas” he adds.

"It's great to see such positive initial results off the back of trialing this product in the EIS at the University of Bath" said Dr Scott Drawer, Head of Research and Innovation at UK Sport. "This is a fantastic example of how elite sport and industry are working in partnership to come up with novel but practical solutions that could have a huge performance impact on our athletes."

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