Evaluation Of Properties & Life Cycle Assessment Of Surgical Gowns

Disposable and reusable textiles are two popular but competing materials employed in medical protective filed. The selection of two materials involves many complicated factors. This paper, which concerns properties and environment impact of protective textiles, is a sub-part of interdisciplinarity Analysis of Protective Textiles (APT).Gowns require barrier, physical, comfortable, linting and other properties. Based on the research and review of the norms of surgical gowns and drapes, we compare and analyze the basic requirement and test procedure of the gowns. We test water-repellent treated woven cotton reusable textiles, rechargeable biocidal function polyester/cotton woven reusable textiles, spun-bond polypropylene disposable textiles (with or without plastic films), water-repellent treated laminate disposable textiles of pulps and polyester with water resistant, physical, comfortable properties testing. We design an abrasion experiment to simulate linting test and evaluate the linting properties of these textiles. The reusable textiles are washed to study the relation between the wash times and the basic properties of gowns.According to the technical framework of life cycle assessment, we analysis the water-repellent treated woven cotton reusable textiles, spun-bond polypropylene disposable textiles, water-repellent treated laminate disposable textiles of pulps and polyester. The life cycle of these three materials paper are divided into three steps: production of materials and textiles, sterilizing and washing, waste treatment. We take the inventory analysis of these three materials and compare them with the energy consumption and environment impact.