Protective Suit

Abstract

A protective suit worn to prevent spread of infectious agents comprising a coat and hood made from disposable paper and having closures consisting of pressure sensitive adhesive strips which bond together the overlapping edges of the openings which permit donning the suit. The adhesive strips are protected with foil until it is desired to close the openings after donning.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a protective suit of disposable material, contributing to the prevention of entry and the spreading of pathogenic and infectious agents.

This spread of contaminating agents has always been a serious problem of hygiene. Among possible carriers of infection, human beings occupy an important place, those groups of persons being especially at risk who, because of their work, frequently come into direct contact with potential sources of infectious agents or enter contaminated surroundings. Such persons include doctors and persons responsible for care in medicine, veterinary surgeons in veterinary work and skilled persons in the field of animal breeding and foodstuffs. For all such persons who go from one patient to another or who move amongst animals, the risk of spreading or transferring pathogenic agents is especially great.

Although these facts are well-known in the relevant circles, legally based regulations only come in, for example, human medicine when a dramatically spreading infectious illness, such as smallpox, is suspected. With other infectious illnesses, such as influenza, which admittedly have in general less serious results, but nevertheless can be serious for some patients, the doctor is usually satisfied with washing his hands after visiting a patient. Undoubtedly the great danger then occurs, that the doctor may receive germs adhering to his outer clothing from the previous visit and so initiate the outbreak of an infection on his next visit.

In veterinary medicine people are more aware of the risk of transferring contaminating agents indicated in the above example, because, especially when animals are kept in large numbers, the spreading of pathogenic agents can, due to the high density of animals in a small space, lead to an explosive outbreak of illness. The dust settling unavoidably on the outer clothing of persons visiting animals is a visible indication of this danger, since dust particles are carriers for the collection of pathogenic agents.

To counteract this danger, it has become usual in veterinary work, in addition to using other measures for presenting infection from spreading, such as disinfected mats and over-shoes, to put on a protective suit before entering a building containing animals.

THE PRIOR ART

The normal protective coats used today however only answer their purpose inadequately. Basic disadvantages of known coats are that they cover only the trunk and arms of the wearer and that the open sleeve ends and front or back closures constitute entries for infecting agents. Storage and removal of used protective clothing, often contaminated with pathogenic and contagious agents, until cleaning to annihilate germs, involves risk of contamination and increases the number of possible infection carriers.

The latter disadvantage is overcome if economically produced plastic raincoats are used as protective clothing, and destroyed after one use. This eliminates the cleaning costs of re-usable protective clothing; to the remaining unchanged shortcomings must however be added the impermeability of the material to air and the resultant unpleasant heat build-up, which may even be injurious to the wearer's health after long periods. A further particular disadvantage when used in connection with animals is that the light reflected from plastic material disturbs the animals.

THE INVENTION

According to the present invention there is provided a protective suit of disposable material, comprising a coat having a continuous adhesive strip in the vicinity of one edge of the opening slit of the coat which, after removal of a protective adhesive foil from the adhesive strip constitutes a non-detachable closure for the pressed-together edges of the opening slit.

Preferably, at least a partial region at the region at the perimeter of the sleeve ends of the coat a further adhesive strip is provided having a protective adhesive foil which on removal from the adhesive strip constitutes a non-detachable fastening of the sleeve end folded to seal around the wrist of the wearer.

Conveniently, the protective suit may further comprise a hood with a neck-covering extension piece and that at one of the overlapping front ends of the extension piece an adhesive strip is provided as a non-detachable closure.

The protective suit according to the invention thus insures that only a small portion of the wearer's face remains free. If hands are also covered with protective gloves and feet and legs with over-shoes to calf-height, the possibility of contamination of the outdoor clothing of the person wearing the protective suit of the invention is almost excluded by this far reaching covering of the whole body surface. Any infectious agents adhering to the outdoor clothing are also prevented from reaching the environment.

A further important advantage of the protective suit of the invention is that it can only be removed by tearing, so that re-use is impossible. This also affords a method of control, firstly through inspection by the patient or animal's owner and secondly by counting the items of unused protective suiting to establish whether a new suit has in fact been put on for each visit to a patient or location of animals. This possibility of checking improves the certainly that a change of clothing has been made in each required case.

In one preferred embodiment of the protective suit, it is made of paper, which may be reinforced with plastics. Apart from relatively favorable production cost this material possesses the advantage of being impermeable to germs, non-light reflecting, and able to "breathe." Particularly for use with animals, an advantage of this material is that it can be dyed to colors which relax animals psychologically. Similarly, initials, etc., can easily be printed.

With regard to disinfecting, a further advantage lies in the combustibility of the material, since burning is the safest method of sterilization.

EXAMPLE

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a protective suit in the open position, and

FIG. 2 is a similar view to FIG. 1 showing the protective suit in the partially closed position.

The protective suit shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 comprises an ankle length coat 1 having a hood 2 with a neck-covering extension 3. In the region of one edge of the opening slit of the coat 1, a continuous pressure-sensitive adhesive strip 4 is provided, which is covered before the suit is used by a protective adhesive foil 5, shown partly removed in FIG. 1. Further adhesive strips, also designated 4, and likewise covered before use by protective adhesive foils 5, are provided at the sleeve ends of the coat 1 and at one of the front ends 6, overlapping in the closed condition, of the extension 3 of hood 2. After each protective adhesive foil is removed, a sealed and thus germ-impermeable, non-detachable closure is produced at the stated positions. Apart from the advantages of the protective suit already mentioned, this type of closure possesses the further advantage that the edges or parts of the suit to be closed can be overlapped so far that the suit immediately fits wearers of different sizes.

Claims

What I claim is:

1. A protective suit of disposable material comprising a coat having a continuous adhesive strip in the vicinity of one edge of the opening slit of the coat, said strip being covered by a removable protective adhesive foil, the strip constituting a non-detachable closure for the pressed-together edges of said opening slit after said foil has been removed, said suit adapted to be removed from a wearer only by tearing the suit when the opening slit is sealed whereby reuse of the suit is rendered impossible.

2. A protective suit according to claim 1 in which at least a partial region at the perimeter of the sleeve ends of the coat a further adhesive strip is provided having a protective adhesive foil which on removal from the adhesive strip, the strip constitutes a non-detachable fastening of the sleeve end folded to seal around the wrist of the wearer, said sleeve ends opened when the sleeve strip is sealed only by tearing the sleeve.

3. A protective suit according to claim 1, further comprising a hood with a neck-covering extension piece having overlapping front ends, one of said ends having an adhesive strip providing a non-detachable closure for said hood, said hood removed when the front ends are sealed only by tearing the ends of the hood.

4. A protective suit according to claim 1 in which said disposable material is paper.

5. A protective suit according to claim 4 in which the paper is reinforced with plastics.

6. A protective suit according to claim 1 in which said adhesive strip is provided on the outside of the protective suit.

7. A protective suit according to claim 4 in which said paper is colored with a color psychologically relaxing to animals.