School Infection Control Handbook - 2010

Chapter 4: Selection of Products, Dispensing Equipment, and Application Systems

Chapter 4.H. Choosing Between Concentrated Products and Ready-to-Use Products

Introduction Using concentrated products saves money and conserves resources, and dispensing them with the correct equipment is safer than dispensing without the equipment. There are times, however, when using a ready-to-use (RTU) product is safer and more practical (e.g., when there is no access to facilities or no time to dilute a product, such as disinfecting a blood spill or dealing with an incident on a school bus or the playground). There are also situations where staff members do not have the required safety equipment to handle a concentrated product, so it would be safer to have a RTU product that is typically less hazardous in its diluted form. This chart provides criteria to help select the right concentration form for each type of situation.

Type of Product

Criteria to Evaluate

Concentrate to be diluted and dispensed from a wall-mounted station Designed to dilute, mix, and dispense product concentrates in an area with plumbing and electricity Less expensive to ship Less storage room required Uses fewer resources for packaging and shipping Less expensive than disinfectant wipes or RTU products

Concentrate to be diluted and dispensed from a handheld unit Designed to dilute a single product at point-of-use without plumbing and electricity

Ready-to-use

Design

Designed in prepackaged solutions that do not require any dilution on the part of the end user

Advantages

Can store at point-of-use Can use immediately Less hazardous to handle Already labeled Some products only come in RTU formulations

Can use immediately Already labeled

The dispenser measures the amount, so the correct dilution for the job is achieved each time, unless the user has not selected the correct dilution level (e.g., higher concentration for bloodborne pathogens), or the dispenser is set at the wrong dilution The unit dilutes and mixes the product every time the unit is used, so there are fewer safety hazards (spills, inhalation of vapors, etc.) from dispensing from a gallon bottle on a daily basis

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