Handle Hygiene – the future of public toilet cleanliness

Newly created company Handle Hygiene is leading public toilet hygiene with the development of an automatic door sanitising system.

The sanitising system guarantees to kill 99 per cent of bacteria, preventing the spread of germs and disease.

Even those who wash their hands thoroughly can still pick up germs from those who do not, by simply opening a door. This is especially significant in public toilets where door handles often become home to many germs.

Handle Hygiene decided to address this problem and created the handle sanitising system. The brain behind the company is mechanical engineer Brian Cunningham, who became interested hygiene after a member of his family contracted MRSA during a stay in hospital.

The invention took four years to develop and has been ingeniously made to be powered by gravity rather than needing a battery.

The amount of interest surrounding the device since its launch has been huge, mainly from the healthcare and food sectors.

From speaking to people, we became aware that many of them have a real phobia around touching the door handles in toilets and will go to all sorts of lengths  like using their sleeve or tissues “ to avoid it, says Cunningham.

Toilets already have touch-free taps, automatic soap dispensers and automatic towel dispensers but you still have to open the door and the handles are a haven for germs. Our system which is about to go on trial with the NHS in the UK fulfils an unmet need as the level of interest shows.”