Tag Archives: Antimic

Nanotechnology-enabled cleansers in Turkish baths

This item about Turkish baths came to me via Chinese news agency Xinhua. In a March 10, 2016 news item on ShanghaiDaily.com,

It is very common to take a bath, yet it is quite a different experience to bathe in Istanbul’s famed hamams, or bath houses.

Bathing in a hamam is similar to that of a sauna, but is more closely related to ancient Greek and ancient Roman bathing practices, and it involves services like washing, aromatherapy oil massage, reflexology, Indian head massage and facial clay mask.

Both tourists and local Turks alike are fans of Turkish baths, said Banu Cagdas, the owner of Cagaloglu.

As customers are flocking and their number growing, hygiene appears to be the most important issue for Turkish baths.

“Visually there is nothing,” said Cagdas. “It looks like every corner is clean and no one can see the germs and viruses with the naked eye.”

Generally, Turkish baths have been using the traditional ways to maintain the state of hygiene, like bleach.

“The sterilization with bleach, especially a long-lasting sterilization, is very difficult to achieve,” Cagdas said, noting that after two hours of the cleaning, micro-organisms and bacteria start to reproduce again due to the warm and humid environment.

Fungal infections are among the most common diseases in Turkish baths. “Then comes all kind of genital diseases,” said Cagdas.

The team is turning to a cleaning agent developed by Turkish engineers from Sabanci University in Istanbul. The product, the result of five-year efforts based on nanotechnology, is called Antimics.

Antimics can stunt the production of germs, viruses, bacteria and fungi.

“We have been applying the solution to Cagaloglu bath once a month and we observe the rate of bacterium has been dropping each time even further,” Menceoglu told Xinhua.

She explained that Antimics enables the bath’s surface to be covered with a tiny antimicrobial coating and “no single microbe, virus or bacterium can hold on to after the application.”

“Every time we do the cleaning we witness that the bacteria level has been dropping drastically,” she said.

In addition, the eco-friendly new product is not harmful to humans, as opposed to the traditional disinfectant detergents that contain chemicals.

It is possible to get more information about the product (Antimic Nanotego Facebook page and on antimic.com) but you do need Turkish language reading skills.