Microfiber – Back to Basics…

An important misconception I would like to address is that the silver in Norwex cloths is NOT responsible for how well they work! It is an added benefit, because it reduces bacterial levels and odours within the cloth, however, it is not why the cloths work so well and it is not the primary reason why they do not cross-contaminate.
 
The cloths work because the fiber in them is so fine (less than 1/100th of a hair in thickness) and because there is so much fiber in each cloth (more than 2.9 million m in 1 small envirocloth!). This results in a huge microscopic surface area, and the very many little spaces within the cloth are able to tightly grab and hang onto dirt and bacteria – this is why the cloth can remove the bacteria and why it is held tightly within the cloth.
 
The lack of cross contamination was demonstrated using an envirocloth the proper way - as follows: the cloth was dampened with water, wrung out well, and folded into 2 to form a square. After the first square was used, the cloth was flipped to a new, fresh square. By the time all 8 clean squares of the cloth had been used, they found that the cloth could be flipped back to the original square without dropping the bacteria it picked up previously. Why? Because the microfibre had enough time to wick up the bacteria into the deeper portion of the cloth, so that it was not sitting on the surface, where it could be left behind.
 
The benefit of silver is to dramatically reduce the bacterial load in cloths (over time) after use. This allows them to remain fresher for longer and further reduces any risk of cross-contamination upon future uses of the same cloth.
 
February 2009 - Tech Talk
By Candi Bezte, Norwex, Science & Technical Advisor