1. Rip Rice History in Ozone Laundering Or -- How I was dragged into this arena of gladiators, kicking and screaming Rip G. Rice April 7, 2011 CWT EcoTex Conference

2. Early 1990s Approached by several firms, not known in ozone, with concept – ozone in laundering I was dead set against it – because People approaching me knew too little about ozone Had not considered effects of ozone on equipment and materials (German ozone pool folks had learned never to pass O 3 - containing water through Cu piping) Their ozone equipment was unknown and untried One firm was touting UV generation of Ozone as a magic potion for commercial laundering systems

3. In spite of my reservations Progress was being made Someone sold the Dept of Energy on funding ozone laundering tests in a prison Rumors surfaced in the absence of published data on this and other projects Some rumors said ozone was a huge success Other rumors said ozone was an abject failure It was as confusing as OGL* in Libya * Our Glorious Leader

4. Time Passed Early 2000s – Cam asked: “Ripper – what do you know about ozone for commercial laundering?” Answer: “Not much good; unclear results” More time passed About 2005, Cam asked me to write a white paper on ozone laundering Put me in contact with JLA, Ltd. for info

5. JLA’s Background A UK full-service laundry firm, had became interested in ozone for laundering, Primarily because superbugs MRSA and C. difficile were being found in hospitals & health- care facilities & being identified as new public health problem microorganisms Ozone might cope with these critters JLA had been doing testing since mid-late 1990s – mainly on how to “compatabilize” ozone with a commercial laundry machine

6. More JLA Developments Major problem was how best to add ozone -- Injectors or bubble diffusion ?? Daniels Equipment had developed a bubble diffuser for laundry systems JLA chose the Daniels diffuser, then began serious and multiple evaluations of the JLA OTEX system in early 2000s Determined ozone laundering effects on microorganisms and on linens in hospitals and health care laundry facilities

7. JLA-Sponsored Testing Many test programs conducted by 3 rd party organizations – (Microsearch Labs, academia) Initial tests involved the “usual suspect” microorganisms – E. coli, Pseudomonas, viruses, etc. What are the proper ozone laundering conditions for what types of linens, etc. to nail these boogers to their crosses? What are the comparative costs with ozone?

8. JLA-Sponsored Testing-2 Having established optimum laundering conditions for linens, then for linens plus microorganisms, JLA next sponsored tests involving MRSA and C. difficile, in microanalytical labs first, then in academia, then in hospitals. All this information was made available to me in 2005, and out came the White Paper requested by Cam – “Ozone (1) saves about half the laundering costs of conventional laundering and (2) eradicates superbugs” – no surprise to us ozonatics !

9. The Early 2006 White Paper Rice knew going in that Cam wanted a “brief” paper Cam knew that Rice is incapable of writing a brief paper What Cam got was a detailed report, with supporting data that ended with : “The Queen Elizabeth II Hospital tested ozone laundering for 6 months, then installed it for keeps (full-scale) in Dec. 2005” Cam also got my recommendation to consider writing an Ozone Laundry Handbook

10. The Rice OLH Recommendation In early 2006 Cam cogitated, then decided “No handbook at this time” CWT was having a hard enough time selling ozone in the States on cost benefits Nobody in the States had even heard of Superbugs – unless they had been hospitalized in Europe. That turned to be an omnipotent decision.

11. White Paper to OS&E Rice proposed that the White Paper could form the basis of a manuscript for submission to Ozone: Science & Engineering OS&E is the peer-reviewed Journal of the IOA A manuscript was written, submitted, was accepted, and published [29(2):85-99, 2006]

12. 2006 OS&E Paper “Ozone in the Laundry Industry – Practical Experiences in the United Kingdom” by : Dick Cardis (JLA), Cameron Tapp, Marc DeBrum & Rip G. Rice Also presented at the 2006 IOA-PAG Conference (Arlington, TX). Was one of the best attended papers – standing room only in a multiple session

13. Post-White Paper Events 2006 – Cam bought me a beer and said “thanks” Years passed – 2.5 to be exact Early 2009 – Cam called: “I think I’m ready to support an Ozone Laundry Handbook” “I’d like to have a 20-25 page document for handout” “Cam – I’ve got to write the full story before I can figure out how to condense it to 25 pages.”

14. The Ozone Laundry Handbook We had hoped to have the OLH completed by the end of 2009 Then we hoped to complete it by 2010 It was completed in March 2011 Meantime – the IOA held a World Congress in Japan in Sept. 2009 That would be an ideal time to spread the word about ozone laundering to Japan So we submitted four papers to IOA

15. Four Papers for Japan “The Ozone Laundry Handbook”, Rice, DeBrum, Cardis & Tapp “Economic and Environmental Benefits of Ozone Laundering”, Rice, DeBrum, Jacqueline Hook (JLA), Cardis, Tapp “Microbiological Benefits of Ozone Laundering”, Rice, DeBrum, Hook, Cardis, Tapp “Quantification of the Microbiological Efficacy of the JLA Ltd Ozone Diffusion Laundering System”, Kyle Allison (MGS Labs), Hook, Cardis & Rice

16. Four Papers Given in Japan All four papers were accepted and published in OS&E – last issue of 2009 Contained much updating information, especially on Microbiological Benefits Gave the same four (updated) papers at IOA-PAG, Bellevue, WA, Sept. 2010 Updated with UK approval of OTEX Will repeat the four papers at IOA-IUVA World Congress in Paris, May 2011

17. OLH – Pregnancy & Labor Pains Rice is not a laundry expert, but he does know ozone technologies If someone tells me what he/she wants to do with ozone (such as in laundering), and defines all the parameters involved, I can advise whether that idea will/will not fly technically. Marc and I have gone ‘round and ‘round on laundry chemistries while assembling the OLH. Bottom Line: we are proud of our product! And we hope it will be valuable to its readers.

18. Materials Produced Hard bound book: “The Ozone Laundry Handbook”, Rice, DeBrum, Cardis & Tapp (2011) OS&E paper: “The Ozone Laundry Handbook”, Rice, DeBrum, Cardis, & Tapp (2009) OS&E paper: “Economic and Environmental Benefits of Ozone Laundering”, Rice, DeBrum, Jacqueline Hook (JLA), Cardis, Tapp (2009) OS&E paper: “Microbiological Benefits of Ozone Laundering”, Rice, DeBrum, Hook, Cardis, Tapp (2009) OS&E paper: “Quantification of the Microbiological Efficacy of the JLA Ltd Ozone Diffusion Laundering System”, Kyle Allison (MGS Labs), Hook, Cardis & Rice (2009) OS&E paper: “Ozone in the Laundry Industry – Practical Experiences in the United Kingdom”, Cardis, Tapp, DeBrum & Rice (2007) UNESCO Encyclopedia chapter: “Ozone in the Laundry Industry – Practical Experiences in the UK”, Rice, Cardis & Hook (2011) NAILM Paper: “Eradicating MRSA and C. difficile in Care Home Linens”, Rice and Gerace (2007) Multitudinous PPT Presentations

19. Summary Rice has developed 12-18 PPTs on ozone laundering Presented 13 times in Texas, Seattle, and two foreign countries Written 5 peer-reviewed OS&E papers One chapter in a UNESCO Encyclopedia Co-authored: Ozone Laundry Handbook Who Ever Thought Doing Laundry Could Be So Interesting?