Canberra Raiders Set New Public Health Bench Mark

Canberra Raiders overcame an outbreak of skin infections in the 2009 season by being the first to install touch-free hand cleansing dispensers at the Raiders camp.

Raiders’ strength and conditioning coach, Matthew Ford, said team preparation had been disrupted and as part of a prevention strategy they had installed Germstar dispensers at their training facilities.

“The outbreaks cost us big time,” Ford said. “Not only were the infections disruptive to training regimes, cross infection was rampant. We installed a Soaptronic Germstar (dispenser) in the gym and within no time the problem virtually disappeared.”

Ford insists that all players and training staff use the Germstar to keep their hands clean because it is so easy to use. “It has become part of the culture,” he said. “The players realise the implications of infection outbreaks and have become accustomed to automatically using the dispenser.

Raiders Captain Alan Tongue said sickness had been reduced.  “It’s not as if it’s difficult to use, you just walk past the machine and it drops a dose on your hands and it is dry by the time you get to the weights,” he said.

“We wholeheartedly endorse the Germstar; we have no doubt that the machine combined with insistence that everyone use it regularly has helped in reducing sickness in the Raiders camp.”

Operations Manager Max Mercer said he thought that the product had had an effect on a wide range of lurgys: “There doesn’t seem to be the same levels of colds and sniffles you usually see at this time of year amongst elite athletes” he said.

Soaptronic CEO Jacquelyn D’Arcy said
"The liquid kills more than 99.9 per cent of all germs on contact and it is the easiest and most effective way to protect yourself . It does not require water or paper.”

Full accolades to the Raiders for taking the initiative to be the cleanest team in the competition