Germ alert: Attack of the killer necktie!

You may not know it, but deep within the ivory towers of hospitals a debate is raging over the future of the doctor's necktie. One company has turned the debate into an opportunity with a tie whose stain-resistant coating actually thwarts microbes.

Safety Ties come in various patterns, including this brick red/maroon style with silver/gray stripes.

(Credit: SafetySmart)

Much evidence has emerged in recent years that doctors wearing ties might actually cause as much harm to patients as doctors who don't wash their hands. In one 2004 study of 42 doctors and medical staffers at the New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens, almost 50 percent of the neckties were host to bacteria that can cause pneumonia, blood infections, and more.

I'm no squirmy person, but that's just gross.

In 2006, the British Medical Association suggested that medical personnel no longer wear "functionless" items such as neckties that carry "superbugs."

And this summer, the American Medical Association considered Resolution 720, which pushed for a dress code that addresses the issue of neckties, long sleeves, and other clothing items and accessories "implicated in the spread of infections in hospitals." Implicated! This has gotten serious, folks. (A committee wants more evidence before bringing the resolution to a vote.)

But because many doctors are publicly pushing for the preservation of the necktie, which is the cred equivalent of gold grills for rappers like Flava Flav, April Strider of SafeSmart in Florida has put her money on a compromise: the high-tech, antimicrobial tie.

Is the doctor's necktie making you sick?

(Credit: alacoolk/Flickr)

Strider tells the Wall Street Journal that the coating "repels bacterial contamination." She even designed the ties with a graphic print of the H1N1 influenza strand, among other "doctor themes," a lovely twist of irony as she manages to put germs on her germ-free ties. Strider's already got a major client in Wilson Memorial Hospital, near Dayton, Ohio, where some docs are wearing polo shirts but others prefer to stick with ties.

A big "oh well" to all the (probably younger) doctors hoping to do away with the necktie altogether. Hey, you could always try Portland, land of the laid-back workplace. Of course, then you'd have to grow a beard, which is a bit like farming your own colony of happy bacteria. At least that H1N1 tie is currently on sale, marked down from $44.95 to $29.95.

[cvaldes1831]

Maybe docs should just send their neckties to the laundry service for occasional dry cleaning.

[Lerianis3]

Right in one. I know that it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to clean a tie yourself, so just send it out to the dry cleaner for cleaning every 2 weeks or so. The dry cleaner near me will do ties for 5 dollars, since they don't take up too much space nore time.

[ledhead1962]

By that reasoning a person would only have to wash their hands once a week. Do you think that dry cleaning magically gives garments anti-bacterial properties? One contagious patient and the clean neck tie needs to be changed. So actually wrong in one.

[EvanSei]

Well I bet if the ties are covered in germs the docs clothes are covered in the same bacteria, seems to me that doctors are just walking germ balls.

[Lerianis3]

Actually, no. That's actually been proven false. The problem is that the ties are RIGHT AT THE LEVEL where people cough and spew their bacteria and viruses.

[lorentzend]

Interesting photo accompanying the article. This is actually David Tennant who plays Dr. Who on the BBC program of the same name. He is not a real doctor, he only plays a fake one on TV!

[WriteRight]

@lorentzend<br />When referring to this TV-character fans usually don't abbreviate the title. It's "Doctor Who". On top of that the character Tennant portrays has a doctorate in physics and does not "pretend" to be medical doctor.<br /><br />Otherwise I have never really understood why some guys wear ties. They are not at all practical. They get in the way when eating or washing hands, tend to slow the blood flow to the brain, tend to choke you, are uncomfortable in hot weather, can be a safety hazard and are a bother to put on in the morning. I stopped wearing them straight after leaving school at 16 and only have a black one I use for funerals.<br /><br />To be fair though I suppose I am lucky. I'm an industrial Designer, I guess that goes under "creative guy", and it is expected of creative people to foster more of a non-conservative appearance. On the other hand being a medical doctor is far more serious business which, I suppose, demands a more conservative dress code.

[Dr_Zinj]

The actors aren't doctors. But The Doctor is one; well, actually he holds a couple of different doctorates gained at various times. While he does have medical training, it's somewhat anachronistic. To the best of my research, The Doctor never completed a full, modern, medical training program from pre-med, to med school, to internship, and any specialty training from beginning of the sequence to the end without intteruption. <br /> <br />If the character actually existed in real life, I'm far more likely to trust him with an emergency medical procedure than any current human doctor.

[WriteRight]

@lorentzend<br />When referring to this TV-character fans usually don't abbreviate the title. It's "Doctor Who". On top of that the character Tennant portrays has a doctorate in physics and does not "pretend" to be medical doctor.<br /><br />Otherwise I have never really understood why some guys wear ties. They are not at all practical. They get in the way when eating or washing hands, tend to slow the blood flow to the brain, tend to choke you, are uncomfortable in hot weather, can be a safety hazard and are a bother to put on in the morning. I stopped wearing them straight after leaving school at 16 and only have a black one I use for funerals.<br /><br />To be fair though I suppose I am lucky. I'm an industrial Designer, I guess that goes under "creative guy", and it is expected of creative people to foster more of a non-conservative appearance. On the other hand being a medical doctor is far more serious business which, I suppose, demands a more conservative dress code.

[Dr_Zinj]

I can tell who the people are who don't work in a healthcare environment by the comments of "occasional dry cleaning" and "cleaning every 2 weeks or so". <br /> <br />To be honest, the proper method of infection control would be for a doctor to change his tie between each patient, and have each used tie cleaned before reuse. We've almost managed to eliminate ties from male healthcare givers in our hospital; although those physicians flipping between clinical rounds, patients, and office environments still occasionally wear those damn things. <br /> <br />Just making or coating the tie with an "anti-bacterial" isn't going to do the trick since those coatings don't last beyond a washing or two; and don't work in high volume contaminate areas anyway.

[weegg]

Neckties are a custom that should be eliminated. They serve no purpose.

[ledhead1962]

While I don't mind wearing a tie you have to admit the concept of cinching a piece of piece of cloth around ones neck as a work uniform seems bizarre and, well, archaic (think whalebone corsets or high starched collars). Also, I am sure I have read that the lose of blood flow to the brain has detrimental effect (Duh!). As a symbol of importance/authority, I have to say, in a doctor-patient dynamic the lab coat, stethoscope and medical file is more then enough to strike awe and fear in we mere mortals. The profession should be more concerned with calming anxiety then sending a message of professional status. If you like the sartorial tradition, then, lets say we leave the usage for social functions.

[DarkHawke]

Geez Louise, people. Have we become such verminophobes that now we're worrying about a doctor's TIE?! Why stop there? How about the shirt? Or the frickin' lab coat? Hey, big secret here: GERMS ARE EVERYWHERE!!! You can't escape them, you'll never wash them off completely, and in fact some of them are entirely *necessary* for good health! The more we disinfect this and cough in our sleeve that and Purell the other, all we'll accomplish is killing our immune systems (which have obviously been pretty good for the vast majority of our species' existence) for lack of challenge and opening the path for the REAL bad-ass, battle-hardened resistant germs that might not otherwise exist or be sufficiently prevalent to cause illness. <br /><br />Simple hygiene practices will do the trick 99 times out of 100. And if you DO get ill 1% of the time, what of it? The chances you'll need even a day off of work, let alone hospitalization, are minuscule at best, and necrotizing fasciitis is hardly at epidemic levels, even though (as local newscasts will dramatically point out during sweeps) you can find it on any ATM keypad. In other words, frelling RELAX and go to the doctor if you need to. Believe it or don't, his tie isn't there to kill you.