Home washing machines fail to remove important pathogens from textiles

Study finds washing machine biofilms may harbor potential pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes, which could have an impact on domestic laundering of healthcare workers uniforms

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Pre- and post-domestic laundering of bacteria contaminated textiles.

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Credit: Dr. Caroline Cayrou, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Healthcare workers who wash their uniforms at home may be unknowingly contributing to the spread of antibiotic-resistant infections in hospitals, according to a new study led by Katie Laird of De Montfort University, published April 30, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One.

Hospital-acquired infections are a major public health concern, in part because they frequently involve antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Many nurses and healthcare workers clean their uniforms at home in standard washing machines, but some studies have found that bacteria can be transmitted through clothing, raising the question of whether these machines can sufficiently prevent the spread of dangerous microbes.

In the new study, researchers evaluated whether six models of home washing machine successfully decontaminated healthcare worker uniforms, by washing contaminated fabric swatches in hot water, using a rapid or normal cycle. Half of the machines did not disinfect the clothing during a rapid cycle, while one third failed to clean sufficiently during the standard cycle.

The team also sampled biofilms from inside 12 washing machines. DNA sequencing revealed the presence of potentially pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes. Investigations also showed that bacteria can develop resistance to domestic detergent, which also increased their resistance to certain antibiotics.

Together, the findings suggest that many home washing machines may be insufficient for decontaminating healthcare worker uniforms, and may be contributing to the spread of hospital-acquired infections and antibiotic resistance. The researchers propose that the laundering guidelines given to healthcare workers should be revised to ensure that home washing machines are cleaning effectively. Alternatively, healthcare facilities could use on-site industrial machines to launder uniforms to improve patient safety and control the spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens.

The authors add: “Our research shows that domestic washing machines often fail to disinfect textiles, allowing antibiotic-resistant bacteria to survive. If we’re serious about transmission of infectious disease via textiles and tackling antimicrobial resistance, we must rethink how we launder what our healthcare workers wear.”

 

 

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/4jaHqBz

Citation: Cayrou C, Silver K, Owen L, Dunlop J, Laird K (2025) Domestic laundering of healthcare textiles: Disinfection efficacy and risks of antibiotic resistance transmission. PLoS ONE 20(4): e0321467. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0321467

Author countries: U.K.

Funding: This research was funded by De Montfort University and the Textile Services Association.

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Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0321467 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Domestic laundering of healthcare textiles: Disinfection efficacy and risks of antibiotic resistance transmission

Article Publication Date

30-Apr-2025

 

Conservatives may self-rate as having better “mental health” because of stigma around the term

When conservatives rated “mood” instead of “mental health”, ideological gaps in ratings disappeared

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Distribution of self-assessments for Conservatives, Moderates, and Liberals based on experimental condition.

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Credit: Schaffner et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Conservatives may rate their mental health more positively than liberals in part because of stigma around the phrase “mental health,” according to a study published April 30, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Brian F. Schaffner from Tufts University, U.S., and colleagues.

In the United States, a number of studies have found that conservatives rate themselves as being happier and having better mental health than their liberal counterparts. But it is unclear what causes this happiness gap. The difference could be a product of the correlation between conservatism and traits associated with mental health such as religious faith, patriotism, marriage, higher incomes, and old age, but could alternatively reflect differing ideas about the state of the world, or different attitudes to the concept of mental health.

To better understand the size and cause of this happiness gap, the authors of the study used a representative survey of 60,000 American adults from the 2022 Cooperative Election Study survey. They asked subjects about their mental health, their political ideology, and their demographics—including age, home ownership, marital status, and more. In the 2023 Cooperative Election Study survey, the scientists surveyed 1,000 American adults, Half were asked the same 2022 questions, while the other half were asked to rate their “mood” as opposed to their mental health.

In the 2022 survey, conservatives rated themselves on average 19 points higher for mental health than liberals. Once positive mental health traits like age, marital status, and church attendance were accounted for, the gap reduced by 40 percent, to 11 points. In the 2023 survey, when respondents were asked to rate their “overall mood” instead of their “mental health,” the remaining differences disappeared. The 64 percent of highly positive ratings of “mental health” for conservatives dropped to 49 percent for “overall mood”. In contrast, while 29 percent of liberals rated their “mental health” as fair or poor, only 17 percent rated their “overall mood” the same way.

The authors suggest that stigma for conservatives around the phrase “mental health” might contribute to the gap, while the negative mental health ratings by liberals might reflect increased awareness of mental health issues. The happiness gap, the authors note, may be dependent on which term is used to measure it.

The authors add: “There has been a lot of discussion about the notion that Conservatives are happier and have better mental well-being than Liberals, but we wanted to really test how true this is. What our experiment shows is that it really depends what you ask about. Yes, Conservatives report that their mental health is better than Liberals do, but that gap disappears entirely when we ask instead about each group's overall mood. The ideological gap in mental well-being is clearly not as straightforward or consistent as it is often made out to be.”

“The idea for this project came from discussions with the three student coauthors who had been exposed to this claim that conservatives are happier than liberals in another class that they were taking at the time. We wanted to test how true that pattern was and what we ended up finding was that the ideological gap in mental well-being is not nearly as clear cut as it is often made out to be.”

 

 

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/3Yv4FOn

Citation: Schaffner BF, Hershewe T, Kava Z, Strell J (2025) Do conservatives really have better mental well-being than liberals? PLoS ONE 20(4): e0321573. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0321573

Author countries: U.S.

Funding: BFS received support from the National Science Foundation (award # 2148907) and Tufts University. The sponsors did not play any role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0321573 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Do conservatives really have better mental well-being than liberals?

Article Publication Date

30-Apr-2025

 

Tunnel vision during planning can lead us to neglect negative consequences, but this cognitive bias can be addressed by simply prompting people to explicitly consider them

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Tunnel vision during planning can lead us to neglect negative consequences, but this cognitive bias can be addressed by simply prompting people to explicitly consider them.

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Credit: Pexels, Pixabay, CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

Tunnel vision during planning can lead us to neglect negative consequences, but this cognitive bias can be addressed by simply prompting people to explicitly consider them

 

 

Article URL: https://plos.io/42yZBtL

Article title: Side effects may include: Consequence neglect in generating solutions

Author countries: U.S.

Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

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Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0322149 

Article Title

Side effects may include: Consequence neglect in generating solutions

Article Publication Date

30-Apr-2025

 

Critically endangered axolotls bred in captivity appear able to survive release into both artificial and restored Mexican wetlands, but may need specific temperatures to thrive

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Image of an axolotl.

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Credit: Dr. David Schneider, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Critically endangered axolotls bred in captivity appear able to survive release into both artificial and restored Mexican wetlands, but may need specific temperatures to thrive

 

 

Article URL: https://plos.io/3RSL1bu

Article title: Movement ecology of captive-bred axolotls in restored and artificial wetlands: Conservation insights for amphibian reintroductions and translocations

Author countries: Mexico

Funding: This project was funded by UNAM PAPIIT No. 705 IV200117 and IV210117 Programa de Apoyo a Proyectos de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica (PAPIIT-IV200117) AGR received a postdoctoral research grant from PAPIIT IV200117 and IV210117. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0314257 

Article Title

Movement ecology of captive-bred axolotls in restored and artificial wetlands: Conservation insights for amphibian reintroductions and translocations

Article Publication Date

30-Apr-2025

 

2.1 kids per woman might not be enough for population survival

New research reveals that small population sizes and random birth patterns raise the fertility threshold needed to avoid extinction

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The new research reveals that small population sizes and random birth patterns raise the fertility threshold needed to avoid extinction.

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Credit: Rafael AS Martins, Unsplash, CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

Human populations need at least 2.7 children per woman – a much higher fertility rate than previously believed – to reliably avoid long-term extinction, according to a new study published April 30, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Takuya Okabe of Shizuoka University, Japan, and colleagues.

While a fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman is often considered the replacement level needed to sustain a population, this figure doesn’t account for random differences in how many children people have – as well as mortality rates, sex ratios, and the probability that some adults never have children. In small populations, these chance variations can wipe out entire family lineages. In the new study, researchers used mathematical models to examine how this demographic variability affects the survival of populations over many generations.

The study found that, due to random fluctuations in birth numbers, a fertility rate of at least 2.7 children per woman is needed to reliably avoid eventual extinction – especially in small populations. However, a female-biased birth ratio, with more females than males born, reduces the extinction risk, helping more lineages survive over time. This insight may help explain a long-observed evolutionary phenomenon: under severe conditions – such as war, famine, or environmental disruption – more females tend to be born than males. It also suggests that, while extinction isn’t imminent in large developed populations, most family lineages will eventually fade out. 

The authors conclude that true population sustainability – as well as the sustainability of languages, cultural traditions, and diverse family lineages – requires rethinking conventional fertility targets. The findings also have implications for conservation efforts of endangered species in which target fertility rates are set, they point out.

Diane Carmeliza N. Cuaresma adds, "Considering stochasticity in fertility and mortality rates, and sex ratios, a fertility rate higher than the standard replacement level is necessary to ensure sustainability of our population." 

 

 

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/4lu0M6h

Citation: Cuaresma DCN, Ito H, Arima H, Yoshimura J, Morita S, Okabe T (2025) Threshold fertility for the avoidance of extinction under critical conditions. PLoS ONE 20(4): e0322174. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0322174

Author countries: Japan, Philippines

Funding: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI grant nos. 23KK0210 and 21H01575 (HI), 21K21115 (HA), 21K03387 (SM), and 21K12047 (TO) The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0322174 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Threshold fertility for the avoidance of extinction under critical conditions

Article Publication Date

30-Apr-2025