Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Newest disease-spreading fear: Handcuffs

|
|
 
  
Published: Aug. 27, 2008 at 9:52 AM

MONTREAL, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- A Canadian company warned a national police conference in Montreal that dirty handcuffs can transmit herpes, HIV, influenza and hepatitis B.

Among the exhibitors at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police this week was the Cuff Cleaner company, based in Edmonton, Alberta, The Gazette newspaper reported.

The company markets a device and chemicals that disinfect handcuffs in ways they claim manual cleaning can't accomplish.

"If you go around here and ask any police officer how often they clean their cuffs, they'll probably say never," said company spokesman Kevin Berg.

The company claims in random checks of police and corrections officials handcuffs, they found viruses and bacteria along with dried blood and skin particles in the hinges.

The company Web site says that's not only dangerous for the next person to be cuffed but for the officers.

The cleaning device creates ultra-high frequency sound waves, which are passed through a cleaning solution in a process that takes 10 minutes, the site said.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 20
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Traveling to the U.S.? If invited to a dinner party, bring a gift of wine, but not cash or toiletries...
Man turns dead pet cat into remote-controlled helicopter, calls it art (w/WTF pics)
"Good News" clubs teach children in public schools the Biblical importance of killing all nonbelievers...
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...