Fixtures provide germ-zapping light for hospitals

A Kenosha company is poised to begin marketing bacteria-killing light fixtures that could open a new front in the war on hospital-acquired infections. Light, though not the visible variety, already has joined the fight. Many hospitals, including some in Milwaukee, have recently deployed robot-like devices that disinfect rooms with powerful pulses of ultraviolet radiation. Kenall Manufacturing Co. is taking a different approach. Unlike ultraviolet lights, its fixtures can be left on continuously and be used while people — and the bacterial baggage they often bring with them — are in the room. "It just seemed to me like this was a game changer," said Clifford Yahnke, Kenall's director of clinical affairs.