Most of us have watched TV chefs with tats all over and the attitudes to match. They're using all the current cooking gadgets they sell, yelling at the idiots who don't know how to crack an egg.
In the meantime, on a local Midwestern TV station, there is an older chef, looking as though he'd been up since dawn, chopping veggies.
What makes the local chief different is the tools they use. Cable chefs are using pans made from Teflon, ceramic, and then titanium. Each pan promises easier cleanup, faster cooking, and a quaint sniff of progress.
That local chef stays old-school, ignoring the new toys, and swears by his grandmother's cast-iron skillet.
Each chef can make the same dish, but the food tastes better when cooked in a cast-iron skillet; it cooks more evenly, cleaner, and better.
The lesson? Sometimes, it turns out, the future was cast in the past.
Based on recent studies by the University of Oregon, hospital operating rooms might be on the cusp of learning that same lesson.
According to the school's Biology and Built Environment Center, mass timber may be more effective in cleaning hospital surfaces. Surprisingly, research has shown that it performs better than plastic or stainless steel.
In short, the floorboards throughout Grandma's house may be more effective at fighting germs than our modern, polished polymers.
The Study That Turned Heads (and Swabbed Them)
Microbiologist Gwynne Mhuireach and design specialist Mark Fretz tested how different surfaces in a hospital-like environment react to common pathogens.
Exposed wood, they’ve found, can resist microbial growth after a brief wetting. During the study, wood samples tested lower for levels of bacterial abundance than an empty plastic enclosure used as a control.
“People generally think of wood as unhygienic in a medical setting,” said Fretz, co-director of the UO’s Institute for Health in the Built Environment and principal investigator for the study. “But wood actually transfers microbes at a lower rate than other less porous materials such as stainless steel.”
They swabbed cross-laminated timber (CLT) after it had been exposed to water and bacteria, then compared those samples to standard hospital plastic laminates.
The results?
Wood significantly outperformed plastic in reducing the number of live bacterial colonies over time. The researchers suspected that this is from wood's natural antimicrobial properties, including compounds such as terpenes and aromatic hydrocarbons that act as nature's disinfectant.
When I started homebrewing beer, many other brewers warned me about using a wooden spoon during the process. Everything used when brewing needs to be sterile. How do you sterilize wood?
This thought occurred to me while reading this study. Wood's porous surface draws in moisture and forces it to evaporate, starving the bacteria that thrive in damp environments.
Compared to plastic, it retains moisture longer, providing a perfect glossy surface for bacteria to spread.
The Oregon team didn't stumble on this idea. It was built on years of European research, which suggested that wood surfaces in schools, offices, and even neonatal care units suppress microbial growth.
The idea of using wood in sterile environments is almost sacrilegious in today's medical industry. We're led to believe that wood molds, flakes, and is a sponge, holding onto germs like a sponge.
However, the data says the opposite.
Why It Matters
Our hospitals have been fighting a quiet, deadly epidemic called hospital-acquired infections (HAI). The CDC found that over 1.7 million Americans contract an HAI each year, killing about 99,000. The emotional and financial tolls are staggering.
Because of that ongoing danger, research, such as Oregon's work, is seeking any material that passively reduces the microbial load without using chemicals, and this deserves serious consideration. The promise of mass timber isn't just about sustainability or aesthetics; it might also become a life-saving design element.
Wood is dismissed as a relic of the past, dismissed as charming, but unhygienic. The commitment to synthetic materials is so ingrained in institutional masters that even the possibility of wood being safer raises eyebrows and prompts legal disclaimers.
The Testing Method
The researchers developed a method to mimic hospital environments.
For the experiment, blocks of cross-laminated timber were sealed in disinfected plastic boxes to create a microenvironment with carefully controlled temperature and humidity. To stimulate a healthcare setting, air was filtered and exchanged at rates similar to hospital codes.
The team sprayed the blocks with tap water, inoculated them with a cocktail of microbes commonly found in hospitals, and took samples over a four-month period. An empty plastic box was used as a control.
Coated and uncoated wood samples were compared under three types of water spray once daily, up to four weeks.
The surprising results highlighted the effectiveness of wood in inhibiting bacteria, revealing insights into wetting that could serve as a foundation for further study and development.
The control box contained more viable microorganisms than the wood samples.
The Bureaucratic Blind Spot
Bureaucrats fall prey to the "newer means better" syndrome, and hospital administrators continue to obsess over liability, often confusing sterility with safety.
That bias is reinforced by building codes written for impermeable, scrub-down surfaces. They don't even think about a natural tool that resists bacteria. If a surface can't be sprayed with hospital-grade bleach, it's rejected outright.
To be completely fair, those guidelines have plenty of history behind them. The performance of wood depends on the species, grain orientation, finish, and how well it's been sealed.
Poorly maintained timber surfaces can retain moisture if the installation is performed improperly. However, if done correctly, the benefits are genuine.
The Real-World Test Is Already Happening
Not all healthcare organizations have that legacy bureaucratic mindset.
In Prince Edward, Ontario, plans are in place to build one of the first fully mass-timber hospitals in North America.
Canadian health authorities seem to be willing to try something their American counterparts haven't: A full-scale test of biophilic hospital design paired with microbial safety data.
Austria, Norway, and Japan have been incorporating wood into their healthcare facilities for several years without an increase in infections.
How is the U.S. falling so far behind in these studies?
Biophilic Benefits: A Bonus
Wood offers a big upside, even removing the microbial data. Studies have shown that patients staying in rooms with wood finishes report lower blood pressure, reduced anxiety, and a faster recovery. Peer-reviewed studies, conducted by both architectural and psychological researchers, support the results.
For those who are concerned, wood also reduces carbon emissions, enabling faster construction with modular components. After the manmade horror of sterile isolation during the pandemic, anything that gives people a chance to reconnect patients to the organic world should be worth exploring.
Final Thoughts
Sometimes, like fashion, science circles back to rethink discarded ideas.
Hospitals chase sterility at the cost of everything else: Texture, warmth, and even safety.
It goes without saying that the healthcare industry has forgotten about one important factor.
However, science is finally reconsidering the basics, and the evidence is mounting: wood fights back. Against bacteria. Against stress. Against the lifeless sameness of post-pandemic infrastructure.
Just like that old chef wiping off the dust from his grandmother's cast iron pan and realizing: the old ways still have something to teach us.
Maybe it's time for American healthcare to pick the skillet up again.
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