in the initial zone they pass to a wash zone where they are washed using a high performance low temperature laundry detergent generally a nonionic surfactant based detergent at an alkaline ph this washing step is conducted at a temperature of 140 u00b0 to 85 u00b0 f generally 130 u00b0 f to 95 u00b0 f 120 u00b0 f or less 110 u00b0 f or less and preferably at about 100 u00b0 f the time during which the textiles are treated in the wash zone may vary depending upon the materials being laundered in most applications the time is from 6 to about 15 and generally about 12 after the laundry passes through the wash zone the washing liquid is separated from the textiles the textiles are then passed to a third zone which is a pathogen removal zone or a bleaching zone in this zone the textiles are treated with a bleach solution typically sodium hypochlorite at a ph of 6 5 to 9 5 generally 8 to 6 5 and in particular a ph of 7 the ph is adjusted as needed by the addition of an appropriate water soluble buffer such as urea sulfate the concentration of the bleach will be about 5 ounces to 30 ounces per hundred weight textile or 25 to 500 ppm in addition to the sodium hypochlorite a bleach activator is added such as pathfree this will effectively established the ph within the desired range the temperature in this zone will be maintained at 140 u00b0 f or less generally 130 u00b0 f or less 120 u00b0 f or less 110 u00b0 f or less and typically at about 100 u00b0 f in.