[Herbalist] FWD: Polymer Chemical Kills Germs

Gaylin Walli iasmin at home.com
Tue May 22 14:43:34 PDT 2001


This just popped up on my news service and I thought people here
might be interested in it for the cooking and medicinal implications.
We're always talking about keeping kitchens and camps and work
areas clean, so I thought this might be of interest to at least a few
people. -- Iasmin

http://news.excite.com/news/ap/010521/17/sterile-surfaces

Polymer Chemical Kills Germs

Updated: Mon, May 21 5:01 PM EDT

By PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - A new germ-killing polymer can permanently
sterilize countertops, doorknobs and even surgical equipment and
could guard against bacteria spread from sneezes and dirty hands,
the most  common sources of infection, a researcher says.

Joerg C. Tiller of Massachusetts Institute of Technology said the
polymer coating could be applied to furniture, equipment, tools,
children's toys, telephones, computer keyboards and other places
where germs can lurk and spread.

"You could coat any type of surface with this material and it
would be there permanently," said Tiller.

In a study appearing Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, Tiller and his co-authors said laboratory
tests show that the coating, called hexyl-PVP, was able to kill
up to 99 percent of Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas and E-coli,
all common disease-causing organisms.

Tiller said the coating applied to glass slides was tested by
spraying the slides with a concentrated solution of the bacteria
groups common in household and hospital infections. The results
were compared to uncoated glass slides that also were exposed to
the bacteria solution.

"The test solution was rather like what happens when you sneeze
or cough," spraying surfaces with germs, said Tiller.

On the glass slides treated with hexyl-PVP, 94 percent to 99 percent
of the Staphylococcus organisms were killed. For Pseudomonas and
E-coli, the kill rate was consistently at 99 percent.

Tiller said the polymer kills bacteria by destroying the outer
membrane of the microbe. This action is a chemical reaction that
probably would not allow the bacteria to develop a resistance, such
as happens with antibiotics, he said.

The anti-bacterial coating, said Tiller, could be incorporated into the
manufacturing process so that many products could be permanently
sterile.

Tiller said the surfaces would require periodic washing to remove
dead bacteria that float out of the air and land on the killing surface.

Tiller and his co-authors hold a patent on the chemical coating, but are
not involved in any effort to bring the germ-killing technology to the
market, he said.

---
On the Net: Proceedings: http://www.eurekalert.org



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