Abstract
Metal-based high-touch surfaces used for indoor applications such as doorknobs, light switches, handles and desks need to remain their antimicrobial properties even when tarnished or degraded. A novel laboratory methodology of relevance for indoor atmospheric conditions and fingerprint contact has therefore been elaborated for combined studies of both tarnishing/corrosion and antimicrobial properties of such high-touch surfaces. Cu metal was used as a benchmark material. The protocol includes pre-tarnishing/corrosion of the high touch surface for different time periods in a climatic chamber at repeated dry/wet conditions and artificial sweat deposition followed by the introduction of bacteria onto the surfaces via artificial sweat droplets. This methodology provides a more realistic and reproducible approach compared with other reported procedures to determine the antimicrobial efficiency of high-touch surfaces. It provides further a possibility to link the antimicrobial characteristics to physical and chemical properties such as surface composition, chemical reactivity, tarnishing/corrosion, surface roughness and surface wettability. The results elucidate that bacteria interactions as well as differences in extent of tarnishing can alter the physical properties (e.g. surface wettability, surface roughness) as well as the extent of metal release. The results clearly elucidate the importance to consider changes in chemical and physical properties of indoor hygiene surfaces when assessing their antimicrobial properties.
Highlights
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), antibiotic resistance is today one of the primary threats to global health and food safety, with longer hospital stays, higher medical costs and increased morbidity and mortality as a few examples of consequences [1]
The thumb of each individual was, in sequence, daily pressed on an agar plate and three Cu metal surfaces in sequence followed by an agar plate with the aim to both assess the effect of fingerprint contact on the corrosion behavior, and to provide a relative measure on the number of bacteria that possibly can be transferred from the thumb to and from a high-touch surface of Cu metal
No viable bacteria were observed after 24 h of incubation either when the finger-print exposed Cu metal coupons were imprinted on Nutrient agar (NA) plates or when detached from the exposed surfaces via vortexing and subsequent incubation
Summary
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), antibiotic resistance is today one of the primary threats to global health and food safety, with longer hospital stays, higher medical costs and increased morbidity and mortality as a few examples of consequences [1]. Artificial sweat was sprayed on a daily basis onto Cu metal coupons followed by their continuous exposure in a climatic chamber at cyclic wet/dry conditions at constant temperature for 1 day, 1, 2 and 4 weeks to simulate (and accelerate) different extent of indoor atmospheric corrosion and finger-print contact.
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