Needs Related to Antimicrobial Surfaces

Surfaces in the building interiors can serve as reservoirs for pathogenic viruses and bacteria. As a result, infectious diseases are commonly transmitted through surfaces on which aerosols (ejected orally or nasally by already infected individuals) have settled. Antimicrobial surfaces can play key roles in preventing the spread of diseases via contaminated building surfaces.

Building occupants establish frequent contacts with such surfaces as (door, faucet, cabinet and toilet flush) handles, countertops, floorings, walls, and light switches. Technologies have been developed, but not broadly adopted in building applications, to make surfaces inherently antiviral and antibacterial. The cost burden of many such technologies have prohibited their broad building applications. There is a need for lower-cost methods of rendering building surfaces antimicrobial in both production and remedial settings.

Various test methods are available to assess the antimicrobial qualities of surfaces. These tests, however, cannot evaluate the long-term stability of antimicrobial surfaces in different service environments. Most interior building products remain in service for decades. There is a need for accelerated aging procedures for evaluating the long-term stability of antiviral and antibacterial surfaces. Such test methods can help with identifying economically viable means of providing interior building surfaces with sustained antimicrobial attributes. The resulting health benefits can then be weighed against the corresponding costs in an effort to persuade owners, occupants, builders and product manufacturers to employ antimicrobial surfaces. Development of building codes requiring antimicrobial surfaces would tie into these efforts towards high-impact implementation of the technology.