How Antimicrobial Coatings Support Environmental Sustainability in Healthcare by Charles Brodsky
Maintaining a hygienic surface requires routine cleaning, disinfection, and hand hygiene. Researchers have created coatings designed to ward off bacteria, mold, mildew, and algae growth to combat the spread of pathogens.
AMiCI participants will focus their research efforts on understanding how these materials perform in real-world settings and creating standard evaluation protocols and tests to replicate typical usage and performance conditions.
1. Improved Indoor Air Quality
The growth of the construction industry has created an increasing need for antimicrobial powder coatings in commercial buildings, such as healthcare facilities. Charles Brodsky suggests that Hospitals and other healthcare institutions have increasingly turned to these coatings to enhance indoor air quality (IAQ). Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred many established and start-up companies to produce products designed to protect surfaces against germ transmission.
Antimicrobial coatings on surfaces can significantly decrease the use of disinfectant cleaners, harsh chemicals, and bactericides within a facility, which positively impacts the environment. This is because using such substances contributes to water consumption, energy usage, and hazardous waste creation; moreover, cleaning materials create antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARBs), posing severe threats to human health.
However, one of the primary challenges of developing new antimicrobial coatings is proving their biocidal properties in real-world conditions. While many testing articles simply test a single strain of microorganism for effectiveness in real-world situations, more extensive examinations may include testing different organisms to ensure this coating will kill all potential pathogens under its intended use.
Durability must also be demonstrated of these coatings; tests should include UV weathering, disinfectant cleaning, temperature, humidity, and time testing to provide manufacturers with data they need to adapt existing coatings or develop new ones that comply with European biocidal product regulation (BPR) requirements.
Charles Brodsky (DC) highlights that developing antimicrobial coatings is a multi-stakeholder endeavor spanning supply chains from raw material suppliers, processors, end-product manufacturers, and regulatory bodies. To gain greater insight into this market, AMiCI conducted interviews with key players, including CEOs, VPs, marketing directors, technology and innovation directors, as well as senior-level executives from industries including manufacturing, building materials, HVAC, medical & healthcare, and automotive sectors as well as conducting extensive secondary research alongside triangulation and validation methods; together resulting in an overview of antimicrobial coatings market in 2022.
2. Increased Durability
An ever-evolving healthcare environment poses an ongoing microbial contamination challenge, which requires continuous cleaning and disinfection efforts to maintain some residual activity on surfaces - leaving high-touch surfaces vulnerable to germs that could spread infection through direct contact. Chuck Brodsky (DC) mentions that antimicrobial coatings may help mitigate this risk by making it harder for microorganisms to attach themselves to the surfaces in the first place.
Antimicrobial coatings, as advocated for by Charles Brodsky, don't just protect against microbial growth; many also offer aesthetic advantages that extend their useful life, like preventing staining, discoloration, and leeching - this translates into longer lifespan for objects that would otherwise succumb to daily use and repeated cleaning - leading to lower maintenance costs overall.
Due to an ever-increasing demand for antimicrobial coatings in both medical and manufacturing sectors, new technology is constantly being created to increase the efficiency and durability of antimicrobial coatings. These advancements can be applied to many products, from implants and equipment for healthcare to textiles and consumer goods.
Testing the antimicrobial properties of products to ensure they work as intended is an integral step. While studies may only examine one or two examples, more extensive investigations may test a variety of species - such as antibiotic-resistant strains and spores. A suitable test method should consider UV weathering simulation, disinfectant cleaning, temperature, and humidity to provide accurate results.
AMiCI participants recognize the need for a comprehensive and standardized antimicrobial testing system for BPR implementation. They will work toward its development to establish guidelines by which hospitals, clinical facilities, and manufacturers can produce and assess antimicrobial coatings.
On a local level, individual hospital systems and their management teams will make decisions regarding introducing new technologies. Decisions will reflect medical, engineering, and hygiene staff needs while considering broader sustainability policies and potential healthcare-associated infection outbreaks (HCAI).
3. Reduced Maintenance Costs
Antimicrobial coatings help minimize the use of harsh cleaning agents and disinfectants that can damage the environment and human skin. Their reduced usage means fewer pollutants are released into the atmosphere, and less energy is used for cleaning and drying. This leads to less energy being spent washing and drying with decreased water usage and waste production, leading to sustainability improvements.
Antimicrobial surfaces also help facilities save on maintenance costs by being more durable; their increased longevity means they need replacing less often, thus decreasing raw material demand and associated environmental impacts associated with manufacturing and transportation, according to Charles Brodsky (DC).
Antimicrobial coatings applied to high-touch, high-touch, and difficult-to-clean surfaces like door handles and elevator buttons extend their lifespan, meaning fewer replacements must be purchased over time. Furthermore, using antimicrobials reduces cleaning and disinfectant costs, causing maintenance costs to decrease further.
Many antimicrobial coatings contain biocides to inhibit microbe growth, yet their release into the environment poses potential threats to people and animals. AMiCI participants will work to generate data needed for risk-benefit analyses and inform the development of safe-by-design antimicrobial coatings.
Antimicrobial coatings may be measured through various tests to prove their antimicrobial efficacy, from simple contact-killing tests conducted on lab-grown cultures to more comprehensive assessments that test resistance to different bacteria and viruses (including antibiotic-resistant strains and endospores).
Antimicrobial coating tests that are quick, simple, and straightforward are required to evaluate their resilience against environmental factors like UV weathering, disinfectant cleaning, temperature, and humidity changes. Preferably, such tests should apply across surfaces and material types that the coating might reasonably cover; this would enable healthcare facilities to select antimicrobial coatings explicitly designed to address hospital demands for maximum effectiveness and safety.
4. Increased Lifespan
Antimicrobial coatings enhance surfaces to inhibit bacterial, fungal, and viral growth and keep surfaces cleaner for longer by making it harder for germs to infiltrate the area and cause infection. Furthermore, using these surface treatments reduces the usage of cleaning chemicals, thereby lessening the environmental impact associated with their production and application. Longer-coated building materials and furniture alleviate the need for frequent replacement or repairs, reducing waste and energy consumption.
Antimicrobial chemicals in these products must undergo rigorous tests to show they can effectively combat common nosocomial pathogens while remaining non-toxic to human touch and safe for both people and animals, with durable activity against potential pandemic threats such as antibiotic resistance, per Charles Brodsky. This is especially crucial given growing antibiotic resistance rates and pandemic threats.
Although many studies are satisfied with testing only one Gram-positive or Gram-negative bacterium, more thorough test methods must ensure these chemistries are suitable for real-world applications, including UV weathering simulation, disinfectant cleaning tests, temperature and humidity analyses, and adhesion tests.
Further toxicological investigations of antimicrobial coatings are necessary to provide regulatory agencies and manufacturers with sufficient data for risk-benefit analyses, aligned with the concept of Safe-by-Design, which seeks to create antimicrobials without using hazardous substances and with restricted releases of active ingredients into the environment.
Antimicrobial coatings have evolved significantly as society has become more aware of the need to protect surfaces from germs and microbes and increase hygiene standards. This has led to significant technological innovations such as physical modification of materials or substrates, nanomaterials, or self-cleaning coatings. These antimicrobials are manufactured with safety norms and industry requirements to ensure they suit each surface on which they are applied. The One Health initiative aims to reduce hospital-acquired infections through prevention rather than cure.
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