The advent of the Covid-19 pandemic has brought a renewed focus on monitoring standards of cleanliness. A new breed of product – pesticidal devices – is hitting the market in the US and includes items such as UV or ozone disinfection devices. Despite the significance of this type of product, they are largely unregulated at the federal or state level. This makes it difficult for consumers to choose between effective and ineffective devices and hence for manufacturers to differentiate their products.

Manufacturers can, however, make claims about the efficacy of their products and these claims are subject to regulatory oversight. This paper discusses what to consider when making claims about your product and the information you will need in order to substantiate them.

The importance of disinfection

The transmission of pathogenic bacteria and spores to human skin can occur through touching contaminated surfaces. Many microorganisms, such as coronavirus and influenza viruses can survive on surfaces for days while other microorganisms such as Clostridioides difficile and Staphylococcus aureus, can survive for weeks or months. Hence, thorough cleaning and disinfection of surfaces is needed to interrupt the environmental transmission of infectious microorganisms to humans. To supplement standard products such as liquid disinfectants, antimicrobial pesticide devices are becoming widely used across multiple industries.

Consumers and organizations are interested in products that disinfect the harder to reach surfaces that standard disinfectants can miss. But how can the disinfection efficacy of different systems be compared?