Chlorine Dioxide
Chlorine dioxide gas has been used as a biological decontaminant for more than 10 years. It was specifically employed by the federal government during the anthrax incidents at the post offices and governmental facilities in 2001. It is now commonly used for the decontamination of buildings and items following accidental biological contamination as might occur in laboratories, containment suites, and animal facilities.
Chlorine dioxide (CD) is a green-colored gas, generated at the time of a decontamination event. Being a potent sporicidal gas, CD penetrates and decontaminates all parts of a targeted volume with the same ease experienced with the traditional formaldehyde procedure. However, CD is not a carcinogen, and better yet, leaves behind no residue or odor. An additional gain is that the kill-rate at typical use concentrations is significantly faster than that of formaldehyde. With that in combination with the lack of need of cleaning a residue, the overall cycle time for decontamination is greatly reduced. For example, the total cycle time for decontamination of a BSC, which is typically performed overnight with formaldehyde gas, is reduced from at least 12 hours to less than 4 hours.
High-purity CD gas is an excellent gas-phase decontaminating agent, due to fact that CD is a true gas and has been proven to kill aerosolized, airborne pathogens, as well as pathogens on surfaces. CD can diffuse into the targeted physical barriers and into the supply or exhaust HVAC of a facility, penetrating to any surface that might have been compromised by the target pathogen(s).
There is no apparent collateral damage by chlorine dioxide gas to BSC motors or materials of construction. In testing and validation of our process, CD has proven effective in decontaminating devices without minimal material compatibility issues. This includes stainless steel, gasket material, internal paint, HEPA filter material (including the filter media, sealing and frame materials), and materials involved with the BSC blower(s). It has been shown that even with ten decontamination cycles performed on a cabinet there are no deleterious effects on the equipment’s functioning and, at most, limited cosmetic issues.