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Germ-killing properties may hold huge potential for copper products; CDA experts say scientific certification of copper's inherent antimicrobial capabilities could open the door to a host of new applications for red metals.

Article Excerpt
Imagine if all those shiny stainless steel surfaces in hospitals, schools, nursing homes and other commercial buildings suddenly began to take on a warm copper glow. Producers and distributors of copper products would be glowing, too.

That scenario is not so far-fetched, according to experts from the Copper Development Association, who addressed members of the Copper and Brass Servicenter Association at CBSA's annual meeting last month in Key Largo, Fla.

Andrew Kireta Sr., CDA president, updated the distributors regarding the ongoing research into the natural antimicrobial properties of copper and copper alloys--and the enormous market potential that apparent germ-fighting ability represents.

"CDA conducts research to turn ideas into tons of copper, to provide a sound basis for expanding copper's role in society, and to build upon existing uses of copper to help [producers and distributors] sell products," said Harold Michaels, CDA vice president, technical and metallurgical.

He offered some sobering statistics: Two million people contract infections each year while in U.S. hospitals. Seventy percent of those two million infections are resistant to at least one antibiotic. Ninety thousand patients die each year due to such infections.

CDA contends that copper could help.

Studying bacteria on dry copper surfaces at room temperature, CDA researchers found that all the bacteria died within 90 minutes from exposure to the copper. A nickel-silver alloy, with the leanest copper content, killed 99.9 percent of the bacteria in a few hours. Stainless steel has no such effect, CDA contends.

"The antimicrobial effect...

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