In today’s healthy world, antibacterial products go into thousands of households, from cooking tools and textiles for daily use to children’s toys, and consumers often think that once a product with antibacterial markers is purchased, it is like building a strong “antibacterial wall” for life, mistakenly believing that the antibacteriality of the product will not change during its use. However, this is an area of error that needs to be corrected.
The birth of antibacterial products stems from rigorous laboratory research and development and testing. In the case of antibacterial plastics, for example, at the research and development stage, scientists have enabled plastics to inhibit bacterial growth by adding specific antibacterial agents, such as silver ions, ammonium salt per diem, etc. These antibacterial agents are evenly distributed within the plastics, and at the time of testing of the new products, they are based on standard processes, simulations of daily life scenes, inhibitive effects testing of common bacteria such as coli and golden peptococcus, and then the product can be pushed to the market to provide initial antibacterial protection to consumers.
But reality quickly broke the illusion of “for once and for all”. As time of use increases, anti-bacterial products face many challenges. Day-to-day cleaning is a major “natural enemy” of anti-bacterial performance. In the case of antibacterial slabs, each time they are used, clean-up, water-cleaning, repeated wash-off, while removing surface stains, the antibacterial agent is slowly being removed. Studies have shown that, following hundreds of routine clean-ups, the levels of antibacterial composition in a pallet can be reduced to less than half the initial level, with significantly less antibacterial effects.
The wear and tear must also not be overlooked. Like antibacterial fabrics, frictions between clothing and collisions with the inner walls of washing machines during daily wear and washing, gradually stripping antibacterial coatings on the fibre surface. The already closely arranged antibacterial groups were destroyed and bacteria were given an opportunity to exploit them. Experiments have shown that, after 50 machine cycles, some of the antibacterial fabric has been reduced from more than 90 per cent to about 50 per cent of the original enzymes.
Environmental factors are compounded. In the case of the southern moist season, for example, air moisture is maintained at over 80 per cent for long periods of time, and for anti-bacterial furniture surface coatings, high humidity not only accelerates the ageing and stripping of coatings, but also provides excellent conditions for the breeding of microorganisms such as fungus. Even for furniture that is originally antibacterial, it is difficult to resist the “dual bite” of bacteria and fungi in such a bad environment that the antibacterial effects are severely impaired.
If consumers are caught in this wrong zone, the harm cannot be minimized. In the home scene, the use of anti-bacterial products, such as old anti-bacterial towels, is not only an effective deterrent to bacteria, but may result in a humid and warm environment, which allows bacteria to reproduce in large quantities, increases the risk of skin infection, and causes itching, inflammation, etc. In the medical field, the risk of post-operative infections will increase significantly if health-care personnel do not detect changes in the anti-bacterial properties of medical devices, and if anti-bacterial equipment is used in an ageing and non-existent manner, which poses a great threat to the life and health of patients.
To overcome this error, consumers should not only focus on the initial antibacterial markers of the product when selecting an antibacterial product, but also on information about its useful life, maintenance requirements, etc. In the course of their use, the product ‘ s anti-bacterial properties are periodically checked in accordance with the instructions, such as simple methods of observing changes in the colour of the anti-bacterial fabric and smelling the odor of anti-bacterial plastics. At the same time, the regulatory authorities should urge enterprises to specify the duration and impact factors of the anti-bacterial performance of the product, and to promote the development of more durable and stable anti-bacterial technologies in the industry, so that the anti-bacterial products are truly permanent guardians of health, rather than mere “facework”.
