Aerial or Gaseous Disinfection*

Aerial disinfection with hexyl resorcinol in a monkey house.

The Mechanism of Aerial Disinfection by Glycols and Other Chemical Agents

Theoretical analysis of the mechanism of action of chemical aerial disinfectants reveals that the rapid killing action which is obtained cannot be accounted for by a collision process between germicidal aerosol particles and the air-borne bacteria. However, a mechanism involving condensation of germicide molecules in the vapor state on to the bacteria-containing droplets results in a theoretica...

Gaseous pollutants in particulate matter epidemiology: confounders or surrogates?

Air pollution epidemiologic studies use ambient pollutant concentrations as surrogates of personal exposure. Strong correlations among numerous ambient pollutant concentrations, however, have made it difficult to determine the relative contribution of each pollutant to a given health outcome and have led to criticism that health effect estimates for particulate matter may be biased due to confo...

One-stage, full-mouth disinfection: fiction or reality?

Periodontal breakdown primarily develops when the microbial load within a periodontal pocket overrules the local and systemic host defence mechanisms. Such an imbalance occurs in different situations, including an aspecific increase in the total amount of bacteria, an outgrowth/overgrowth of pathogenic species above a certain threshold level and/or a reduction in the efficiency of the immune re...

Solar Water Disinfection in Household Settings: Hype or Hope?

Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7, and its target 3, aims to halve the proportions of people globally without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015 [1]. Others have argued that access to safe drinking water is a fundamental human right [2]. Several interventions to improve access to clean water and sanitation, including one reported in this week’s PLoS Medicin...