Anuario Brasileiro do Cobre | Brazilian Copper Yearbook 2018

Anuário Brasileiro do Cobre Brazilian Copper Yearbook 2018 47 Antimicrobial copper: application in various sectors in Latin America I nfections are transmitted by hand’s contact between persons. While, at the individual level, they can be prevented with frequent washing, in the public areas the threat perseveres. This is due to the fact that health conditions on all surfaces’ of public areas, transport, education, industry, hotel trade, shopping malls, office buildings and etc. one can find large concentrations of virus, bacteria and fungi, whether in handrails, bars, door handles, knobs, taps, including counters where people transact or place their hands on. This dispersion of contaminating agents has enormous consequences due to the health problems that they cause, without counting the involved costs with doctors, medicines, loss of work or study hours. How the infectious diseases are contracted? - Contagion can be caught when a sick person touches another; conversely, it can be an endogenous contagion when the origin is the own sick person flora; and there is the environmental contagion that originates by contact with contaminated material. Because of all that, nowadays, prevention is at the equipment level and of the near future, the architecture and the contemporary design must consider the use of copper or its alloys in finishing and contact surfaces as a part of the infectious diseases’ control campaigns. The harmful organisms can survive in common surfaces for several days and even months; therefore, the cleaning of surfaces, using the disinfection protocols recommended by the health authorities, is just a part to the solution. A contact surface that continuously eliminates the microbes that causes these diseases is necessary. In this context, copper is the best option. Many studies and clinical tests performed in Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, USA and Chile provided scientific evidence on the bactericidal properties of copper, as it eliminates the pathogenic elements constantly and permanently, including the ones resistant to antibiotics. The first bactericidal metal of the world - Scientific researchers around the world have already demonstrated that the copper ions actuate on bacteria membrane, making their metabolism to be altered and, consequently, eliminating the bacteria itself. Besides that, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registered six lists of copper´s alloys as products that promote health benefits. The alloys can be used on contact surfaces located at places with high traffic and were approved in tests by independent laboratories, under stringent protocols of bacterial load measurement. For this reason, copper was the first material with this recognition. Studies and clinical tests provided scientific evidence on the bactericidal properties of copper, as it eliminates the pathogenic elements constantly and permanently, including the ones resistant to antibiotics.