Disinfectant effectiveness, alcide versus hypochlorite.

Abstract

Research was conducted to compare germicidal effectiveness of the new disinfectant Alcide, which contains chlorine dioxide (CI02 ) as the active ingredient, to a standard 50 ppm hypochlorite (bleach) solution. Two gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium. were used. Bacterial concentrations ranged between 106 and 109/ml and there were varying organic conditions of zero, 5 percent and 10 percent loads. The study found a 1:50 aqueous dilution of Alcide to be equivalent to a standard 50 ppm dilution of bleach, both with and without organic load. It did not find the Alcide to be superior to the bleach in the presence of organic material though past studies have indicated that the active ingredient of Alcide. CI02 , would not be as hampered in its effectiveness as the hypochlorite in the bleach. Using the Alcide full strength as recommended by the manufacturer, it would be expected to perform much better than the bleach at 50-200 ppm, but at a far higher cost.