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PPG working on self-cleaning counters that kill, resist bacteria PITTSBURGH (AP) � Arsenals of anti-bacterial sprays and other cleaners crowding cupboards in kitchens across the country could become unnecessary if the company that created windows that partially clean themselves can bring the technology indoors. Researchers at Penn State University and PPG Industries are trying to develop self-cleaning countertops that would keep bacteria from getting a toehold and also kill them on contact. �If you have a food preparation area, and you think you�ve cleaned it, the truth of the matter is if you go back in and take swabs, the bacteria are still there,� David Diehl, a senior scientist for Pittsburgh-based PPG, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in an article published July 24. �We�re trying to address this as best we can with our coatings technology.� Nationwide, 76 million people suffer from food-borne illnesses each year, accounting for 325,000 hospitalizations and more than 5,000 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Self-cleaning and germ-killing counters could be a big boon for PPG, which has developed self-cleaning glass called SunClean. The counters would work much like the self-cleaning glass, which is coated with a thin layer of titanium dioxide. Titanium dioxide � also called titania � is often used as a white pigment in paints and some foods; but research also shows that when titanium dioxide is activated by ultraviolet light, it destroys any organic molecules it touches, including dirt. Titania also transforms water and oxygen molecules into superoxides and hydroxyl radicals, which also destroy organic molecules. Counters would be coated with a thin layer � about 80,000 times thinner than a human hair � of the new chemical compounds. When hit by ultraviolet rays from lights, the coating would produce electrically charged particles that rip apart the chemical bonds of bacteria. The slightly charged coating would also be chemically slippery, preventing bacteria from sticking to the surface. Diehl declined to describe the chemical the company is working on for the self-cleaning counters because it hasn�t been patented. U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Pa., is working to secure a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help PPG and Penn State accelerate the development of this technology and bring it to market as quickly as possible. �It�s something that is so new and so cutting edge that it deems us looking at it, especially in light of the recent� food outbreaks in western Pennsylvania,� Hart said. In the past year, more than 660 people were sickened and four people died in a hepatitis A outbreak linked to a Chi-Chi�s restaurant in western Pennsylvania, and more than 280 people in five states have fallen ill from salmonella after eating at Sheetz convenience stores in Pennsylvania. Hart also hopes to get $400,000 more from the USDA for other research to stem food-borne bacterial diseases, including coatings that would be applied to food or packaging. Add a comment  |
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