CHLORINE DIOXIDE GAS FOR THE PREVENTION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Norio Ogata*

ABSTRACT

The prevention of infectious diseases caused by infectious air-floating microbes in closed and semi-closed areas is strongly needed, but it is still difficult to achieve satisfactorily because of the absence of appropriate disinfection techniques. Fumigation is one of the methods to disinfect air contaminated with infectious microbes, but it absolutely requires evacuation of people from the areas to be disinfected because the gas concentration of disinfectant employed is usually very high and toxic to animals. Currently it is demonstrated that chlorine dioxide (ClO2) gas of extremely low concentrations that have no toxic effect to animals has strong anti-microbial activity against infectious microbes, such as bacteria and viruses. Disinfection using such low-concentration ClO2 gas does not require evacuation of people, and could be used to disinfect room air in the simultaneous presence of people. The use of ClO2 gas at very low concentrations may open new avenue of disinfection systems of room air without requiring evacuation of people. This review presents the details of the disinfection system of ClO2 gas.

Keywords: Chlorine dioxide, ClO2, Gas, Bacteria, Virus, Disinfection.