Clothing is not the only place that antibacterial silver can help you to stay germ free. I recently learned that there are several companies that are manufacturing Door handles that have a silver coating. What a great idea for Public places like Schools, hospitals, offices, government buildings, amusements parks and even your own home!
Sargent Locks makes their version called Microshield
http://www.sargentlock.com/solutions/microshield/
According to their website, ” MicroShield™ is a hardware finish coating which permanently suppresses the growth of bacteria, algae, fungus, mold and mildew. Silver ions are coated onto the handles and they are slowly released from the antimicrobial compound to the surface of the treated hardware, This inhibits the growth of destructive microbes.The Agion antimicrobial in MicroShield is always working to protect the treated surface. For most types of microorganisms, the majority of contaminants will be gone in as little as 20 minutes. The MicroShield coating is permanent under normal wear and tear.”
They have information stating that Scratches are not an issue unless they are really large but they don’t give any details on what that really means, so that would be up to you to decide what to do if you knob gets scratched over time.
Secusan is another manufacturer that makes a similar door handle and they are available in over 30 countries, they have only 4 distributors in the US so they are
a little harder to find here.
http://secusan.com/ae-en/
I found an article from 2013 discussing an ongoing study at Penn State where they had used the coating in several areas on campus. They found a huge improvement in bacteria levels with in a few minutes of applying the coating and it continued to stay cleaner with only normal cleaning. They had hopes to create a logo that would identify surfaces coated with an Agion antimicrobial. After an internet search, I have not found that this was ever followed through, but I would love to see this someday. The results of their 4 year study found
a significant difference was observed between the bacterial populations isolated from silver versus control-coated door handles. This research was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in June of 2015.
It will be interesting to see if this is something that will really catch on or if the cost is too prohibitive to make this something we could see everywhere. In the meantime, make sure you don’t forget the sanitizer, because every time you touch a door handle you are basically shaking hands with everyone that has touched it before you!
Thanks for reading and Happy Stacking!
Sources: http://www.sargentlock.com/solutions/microshield/
http://news.psu.edu/story/282989/2013/07/30/campus-life/silver-coating-kills-bacteria-campus-door-handles
http://secusan.com/ae-en/
https://imgflip.com/i/14j5sm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150602130732.htm
https://www.healthysplash.co.za/the-scary-truth-about-bathroom-door-handles
