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This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project seeks to develop a novel potent class of biocides for use in the food and medical industries. Over the last decade, the emergence of pathogenic microbes that resist conventional treatment, such as antibiotics and chemical disinfectants, has caused great concern to officials in the food and medical industries. Each year nearly two million patients contract an infection while hospitalized. During the last two decades the rate of nosocomial infections per 1,000 patient days has increased 36 percent, while in 1995 nosocomial infections cost 4.5 billion dollars and contributed to more than 88,000 deaths. These "super bugs" have also reeked havoc in the food industry as foodborne disease causes approximately 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths in the United States each year. The novel class of biocides proposed in this project will be generated on-site and on-demand and will contain the beneficial characteristics of ozone and carboxylic acid or alcohol-based disinfectants while eliminating their respective weaknesses. This new armamentarium of biocides will meet the criteria for an ideal disinfectant that can be recommended by public health officials for food and medical uses.
The primary commercial applications of this project will be in the food and healthcare industries