Effects of Hydrogen Peroxide on Common Aviation Textiles

Modern transportation systems are subject to unintentional contamination from infected passengers, as well as deliberate contamination from criminals and political adversaries. Hydrogen peroxide has been used for years as a disinfectant in the medical community and is under consideration in the dilute vapor form as a decontaminant/disinfectant/sterilant for transportation vehicles like aircraft, buses, subway trains, ambulances, etc. Although the biological efficacy of STERIS Corporation's Vaporized Hydrogen Peroxide (VHP ® a registered trademark of the STERIS Corporation, Mentor, OH.) technology has been demonstrated elsewhere, the compatibility of the process with typical aircraft materials has not been rigorously established. The present report documents a materials compatibility evaluation involving the effects of hydrogen peroxide exposure on the mechanical properties and flammability of the following commercial-grade textile materials: wool, nylon, polyester, Nomex ® , and leather. ABBREVIATIONs As used in this report, the following abbreviations/acronyms have the meanings indicated. INTRODUCTION Modern outbreaks of infectious disease, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) from China to Canada in 2002, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in Southeast Asia in 2003, as well as possible future pandemic influenza, necessitate reliable clean-up of many elements of the transportation infrastructure system to alleviate impacts to human health and mitigate negative consequences to the global economy. Among all the sanitization/decontamination technologies available , vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) 1 technology is of particular interest due to rapid sterilization, easy usage, intrinsic environmental friendliness (i .e ., simple by-products composed of only water and oxygen) and compatibility with many materials and systems. VHP® technology might also be employed against deliberate biological/chemical attack, for instance, the 1995 Sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway system (1). In fact, the VHP® process was utilized during the clean-up of buildings and vehicles in Washington, DC, after the 2001 anthrax attacks (2). VHP® is generally considered to begin sporicidal effects at concentrations above 80 ppm. Cycle times obviously vary based upon the size of the enclosed area, the capacity of the delivery system and the specific concentration desired. In general, VHP® technology shows excellent potential for application within the modern transportation system. VHP ® technology has been investigated for possible usage in aircraft applications and the process has been shown to be efficacious (complete kill of 10 6 CFU of the spore forming Geobacillus stearothermophilus) in a narrow-body aircraft fuselage (3), as well as wide-body aircraft if the air in the cabin section was well mixed …