Potential self-disinfection capacity of touch screen displays

Martin Hessling; Barbara Spellerberg; Katharina Hönes

doi:10.1002/jbio.201900118

Potential self-disinfection capacity of touch screen displays

J Biophotonics. 2019 Oct;12(10):e201900118. doi: 10.1002/jbio.201900118. Epub 2019 Jul 15.

Authors

Martin Hessling¹, Barbara Spellerberg², Katharina Hönes¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Medical Engineering and Mechatronics, Ulm University of Applied Sciences, Ulm, Germany.
² Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.

PMID: 31222906
DOI: 10.1002/jbio.201900118

Abstract

Touch screen displays are potential pathogen reservoirs and involved in the spread of hospital acquired infections. They emit visible light that is known for a weak but proven antimicrobial photoinactivation effect, so the question is whether displays have the potential to disinfect themselves. To test the antimicrobial capacity of touch screen displays, Staphylococcus carnosus are distributed on Samsung tablets and illuminated for up to 36 hours. The average number of colony forming units decreases with time with white light being the most efficient followed by blue, green and red light. Increasing the illumination intensity by a mirror leads to a faster bacterial decrease up to a 90% reduction in 15 hours. A 99.99% reduction of staphylococci should be possible by turning on the display over the weekend.

Keywords: disinfection; display; photoinactivation; staphylococci; visible light.

Publication types

Letter
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Bacteria
Disinfection*
Electrical Equipment and Supplies*
Touch*

Grants and funding

Matthias Mueller and Harald Gross of the Institut fuer Hochschuldidaktik of the Ulm University of Applied Sciences/International