ISO 23641:2021

Flexible cellular polymeric materials — Determination of antibacterial effectiveness

 

Introduction

Products with a label or marking tag of antibacterial treatment, such as kitchen sponge cleaners, mattresses, pillows and sofas, are available in markets worldwide. However, there is no common standard to evaluate the effectiveness of the antibacterial treatment. The material used for these products is usually a flexible cellular polymeric foam treated with antibacterial agents available in the markets. Because of the porosity of the material, efficient contact between a testing bacterial suspension and the material is critical in an evaluation of the effectiveness of antibacterial treatment. A specific procedure has been developed and adopted for this test method so that the test bacteria can efficiently make contact with the open cell surface of the flexible cellular polymeric test specimens. This document will help consumers to know whether these products have the appropriate quality of antibacterial effectiveness.

WARNING Persons using this document should be familiar with microbiology. This document does not purport to address all of the safety problems, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this document to establish appropriate safety and health practices and to determine the applicability of any national regulatory conditions.

 

1   Scope

This document specifies a method of determining the antibacterial effectiveness of open-cell flexible cellular polymeric antibacterial treated materials, including their intermediate and final products.

This document is suitable for flexible cellular polymeric materials because the test procedure enables the test inoculum to efficiently contact with the surface of open cell in the flexible cellular polymeric materials.

2   Normative references

The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.

ISO 1923, Cellular plastics and rubbers — Determination of linear dimensions

3   Terms and definitions

For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.

ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:

— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp

— IEC Electropedia: available at http://www.electropedia.org/

3.1

surface of flexible cellular polymeric material

surface that is not only the outer peripheral surface but also the true surface of open-cell structure of flexible cellular polymeric material

3.2

antibacterial

condition suppressing the growth of bacteria on the surface of flexible cellular polymeric material

3.3

antibacterial agent

agent that inhibits the growth of bacteria on flexible cellular polymeric materials

3.4

antibacterial treatment

treatment with antibacterial agents

3.5

antibacterial treated material

flexible cellular polymeric material that is treated with antibacterial agents

3.6

antibacterial activity

difference in the logarithm of the viable cell counts found between an antibacterial-treated material and an untreated material after inoculation with bacteria and incubation

3.7

antibacterial effectiveness

ability of an antibacterial agent to inhibit the growth of bacteria on material treated with an antibacterial agent, as determined by the value of the antibacterial activity