Disinfection alternatives for contact surfaces and toys at child care centers

Child care surfaces are vehicles for disease-causing organisms. Disinfectant procedures prevent microbial dispersion. This study reports the effectiveness of CITRUS Farm Edition1 (CFE), Clorox1 GreenWorksTM (CGW) and Clorox1 Anywhere1 (CA) against Salmonella Typhimurium and Staphylococcus aureus inoculated (1 ml of 9Log10 CFU/ml) on a high chair and ball toy. Disinfectants were sprayed and bacteria recovered from surfaces by sponge method. Exposing an inoculated high chair to CA resulted in the highest reduction of S. aureus (3.92 Log10) and S. Typhimurium (3.22 Log10). CGW reduced S. aureus and S. Typhimurium by 2.84 and 2.12 Log10 from the inoculated high chair, while the inoculated ball toy showed a 2.50 and 1.80 Log10 reduction, respectively. CFE showed the lowest reduction with 1.42 and 1.53 Log10 of S. aureus and S. Typhimurium from the inoculated ball toy. CA was the best disinfectant no matter which bacteria or surface was analyzed. Emphasis on the effectiveness of disinfectant products is needed to be included in child care center infection control programs. International Journal of Environmental Health Research. 2010;20(6):387-394.