An evaluation of buffered peracetic acid as an alternative to chlorine and hydrogen peroxide based disinfectants

Highlights

The operating theatre was struggling to select a suitable disinfectant for terminal cleaning that provided staff satisfaction.
Chlorine and hydrogen peroxide based products had been found unsuitable due to adverse staff reaction and remnants of surface residues.
The buffered peracetic acid based product was found to have the broadest acceptance by staff and met the requirements for terminal cleaning.

Abstract

This short report documents an in-use evaluation of three disinfectant solutions that was conducted within the operating theatre of a South Australian hospital to address a high occurrence of Clostridium difficile Infection (CDI). The disinfectants were all registered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and included a buffered peracetic acid, a chlorine-based disinfectant used at 1000 ppm, and a hydrogen peroxide-based disinfectant. The use of the chlorine and hydrogen peroxide disinfectants both caused a number of adverse staff reactions and increased safe-work related incident reporting. The peracetic acid-based product met all criteria for use, including staff acceptance, cleaning expectation, cost and efficacy requirements.