A standard for establishing the effectiveness of chemical antiseptics and disinfectants for hygienic hand washing

Hospitals, retirement homes, workplaces... many places provide professionals and visitors with products for hygienic hand washing. The NF EN 1499 standard provides a test method to ensure the effectiveness of these chemical antiseptics and disinfectants.

To prevent any risk of infection, hand washing is essential. It removes unwanted microorganisms and other microbes that may have settled on our hands as a result of various contacts with which the skin comes into contact.

Chemical antiseptics and disinfectants can be used to wash your hands and are available in certain places we frequent, such as healthcare facilities, but also in workplaces and our homes.

The recently published NF EN 1499 standard describes a test method that simulates practical conditions in order to establish whether a product for hygienic hand washing reduces the transient microbial flora on the hands when used to wash the artificially contaminated hands of volunteers.

Information is provided on the equipment used for testing, the preparation of test microorganism suspensions and product test solutions, the procedure for evaluating the bactericidal activity of the product on the subjects' hands, the experimental data and calculations, and the verification of the methodology.

This is a revision of the standard published in 1997. The significant technical changes relate to neutralization, operating procedures, and appendices.

This document will be of particular interest to healthcare professionals.

• To order standard NF EN 1499 "Antiseptics and chemical disinfectants – Hygienic hand washing – Test method and requirements (phase 2/step 2)" ...
• To learn more about the AFNOR T72Q standardization committee on "Antiseptics and chemical disinfectants"...