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Evaluation of environmental conditions as a decontamination approach for SARS‐CoV‐2 when applied to common library, archive and museum‐related materials
Author(s) -
Richter William R.,
Sunderman Michelle M.,
Mera Tom O.,
O'Brien Kim A.,
Morgan Kendra,
Streams Sharon
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
journal of applied microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.889
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2672
pISSN - 1364-5072
DOI - 10.1111/jam.15468
Subject(s) - human decontamination , covid-19 , virus inactivation , sars virus , relative humidity , virus , environmental science , chemistry , environmental chemistry , food science , biology , virology , medicine , outbreak , physics , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , thermodynamics
Aims The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of ambient or altered environmental conditions on the inactivation of SARS‐CoV‐2 applied to materials common in libraries, archives and museums. Methods and Results Porous and non‐porous materials (e.g. paper, plastic protective book cover) were inoculated with approximately 1 × 10 5 TCID 50 SARS CoV‐2 (USA‐WA1/2020), dried, placed within test chamber in either a stacked or unstacked configuration, and exposed to environmental conditions ranging from 4 to 29°C at 40 ± 10% relative humidity. The amount of infectious SARS‐CoV‐2 was then assessed at various timepoints from 0 to 10 days. Ambient conditions resulted in varying inactivation rates per material type. Virus inactivation rate decreased when materials were stacked or at colder temperatures. Virus inactivation rate increased when materials were unstacked or at warmer temperatures. Conclusions SARS‐CoV‐2 at ambient conditions resulted in the inactivation of virus below limit of quantitation (LOQ) for all materials by Day 8. Warmer temperatures, for a subset of materials, increased SARS‐CoV‐2 inactivation, and all were