Foam: a new disinfectant for decontamination of chemical, biological and nuclear agents

  Since many years ago, after the discovery of microbes in the early 19th century, different disinfectants and decontaminates has been used in human life. During recent years necessity of applying such materials have been raised. However, physicians, chemists and health researchers attempted to find out a specific chemical disinfectant with low toxicity for human and highly selective toxicity against microbes, particularly spore form of bacteria, which are very resistant to many physical and chemical agents. In addition, such selective disinfectant must have antiseptic too. Based on these characteristics, many disinfectant materials became available in market for decontamination purposes. After recent events, because of possible nuclear, biological and chemical threats, which may be declared by enemies, scientists have considered the preparation of new disinfectants.   The newest, most famous, and most effective disinfectant is called " Foam" which consists of hydrogen peroxide and a detergent, formed through mixing in basic condition.   The results of studies reveal that, "Foam" as a disinfectant and sporicidal agent could be applied for decontamination of animate and inanimate materials with high efficacy.   It should be mentioned that the new disinfectant could damage Bacillus anthracis spores within a few minutes. In addition, this new disinfectant could also destroy different chemical agents such as Sarin, Soman, Tabun and Mustard gas. The recent studies reported that its stability is at a suitable level.   Consequently, Foam is a material with three abilities which mentioned above. Therefore, this article discusses the characteristics of new disinfectant explains how it could be made and finally its application for different purposes.