SBIR-STTR Award

The advent of terrorist attacks throughout the world and within the United States has created a need for simple low-cost sterilization techniques. This development of a simple inexpensive self-sterilization plastic not only meets military and civil defense requirements; it will also find numerous applications in hospital and third-world medical settings. The innovative development of the self-sterilizing plastic is based on the conversion of an economical commercially available polymer. All of the other components of the disposable self-sterilizing bag are readily available from commercial sources. Assembling of the self-sterilizing bag kits can be done using automated packaging equipment. The use of currently available materials and processes makes the wide spread uses of self-sterilizing bags economically feasible. The development of self-sterilizing materials proposed here has enormous potential for defense against biological attack as well potentials in improving healthcare in the US and third world countries.

Thesaurus Terms:
antisepsis, biomedical equipment development, consumable /disposable biomedical equipment, plastic bioterrorism /chemical warfare, gas, heat

The safe and simple self-sterilizing bag system, with its INNOVATIVE sterilant releasing plastic insert, is ideal for STERILIZATION of all medical items, especially heat and moisture sensitive medical products. The product has numerous applications both commercially, as well as hospital and in-home healthcare applications. Virtually any heat source can be used to initiate the release of sufficient quantities of sterilant. Chemical, temperature and humidity INDICATORS WITHIN the self-sterilizing bag will give a color indication when adequate STERILANT CONDITIONS have been accomplished INSIDE THE BAG by the combination of time and heat. The relatively low cost of the self- sterilizing bag system makes it widely applicable to a number of specialty sterilization applications such as potential anthrax contaminated letters or other biologically infested items. The self-sterilizing bag system is ideal for environments that may not contain potable water for mixing traditional liquid sterilants making it ideally suited for use in the FIELD, MOBILE CLINICS, RURAL AREAS, or THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES. In summary, the self-sterilizing bag system is a disposable self-contained mini- sterilizer that requires only a small amount of heat to initiate sterilization of the contents of the disposable bag while color indicators tell the user when the sterilization cycle is complete. The self-sterilizing bag system has the potential to have a great impact in worldwide health as an inexpensive infection prevention method. The simplicity, versatility, and low cost of this light-weight disposable self-contained sterilizer answers a real need in developing countries for an inexpensive sterilization method without expensive capital investment in equipment