Xerox and Curtis join forces to produce antimicrobial document paper

Xerox and Curtis Fine Papers have worked together to produce an anti-microbial paper with a target market of hospitals, private healthcare organisations and GP surgeries where the producers expect it to play a part in preventing the spread of hospital-acquired infections such E.coli, Salmonella, Listeria, Pseudomonas and Clostridium difficile.

The paper is said to kill 99.9% of bacteria and can be be printed without affecting its antibacterial capabilities.

This approach is not new, with Domtar announcing a similar approach, and work reported by Finnish and Canadian research groups. There are issues regarding the development of resistance to the microbicides, sensitivity of the users of the papers and the spectrum of activity of the microbicides. In addition, the long-term effectiveness of the microbicides is yet to be proven.

printweek.com has reported on the announcement by Curtis and Xerox..