Applied Silver, Inc. has received federal approval from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make public health claims for its patented SilvaClean® product in healthcare and sports medicine industries. 

This is the first time EPA has approved public health claims for a residual antimicrobial laundry additive and agrees that SilvaClean is an efficacious addition to Healthcare and Sports Infection Control programs.  “This is a transformative moment for healthcare professionals, patients, and their families who worry about the spread in infections in all healthcare settings,” said Dr. Priya Balachandran, microbiology/infectious disease expert and Vice President at Applied Silver.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 25 admitted patients get healthcare-associated infections (HAI); HAIs are a significant and growing concern among infectious disease experts, healthcare workers and facility executives; and hospitals and sports programs spend billions of dollars annually to address this problem.

EPA approved the public health claims for SilvaClean based on third party Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) data demonstrating a 99.9 % kill of key pathogens Staphylococcus aureus (at six hours) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (at three hours).  These data were supported by multi-year clinical studies in collaboration with a Stanford University scientist confirming that textiles are routinely re-contaminated with microbes during storage, handling and use, even after undergoing a certified hygienically clean laundry process.  The study further demonstrated that by regularly laundering those textiles with SilvaClean, microbes, including Staphylococcus were significantly reduced before, during and after patient use.

“Infection control programs that include SilvaClean along with standard practices such as hand hygiene and hard surface cleaning have been demonstrated to have reduced HAI rates in clinical settings”, added Dr. Balachandran.