Frequently Asked Questions

What is Hydrogen Peroxide?

Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound consisting of two hydrogen atoms and two oxygen atoms. It was discovered over 200 years ago. It has the chemical formula H2O2. When it decomposes, hydrogen peroxide breaks down into water (H2O) and oxygen (O2).

How does Hydrogen Peroxide act as a disinfectant?

Hydrogen peroxide readily decomposes, especially in contact with organic material.

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This produces highly reactive, short-lived atomic oxygen.

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This reacts with and attacks the surface of microorganisms.

What is the Oligodynamic effect?

The oligodynamic effect was first recognised more than 150 years ago and refers to the fact that some metal ions kill or inhibit the growth of microorganisms.

This effect can be observed at extremely low doses. Metals which exhibit the oligodynamic effect include mercury, silver, copper, brass, bronze, tin, iron, lead and bismuth.

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Of all metals, the strongest effect is exerted by mercury and silver.

Why and how does silver act as a Biocide?

Silver has 3 different mechanisms of action

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1. Metal ions affect cell membrane permeability. This weakens sensitive micro-organisms and makes them enormously more sensitive to oxidizing biocides.

2. Silver binds to sulphur bridges in proteins, disrupting microorganism enzyme activity. (Silver forms a sulphide with thiol groups and reacts with amino and carboxyl groups on enzymes, inactivating them.) This limits the cell’s ability to generate energy, with the result that they ‘starve’ to death.

3. Silver forms complexes with microorganismal genetic material (DNA and RNA), disrupting reproduction. Reproduction is inhibited or arrested completely.

Why is it useful to combine Hydrogen Peroxide with Silver Ions?

Oligodynamic effects take some time to kick in and are not equally effective against all micro-organisms.

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Silver therefore primarily exerts a long-lasting, preservative, bacteriostatic effect.

Higher doses of silver do not necessarily work faster or better.

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One option, therefore, is to enhance the biocidal effect of silver by using it in combination with other substances.

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In combination with oxidising substances such as hydrogen peroxide, the effects are synergistic, producing a highly effective biocidal complex.

Is Silver toxic?

Like almost everything else in this world (salt, alcohol, water, Big Macs, etc.) silver is not completely ‘non-toxic’. “

The dose makes the poison,” as the famous pharmaceutical saying goes.

A number of different maximum doses are therefore defined for silver, depending on the form in which it is used.

Conversely, this means that as long as these permitted doses are not exceeded silver is harmless and therefore non-toxic.

The WHO guideline for silver in disinfection of drinking water is 0.1mg/litre.

Is Hydrogen Peroxide toxic?

Hydrogen peroxide is made up of oxygen and hydrogen atoms. It decomposes into water and oxygen without leaving any residue and is a powerful oxidising agent.

This means it can be harmful at higher concentrations or in greater quantities.

At low doses or appropriately diluted, it is immediately neutralised by the catalase and peroxidase enzymes produced by our bodies, which break it down into water and oxygen.

Hydrogen peroxide solutions are used in the healthcare sector for direct disinfection on or in people, e.g. disinfecting the mouth or throat, bladder irrigation, dental cervix treatments, ear irrigation, etc.

It is also used as a preservative and disinfectant in a variety of face creams

What are the main reasons for the safety of silver in SANO-D Disinfectants?

• Silver is a noble metal and, like gold and copper, one of the heavy metals.

• Like everything else, at a high enough dose silver can be poisonous. However, to poison yourself with the silver contained in SANO-D is impossible in case of professional application

• To poison yourself with the amount of silver in SANO-D, you would need to drink 3 litres of water containing 20 ppm SANO-D per day for about 910 years.

• For someone weighing 70 kg, the EPA considers an intake of 0.35 mg of silver per day to be safe. That corresponds to 5 litres of water containing 20 ppm SANO-D or 3.5 litres containing 30 ppm SANO-D.

• A litre of water containing 20 ppm SANO-D contains less silver than a litre of American milk. Consequently, no environment agency has ever banned the discharge of coolant water treated with SANO-D into surface water.

• By surface disinfection with SANO-D, silver remains as a slight residue and sticks very hard on it. This residue can only be removed by mechanical cleaning. It is impossible that this silver is detached from the surface by itself as dust or vapour and float in the air. A cumulation of the silver strains by repeated spray-and-wipe applications is also not possible.

• Silver residues on a square metre surface cold fogged with SANO-D weigh less than a grain of salt or 1/10 amount of vitamin C in a lemon.

How much silver is left on the surface (spray-wipe disinfection) ?

Spray-wipe disinfection of a 1 square meter area with 20ml SANO-D S003 involves the application of approximately 0.0006g of silver, that is the weight of 2-3 grams of sand.

Does the silver concentration on a surface increase with repeated spray-wipe disinfection?

Repeated spray-wipe disinfection does not result in the accumulation of silver because the amount of new silver applies is roughly equivalent to the amount of silver removed through manual cleaning through the cloth.

What happens to the active substances, Hydrogen Peroxide and Silver Ions after SANO-D has been sprayed into the air by aerosol sprayer/fogger?

The two substrances are firmly bonded to each other when it floats through the air as droplets until they land on a surface.
Hydrogen Peroxide then decomposes into water and oxygen while the silver remains on the surface to prevent recontamination.