Overview

EPA is considering expanding its use of disinfection hierarchy concepts for the registration of public health antimicrobial pesticides and hosted a Disinfection Hierarchy Stakeholder Workshop and corresponding webinar on October 7, 2015.

The workshop focused on the scientific merits of the hierarchy and provided a forum for stakeholders to discuss:

• the current science on which disinfection hierarchy concepts are based;
• scientific issues that may present challenges for its use registering antimicrobial pesticide products; and
• ideas on how to address these issues.

In its simplest form, disinfection hierarchy describes the descending order of susceptibility of classes of microorganisms to antimicrobial chemicals. For example, demonstrated efficacy against a representative organism would support manufacturer’s claims against more susceptible (easier to kill) organisms, potentially eliminating the need to test against, or alternatively, to submit data for each individual organism. The agency’s goals for expanding the use of these concepts are to:

• provide guidance to health care officials and the public on the most effective type of registered antimicrobial products on the market to use against an emerging pathogen; and
• increase the efficiency of and lower the costs associated with registering antimicrobial pesticides while maintaining a high level of public health protection.

Agenda and Materials

View the following documents for the disinfection hierarchy workshop:

• The workshop agenda, which identified several focus areas of panel discussion.
• A list of panel members and their biographies.
• Final Summary of the Disinfection Hierarchy Workshop.
• The presentations by Dr. William Rutala: Overview of Current Disinfection Hierarchy Models and Mr. Mark Perry: Current Regulatory Use of Disinfection Hierarchy Concept.
• EPA's white paper on disinfection hierarchy concepts, which provides an overview of existing information and served as the basis for discussion topics. 

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