Sympoium 1997: Abstract for J Lampinen & J Lappalainen

Symposium 1997: Abstracts

Inhibitory Effect of Disinfectants on Luminescent ATP Measurement

Jorma Lampinen¹, Juha Lappalainen²
¹Bio-Orbit Oy, Turku, Finland,
²Bio-Nobile Oy, Turku, Finland

Luminescent ATP measurement is widely used for hygiene monitoring in industry. The measurement is mainly used for testing of cleaning efficiency by detecting residual ATP from recently washed surfaces. Often those surfaces are treated with detergents containing disinfectants and therefore they can contain some traces of the disinfectants when samples are collected. The possible effect of these disinfectants on luminescent ATP measurement was tested with two common types of disinfectants: One containing sodium hypopchlorite and another containing isopropanol as an effective compound.

The inhibitory effect of these disinfectants was measured by using standard luminescent ATP measurement procedure and different concentrations of the disinfectants and ATP as a sample. The results showed that both disinfectants had clear inhibitory effect on ATP measurement with the recommended working concentrations. Inhibition caused by reactive chloride were between 80 - 90% with the working concentrations, and 60% isopropanol solution caused 30% inhibition to ATP measurement. Even ten times lower concentrations caused notable inhibitions, 15% with hypochlorite and 5% with isopropanol..

These results show clearly that when ATP measurement is used for hygiene monitoring of cleaned and disinfected surfaces insufficient rinsing can cause remarkable disturbance in the measurement.