What evidence does the APVMA need to be satisfied that a pool sanitiser is effective?
Recent experiences with unregistered silver and copper ion based swimming and spa pool sanitiser (claimed) products led to a re-examination of the standards that the APVMA uses for demonstrating efficacy of pool sanitisers against harmful micro-organisms. Existing laboratory test standards for swimming and spa pool sanitisers seem to have been developed with the expectation that new products required to meet the standards would be based on chlorine or bromine. Chlorine in particular is so well studied and documented that, provided enough free chlorine is present, there is ready acceptance of its ability to adequately sanitise water (with a few exceptions such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium which are not completely controlled by standard levels of chlorine) for the range of human pathogen classes likely to be encountered in a pool or spa environment (bacteria, mycobacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa). Current typical laboratory standards call for a four log10 reduction (meaning a redu
