Our July focus on the difficulties of measurement of microbial growth brings this to our attention.  ASTM recently added Work Item: ASTM WK46797 – “New Test Method for Quantitative Evaluation of Bactericidal Activity of Non-Porous Antimicrobial-Treated Articles.”  According to their website:  “This standard method will be used to determine the antimicrobial properties of non-porous articles treated with specific antimicrobial agents. Other such similar standards do exist in the Industry but these methods either offer variables which affect intra-lab reproducibility or limit the utility of using these methods to demonstrate a variety of end use performance claims.  Non-porous articles are treated with antimicrobial agents to control the growth of bacteria on surfaces. Users of this test method will include suppliers of antimicrobial agents, manufacturers of antimicrobial treated articles, or specific brands/retailers supplying treated articles. This method can be used to demonstrate the presence of an active antimicrobial agent on a non-porous surface compared directly to identical untreated controls. This test is designed to reflect end-use contamination conditions but also provide an ideal situation for microbial growth (if possible).”  ASTM members and non-members can purchase standards, journals, technical papers, books and manuals directly from ASTM.