coppertalk

By Wilton Moran, Copper Development Association Project Engineer, Material Sciences 

Wilton Moran is a member of CDA’s Technical Services Team, providing direct technical support to copper alloy end-users, and managing critical copper and copper alloy data and property information.  The team also manages other CDA programs, including the Public Health Initiative, which encompasses the registration of copper alloys with the EPA, and other projects that don’t fall under traditional product areas.

When I joined the CDA I pretty much concentrated on the antimicrobial copper project. The EPA’s registration of copper, brass and bronze as antimicrobial materials with public health claims was a breakthrough not only for our industry, but for a variety of industries, especially health care.  But the approval was hardly an overnight process. 

One of the things my team is currently doing is helping copper and copper alloy fabricators and manufacturers of end-use products legally market antimicrobial copper products with public health claims. The EPA is not in the business of helping companies get products to market. They exist to help ensure there’s sound science behind products that make health claims.  The fact that copper and its alloys are solid presented a unique issue for them.  The office within EPA that we are dealing with usually registers other forms of antimicrobial substances, like liquids, gases and powders, but applying the rules to solid materials was a different matter, so a lot of uncharted territory had to be covered. They’re also used to approving a specific amount of an active ingredient, but we registered a range of alloys with 60-99.9% copper.  Our experts worked with the EPA throughout the process, asking questions and helping find precedents for different aspects of our situation.  As a lot of people now know, the process was completed early in 2008 with five EPA registrations for copper and copper alloys. 

There’s nothing more powerful than EPA registration for giving your product credibility. It is also illegal to make public claims without EPA registration.  Six alloy fabricators have already obtained EPA registrations:  PMX Industries, Cerro Flow Products, Revere Copper Products, Brush Wellman, Chase Brass and Copper Company, and Olin Brass.  I’m sure we’ll be seeing more very soon.