October 11, 2004—Madico Inc., one of the world’s largest manufacturers of blast-resistant safety films, and GSC Global, Inc., a research and development company specializing in antimicrobial technologies, announced they have formed a joint marketing alliance. The partnership will bring to market the world’s first human safe and environmentally benign commercial system for combating biological, chemical and blast attacks.
According to terms of the agreement, Madico will apply GSC Global’s specially formulated Silver Bullet antimicrobial coating to its SafetyShield line of blast-resistant glass films. The resulting product will be the industry’s first blast and bacteria-resistant safety film.
GSC Global has been working with leading U.S. government and defense groups focused on biological terror defense and response since October of 2001. Robert Goldsworthy, the Australian chemist who developed the technology and current director of research and development for GSC Global, explained that his company has adhered strictly to guidelines issued by the Antimicrobials Division of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Pesticide Programs to ensure the product can be deployed safely to support a crisis exemption for anthrax decontamination.
In tests conducted at two separate U.S. government supported laboratories, an elite group within the U.S. Department of Defense found the product to achieve “log 8” reductions within 30 minutes against the anthrax surrogate bacillus subtilis and two strains of weapons grade anthrax. Log 8 is the highest level of threat reduction.
According to GSC Global Executive Vice President Peter Versace, the liquid uses safer active ingredients in smaller concentration to decontaminate a building in a manner that also protects occupants and first responders. He added that the Silver Bullet technology is engineered to completely neutralize itself within 48 hours, leaving no active residue on any treated surface.
To complement the glass safety system, GSC Global has designed a patent-pending sprinkler system that – if triggered by an impact to the filmed glass or activated manually – will release the Silver Bullet liquid to begin immediate decontamination of the building’s interior. The system will also automatically shut down the HVAC system to prevent the anthrax or other biological agents from cross-contaminating other areas of the building.
Additional third-party tests prove the Silver Bullet antimicrobial liquid also kills the entire range of bacteria and virus, including SARS, E. coli, pneumonia, golden staph and influenza. The product is currently being tested against chemical weapon surrogates, such as mustard gas and VX for chemical neutralization efficacy.
