Copper Fun Facts

Copper Fun Facts:  (from the NIH.gov website)  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3067274/

1)     The antimicrobial activity of copper and copper alloys is now well established, and copper has recently been registered at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the first solid antimicrobial material.

2)     The oldest recorded medical use of copper is mentioned in the Smith Papyrus, one of the oldest books known (Dollwet, H. H. A., and J. R. J. Sorenson. 1985. Historic uses of copper compounds in medicine. Trace Elem. Med. 2:80-87. [Google Scholar]). This Egyptian medical text, written between 2600 and 2200 B.C., describes the application of copper to sterilize chest wounds and drinking water.

3)      Copper and copper alloys have been used by humans for thousands of years, yet no bacteria fully resistant to contact killing have been discovered.  Plasmid DNA is completely degraded after cell death by contact killing, preventing the transfer of resistance determinants between organisms  (Warnes, S. L., S. M. Green, H. T. Michels, and C. W. Keevil. 2010. Biocidal efficacy of copper alloys against pathogenic enterococci involves degradation of genomic and plasmid DNA. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 76:5390-5401. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar] [Ref list])