Copper the Metal

Fact 6 of 12

Copper is easily alloyed with other metals. Currently, there are more than 570 copper alloys listed with the American Society for Testing and Materials International. They are identified by numbers preceded by a "C" and are assigned and reviewed by the Copper Development Association for ASTM. More than 350 of them have been acknowledged by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as antimicrobial.*

* U.S. EPA registration is based on independent laboratory tests showing that, when cleaned regularly, copper, brass and bronze kill greater than 99.9% of the following bacteria within 2 hours of exposure: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis (VRE), Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter aerogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and E. coli O157:H7.