Next Generation Antimicrobial Coatings for High Touch Surfaces: Application, Benefits, Risks, Environmental Impacts and Sustainability Aspects

Antimicrobial coatings for high-touch surfaces are a promising strategy to reduce the burden of infectious pathogens, limit human exposure, and mitigate transmission in public, healthcare, and other shared environments. This review outlines current antimicrobial coating strategies and their modes of action with attention to their rational applications on high touch surfaces. Because standard laboratory efficacy tests often fail to capture end-use conditions, the review points to the need for application relevant testing approaches that account for factors such as humidity, temperature, contamination level, inoculum volume, and repeated touching. Beyond efficacy, safe use also depends on how active components are released and on the resulting exposure to humans and the environment, both during their use and at end-of-life. Human safety endpoints, such as cytotoxicity, immunotoxicological effects, skin sensitization, and skin irritation, are examined under short- and long-term exposure, in relation to current testing standards and regulatory expectations. In parallel, the review addresses environmental concerns, including potential persistence, bioaccumulation and the transport of released substances into soil, sediments, air and water. Building on these considerations, the review concludes by outlining key principles for applying a safe-and-sustainable-by-design (SSbD) approach to antimicrobial coatings.