With this year’s rise of seasonal influenza in schools accompanied by Swine Flu scares, it is clear that infection prevention is no longer an issue restricted to the healthcare environment, and educational institutions are taking issues of surface cleanliness increasingly seriously.
The Health Protection Agency offers guidance on how to slow the spread of infection, urging frequent hand washing and the regular cleaning of touch surfaces such as door handles.  In a school, however, with perhaps hundreds of hands touching handles, light switches, taps and work surfaces every day, it is simply not practical to clean all these surfaces every time they are recontaminated.  An effective, additional measure is required to help break the chain of infection: antimicrobial copper.
Well before microorganisms were discovered, the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Aztecs used copper-based preparations to treat sore throats and skin rashes.  The Greeks used shavings from their copper-containing bronze weapons to treat their wounds. In the 19th century, Louis Pasteur developed his germ theory of disease, and the scientific investigation of copper’s antimicrobial properties began.
In the last two decades, a multitude of studies have been published in scientific journals looking at the antimicrobial efficacy of copper against bacteria, viruses and fungi that threaten public health. Much of this work has been done at the Environmental Health Unit at Southampton University under Professor Bill Keevil and has been verified by workers across the globe.
Copper’s natural antimicrobial properties are already exploited in antiseptics, anti-fungal products and medical devices. Perhaps most importantly, results from clinical trials now support a role for copper in reducing contamination on hard surfaces, and thus lowering the risk of infection.
Copper is an essential nutrient for bacteria as well as humans, but in high doses, copper ions can cause a cascade of negative events in bacterial cells. The exact kill mechanism is still uncertain, however, several theories exist and are being studied. Put simply, excess copper ions disrupt the biochemistry of bacteria, overwhelming them.
Copper has broad-spectrum antimicrobial efficacy, capable of killing dangerous bacteria and viruses such as MRSA, Influenza A (H1N1), E. coli, and C. difficile.  A clinical trial of antimicrobial copper touch surfaces at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham found a 90-100% reduction in contamination on these surfaces compared to standard materials (such as plastic or stainless steel).  This has been backed up by trials in the United States (funded by their Department of Defense), Chile, Finland and Japan.
In each of these trials, many copper alloy items (such as brasses, bronzes and copper-nickels) were tested.  Copper shares its antimicrobial efficacy with its alloys, meaning that those wishing to take advantage of it have a broad choice of material properties and colours to choose from.  Alloys can offer strength and durability to provide excellent lifetime service (vital in challenging environments such as schools, hospitals and other busy public spaces), and colours range from familiar ‘copper’ orange and the bright gold of brasses through to subtler, silver-gold tones of phosphor bronzes and the pure silver, stainless-steel-look of copper-nickels.
Healthcare facilities around the world have begun installing antimicrobial copper touch surfaces in a bid to reduce reservoirs of infection, such as the newly-built Cystic Fibrosis Unit at Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital, designed with the goal of ‘setting the gold standard for infection prevention’.  Copper door furniture was specified throughout to help reduce the risk of healthcare associated infections in particularly vulnerable patients.

http://www.copperinfo.co.uk/education/competitions/copper-is-competition.shtml