The next idea (Fig. 9) was how to treat tables and chairs in schools, restaurants and other facilities that are frequently by many different people each day. Most often they are made of surfaces to which paint or varnish do not adhere.

    Extrapolating the idea of cetrimide in paints and varnishes to using it in furniture and floor polishes (we considered floor polish a more durable furniture polish for high wear and frequently cleaned surfaces such as restaurant tabletops).

    RESULTS: In all cases attempted (Fig. 10), the cetrimide precipitated out. While cetrimide-paints/varnishes became sterile in 15 seconds, these cetrimide-polishes had half-lives of about 1 minute. That was much too slow, in our opinion, for any conceivable use. Thus this is still an open problem to be solved by either finding a different antimicrobial additive, or reformulating the polishes themselves.