Review of techniques for the in-situ sterilization of soil contaminated with Bacillus anthracis spores or other pathogens

This review summarizes the literature on ef ficacy of techniques to sterilize soil. Soil may need to be sterilized if contaminated with pathogens such as Bacillus anthracis . Sterilizing soil in -situ minimizes spread of the bio-contaminant. Soil is dif ficult to sterilize, with ef ficacy generally diminishing with depth. Methyl bromide, formaldehyde, and glutaraldehyde are the only soil treatment options that have been demonstrated at full-scale to effectively inactivate Bacillus spores. Soil sterilization modalities with high ef ficacy at bench-scale include wet and dry heat, metam sodium, chlorine dioxide gas, and activated sodium persulfate. Simple oxidants such as chlorine bleach are ineffective in sterilizing soil. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS on behalf of Institut Pasteur. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).