Towards microbiological quality assurance in radiation sterilization processing: simulation of the radiation inactivation process

A method is developed for computer simulation of the inactivation of microorganisms on items by irradiation. It is shown that in a population of items subjected to increasing doses of radiation the proportion contaminated approaches the appropriate Limiting Case, outlined in a previous paper, as numbers of organisms are decreased by inactivation. The behaviour of populations of items having different proportions of 'spikes' (high bioburden levels) is considered. (author)