The most common disinfection method involves some form of chlorine or its compounds such as chloramine or chlorine dioxide.

Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) is a disinfection method that uses ultraviolet (UV) light at sufficiently short wavelength to kill microorganisms.

Appropriate hygiene and disinfection methods should also be employed.

For most operations, however, disinfection methods involve either heat or chemicals:

The microscopic agents of many diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery have killed countless people annually before disinfection methods were employed routinely.

Officials at Titan Corp., a San Diego company that, with a subsidiary, SureBeam, won the first Postal Service mail sterilizing contracts, said the cleansing of batches of mail already under way at a plant in Lima, Ohio, was very similar to established disinfection methods for medical waste.

As regulations are tightened on established DBPs such as THMs and HAAs, drinking water treatment plant may switch to alternative disinfection methods.

Current disinfection methods used in water systems can inactivate pathogens, but can also form disinfection byproducts that may be harmful to human health.

For example, since 2002, when the city got its last E.P.A. ruling, the federal agency has required cities that drink unfiltered surface water to use two disinfection methods instead of one.