Back in 2022, Japan, like the rest of the world, was just coming out of the worst of the pandemic. During that time, Nittaku developed a ping pong ball they called “Premium Clean”. Identical to their other 3-star balls, it has:
Nittaku’s antiviral and antibacterial coating, single nano composite particle coating
“Medical Nano Coat”
This antiviral and antibacterial coating uses a unique technology to uniformly coat various functional inorganic materials with particle sizes of less than 10 nanometers, keeping surfaces clean.
For more info and spec sheets.
Thanks to Derc for making me aware of this product. Never available widely in the US at regulation size, it has now been discontinued completely. Seems like a good idea, whether or not it can be proven safer…