FIELD: antimicrobial coatings. SUBSTANCE: aqueous composition for applying coatings contains water, basic medium, zinc oxide, hydroxide, salt or their mixture, and pyrithion salt other than pyrithion zinc salt, individually or in combination with zinc-pyrithion and selected from pyrithion slats with sodium, tert-butylamine, aluminum, calcium, potassium, magnesium, barium, or their combinations, quantity of zinc compound going from 0.001 to 10% of the weight of composition, whereas pyrithion salt-to-zinc molar ratio ranges from 1:10 to 10:1. EFFECT: increased antimicrobial effect of coating with no release of formaldehyde. 8 cl, 3 tbl, 2 ex
