This seems wonderful, but I was wondering if anyone knew what it is made up of, and if there is anything else that can be sprayed to almost anything to sanitize. I have a new crawler and a 1st grader, so I would need gallons of this stuff. I know if I buy a bottle, I'll be hooked and thought before doing that, I would search it out to see if there is a homemade way of doing it...
Thanks for any info you can offer, Monique
Soap and water will SANITIZE most anything. The word "sanitize" has a specific meaning. It is almost synonymous with "clean." Do buy into the advertising hype. Basically you have in ascending order:
clean sanitize disinfect sterilize
Cleaning removes gross debris and dilutes organisms by physical means such as rinsing. Sanitizing will kill some organisms (many harmless), but it doesn't kill many pathogens. Disinfecting will kill many pathogens, but not all. There are different levels of disinfecting, the best being "hospital grade." This level will kill TB spores and HIV, but not hepatitis B. Sterilizing kill everything.
Thanks for your input. So there really is not a homemade spray that can do what this claims. I just thought the ease of spraying down the toys between soap and water cleanings would be wonderful.
M>
I would just spray them down with soap and water. The sanitizer really won't be any better. You could always use a 10% solution of bleach and water if the items are color safe. In dental offices, the most popular surface disinfectant (better than sanitizer) is Birex
Wonderful advice - Thank You!
From:
Here is the MSDS:
If you can do the math, you can make the product. I urge you to note the limitations of this product.
There are many ways to achieve your goal. You might consider a restaurant type, quaternary ammonium chloride disinfectant. They have no perfumes, zero (or Very close) detergent, leave virtually no residue, require no rinsing and are nontoxic at in-use dilution--which can be up to 1:512, depending on the product. Note: proper dilution for this grade of product is essential.
Whatever it takes.
Where does killing mold fall into this list? I am extremely sensitive (allergic) to mold and need to clean up a few places in my home where it has formed over the winter. I was wondering what would be best to use to clean it. The windowsills and lower edges of the aluminum windows are the biggest place. These would be over the wooden windowsills.
Thanks Jann
I don't know what's in that spray.
Citrus packers have found household bleach and baking soda to be the most effective disinfectant for washing fruit. I think their mixture amounts to a teaspoon of bleach and a teaspoon of baking soda per quart of water.
I use it in the kitchen. The baking soda helps the bleach work faster, helps it remove greasy films, and makes it milder to the hands. Once mixed, the shelf life is short, maybe less than a day. I keep some bleach in a detergent bottle and some baking soda in a shaker so I can mix some disenfectant in a jiffy. For some uses I add less water.
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bleach but
contains 0.0095
I don't know who wrote that description, but hypochlorites are considered generally effective against viruses and other microorganisms. They take time to work, and a dilute solution will probably work faster. A drawback to a dilute solution is that it won't disinfect a surface with a lot of organic matter. If you mix your own with baking soda, you can make whatever concentration you please.
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You wash toys? I've never met anyone that does that, unless they're a home daycare provider.
I've wiped down my daughter's toys if they get particularly dirty or gunky, but I think washing and sanitizing toys is just too time-consuming and ends up as one of those things that makes it even more difficult for kids to build up their immune systems.
Nan
household bleach but
contains 0.0095
I do not see any flaw in the description. They don't dispute the efficacy of hypochlorites against microbes. The product is a sanitizer: not a disinfectant. At "0.0095 percent sodium hypochlorite," they admit it is not viruscidal. Especially true, in the hands of untrained users.
I'm not sure why you think, "a dilute solution will probably work faster," but I disagree. I do agree that a weak solution is quickly inactivated by organics; but a sufficient organic load will inactivate a Strong sodium hypochlorite solution. Chlorine excels for a very small number of applications, but is by no means considered a good microbicide.
My chemistry is not very good; so, please tell us what adding baking soda does to one's sodium hypochlorite solution. I bet baking soda would really clog a trigger sprayer! :-)
Play with fire! Zildjan drum sticks
household bleach but
contains 0.0095
germs than a
hypochlorites
I disagree.
excels for a
to one's
sprayer! :-)
The last line says, "and it does not kill viruses or other microorganisms." Used correctly, it does kill them. That's why it's useful in swimming pools and drinking water.
Chlorine treatments make oxygen available to react with organic matter including microbes. If there's much organic matter in a pool or drinking water, the oxygen may be depleted. The same is true of trying to disinfect a dirty surface. You could use a stronger hypochlorite solution. A stronger solution lasts longer, but it bleaches more slowly because the pH is higher, making less oxygen available in the solution at any moment.
At the local restaurant, they disinfect (or sanitize) dishes in the rinse water so that there's not much organic matter to react with the bleach. The proper concentration is something like a tablespoon per gallon. Dilution reduces the pH so that enough oxygen is available for the quick killing of microbes. The Board of Health checks. If there's too much bleach,the solution is not considered effective enough.
A public pool may need a stronger solution because people might otherwise bring enough organic matter to deplete the oxygen. An acidic salt is used to bring the pH down to a point where there's enough oxygen in the water to kill germs fairly fast. I wouldn't use it at home because too much of the salt could cause the bleach to release chlorine gas.
Baking soda is a buffer that tends to bring a solution to a pH around 8. That's too high to release chlorine but low enough to make household bleach fairly quick. The buffering makes the mix easy on the skin, and the bleach smell is easier to rinse away.
A dilute solution of baking soda and bleach cleans out bottles better than bleach and detergent. A paste of bleach and baking soda whitens grout better than bleach alone.
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You are mixing too many apples, oranges, and mystery fruits, but I will address this paragraph.
When you use the word "it", what are you referring to? The Clorox spray? Sodium hypochlorite? Or chlorine?
So, depending on what "it" means, and in which sentence, I agree with you--or disagree.
From:
Clorox® Anywhere Hard Surface? spray kills 99.9% of bacteria including E. coli, salmonella, staph and strep."
This seems to contradict what the Arizona Republic published. However, "other microorganisms" could include anything from rickettsia to prions. I enjoy the language of advertising! :-)
I nearly forgot! In another post, you wrote, "Citrus packers have found household bleach and baking soda to be the most effective disinfectant for washing fruit. I think their mixture amounts to a teaspoon of bleach and a teaspoon of baking soda per quart of water."
Your fascination with bleach and baking soda is amusing, but I'll have to do my homework before I decide how scientific it is.
Percussion: a masterful mix of speed, force and finesse.
The line I quoted is from the paragraph you quoted. Did you quote it without knowing what they were talking about? They clearly said they were talking about Clorox spray and that this is dilute sodium hypochlorite.
What is the toxic dose of bleach for a bacteria cell? It would take a certain concentration of salt, for example, to kill the cell, but it takes only chlorate anion. As I recall, a gram molecular weight of bleach can produce 6 x 10^24 chlorate anions.
Paradoxically, with a dilute solution, such as 0.0095%, you won't have to wait so long for an anion to find the germ because there will be more anions in the water than in a 5% solution.
That is sometimes the most economical way to put chlorate anions into drinking water. It's tricky in pools because swimmers can end up in hydrochloric acid.
And, Clorox®
is spray and
language of
quart of water."
my homework
The paper in question is 98-020 "Use of Sodium Bicarbonate in a High Pressure Scale Washer for the Control of Postharvest Mold of Citrus Fruit," dated December 31, 2000. It was prepared for the California Department of Pesticide Regulation by Paul Sorenson, Principal Investigator for Sunkist Growers Inc.
The concentration of sodium hypochlorite was 200 ppm, a little higher than usual. The bicarbonate brought the pH down to 8.3-8.4, which allowed 13% of the chlorate to be available.
Spraying the bleach solution alone didn't reduce decay at all. Spraying with sodium ortho-phenyl phenate, followed by the bleach solution at 100 psi reduced decay by 4.5% Adding 3% sodium bicarbonate to the bleach solution reduced decay about 77% if dipped 35 seconds and 78.7% if sprayed at 100 psi.
This was a worst-case scenario, using oranges 5 days old. Tests with oranges less than 36 hours old showed nearly 100% decay control.
So baking soda can increase the efficacy of bleach from 0% to approximately 100%, and that's at a concentration of 200 ppm, which I think you consider "not a toxic level dose".
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New question - People are carrying bottles of rubbing alcohol w/ them for shopping carts and public toilets, can this be diluted to any degree to quickly disinfect from a spray bottle ?? And most importantly, not be harmful to kids, pets etc. Just curious.
Thank You, Monique
To each his own.
Nan
What Michael said, quaternary ammonium stuff. They're pretty cheap and reliable. Phenolics are also cheap and reliable.
I think nurses use rubbing alcohol because it dissolves skin oil and leaves no residue. If you spray much of it, it's expensive. If you dilute it, it's less effective. There's an important type of bacteria that it doesn't kill.
Germs don't seem to survive on some surfaces. Years ago, scientists took cultures from various kinds of hand holds in the New York Subway. They didn't find dangerous germs.
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I clean everything with alcohol. Go to a Dollar store or buy the Wal-mart brand. They're cheap and just as good as the name brand. I never dilute it. Pour it into a spray bottle. I doubt, since it evaporates, that it is harmful in any way.
-- Piper
Quats, such as the blue Lysol liquid, have two primary weaknesses. They have no residual killing power and they are not tuberculocidal. There are some relative new products that are still called quats, but are tuberculocidal.
Phenolics, such as the brown Lysol liquid, are highly corrosive and toxic to humans. It is tuberculocidal and does have bacteriostatic properties. Of course, that residue is what corrodes surfaces--or skin.
Hospital grade quats or phenolics do have a low in-use cost, because they are so concentrated, but they still cost about $25.00 per gallon. Common dilutions are
1:128 or 1:256. Since I already have plenty of water, I buy the most concentrated products, because it saves on shipping.Experience is something you don't get--until just after you need it.
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