SC - Antibacterials

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

hi all from Anne-Marie

Melisande sez:
>A while back I saw a documentary on the telly (yes, sorry, it's probably
>pseudoscience) that said humans couldn't stand the amount of heat
>required to kill off bad bugs, so we are better off using cold water
>since that retards their growth and the temperature of hot water we like
>is what the bugs like too, thus causing them to multiply more
>prolificly(sp?).

actually, you're right that we cant wash our hands with temperatures high
enough to KILL bugs, but most tap temperatures are  more than high enough
to make them unhappy and make them fall off our hands, which is the point.
Its the soap that kills 'em. Manual scrubbing does a good job of removing
'em even without soap, too.

Most bugs are happiest at 36o celcius, ie body temperature (for the record,
that feels just slightly warm to the touch). That';s the temp they grow at,
though they do ok at slightly higher and slightly lower temps. They'll even
grow in the refrigerator (4o celsius) and no one washes their hands in that
cold of water (not on purpose :)). And most hot water is about 100o F or
higher. Proteins start to denature about 104o F, so even if it doesnt kill
them outright, they arent very happy about it.

The big thing about hot water is that it tends to make the bugs waxy outer
coats more liquid, so the soap does a better job. 

I tell people in my food safety classes I teach:
1. soap and water are your friends, use them often. We will often have a
bucket of soapy water in our period camp so folks can wash their hands
frequently. Be sure there's clean towels so you dont pick up more bugs
drying your hands.
2. Scrub to knock off the bugs, etc
3. HOT water is great, especially when combined with bleach and used on
cutting boards, countertops, etc. We use boiling water whenever we can.
4. if you cant have access to soap and water to your satisfaction, use
something like diaperwipes or antibacterial hand gel. It'll taste gross but
it wont kill you, and it does a number of the bugs.
5. Nothing around us is sterile in the real world. Fortunately we all
should have a nice and happy normal flora who's job it is to fight off
foriegn nasty cooties. (yes, that's the official scientific term). Where we
get into trouble is when the balance of normal flora gets out of wack,
either through colonization by bad bugs (like E.Coli in hamburgers) or
through the ingestion of toxins (like in botulism). 

wash your hands and your cookware so that you dont get enough bad bugs to
beat out your normal flora and cook and store your food correctly to avoid
the production of toxins, and you should be fine.

hope this helps some...
- --Anne-Marie, who feels a _serve it forth_ article coming on :)

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