When those disinfection wipes/spray say "kills 99.9% of germs"...Why not just spray it again? or would it kill 99.9% of the germs from the previous 99.9%?
2007-07-25 12:18:09 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Infectious Diseases
most disinfectants are only able to destroy viable bacteria and enveloped viruses (HIV is enveloped and as such will be destroyed, in contrary to the first poster's remark).
Some bacteria and most fungi are able to form spores when finding themselves in a hostile environment (disinfectant sprayed area kinda qualifies as hostile environment here), and these spores can resist the disinfectant and once it wears off, recolonize the disinfected area.
Also, some bugs are just generally resistant to most disinfectants, your skin can never be germless, by the way. We have resident flora that populates all skin surfaces and even mucosal surfaces.
Therefore, spraying the disinfectant over and over again is just going to kill (no not 99.99% as they claim) 90% of germs
2007-07-25 18:07:58 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most of the hand gels and other things similar to those work by lysing the cells, causing the bacteria to die. Basically, the products work by having concentrations of an alcohol, such as isopropanol, present with cause the cell to lyse or "explode." If you use it too many times you would dry out your skin and the number of bacteria you kill would suffer from diminishing returns. If you kill 90%, then 10% of the original population is still present, and then you kill another 90% of that population leaving 1% of the starting population and then you have 0.1%, 0.01%, 0.001%, the effect is too small to be worth the effect on your skin (or the cost of the product).
2007-07-26 13:42:27 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think that statement is supposed to mean "our product kills almost all of the germs you might have."
I learned in Statistics class that hardly anything is ever 100% in the real world. If you can judge something to be 96%, that's probably the best you're going to get.
2007-07-25 13:54:19 · answer #3 · answered by majnun99 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
never use that. ever. it contains harsh chemicals that can get in through your skin. it kills off more good germs that bad germs. it fact, it make you almost sick. here are products like that:
germ-x and other "anti bactirial" gels
"disinfectant" spray
"disenfectant" wipes
2007-07-26 04:47:38 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
NOPE!!!..........0.1% of the germs are immune to the disinfectant.. you could spray the whole damn can,, still gonna have 0.1% that may survive...its prob the HIV/AIDS virus that will live.
2007-07-25 12:23:16 · answer #5 · answered by Michael H 3 · 2⤊ 2⤋
because just like that question they are stupid
2007-07-25 12:26:30 · answer #6 · answered by V 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋