Coronavirus: Wash your hand with soap and water – gels, wipes and sanitisers are over-rated
Did you wash your hands with soap and water or did you buy some mix of chemicals and smear it all over them, a gel, a wipe or a hand sanitiser, perhaps? These products are ok if you can’t reach soap and water. But if you can, use them. Here chemistry professor Palli Thordarson explains why washing with soap is best at killing the virus:
The soap takes care of the virus much like it takes care of the oil in the water. “It’s almost like a crowbar; it starts to pull all the things apart,” Thordarson says.
One side of the soap molecule (the one that’s attracted to fat and repelled by water) buries its way into the virus’s fat and protein shell. Fortunately, the chemical bonds holding the virus together aren’t very strong, so this intrusion is enough to break the virus’s coat. “You pull the virus apart, you make it soluble in water, and it disintegrates,” he says.
Then the harmless shards of virus get flushed down the drain. (And even if it the soap doesn’t destroy every virus, you’ll still rid them from your hands with soap and water, as well as any grease they may be clinging to.)
Posted: 13th, March 2020 | In: The Consumer Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
