I’m always being asked the question: we too clean? My answer is not at all! Whilst no-one can or should achieve a sterile home environment, it is nevertheless important to focus on killing the dangerous bacteria in the kitchen.
There has been much discussion about using hot soapy water and “elbow grease” recently, rather than using disinfectants or anti-bacterial sprays. But whilst hot water over 75 °C would kill bacteria almost instantly, householders would burn their hands with water at that temperature. In fact, even at 60 °C, within 5 seconds you would suffer third degree burns – and at that temperature you would need to apply the heat for over 30 minutes (of course it would cool in 30 minutes so would not work anyway). When using heat to kill bacteria, it’s all about time and temperature. The higher the temperature the quicker the kill.
So one effective way to clean dishcloths is do what my grandma used to do – boil them up in a saucepan with a bit of washing powder which kills the bugs and cleans the cloths.
Now certainly the action of scrubbing and rubbing will dislodge some bacteria, which is why it is thought that hand drying is a good part of the hand washing process, but what if you can’t do much scrubbing, because of infirmity, or what if you don’t have time? Furthermore, some bacteria are so infectious that even one organism could cause illness (for example E. coli transferred from a surface to a sandwich). I would rather not take the risk, thanks!
A quick squirt of an antibacterial spray or using an antibacterial wipe is going to give you instant peace of mind to make sure you have rid surfaces of Campylobacter or E. coli after preparing raw meat, poultry or vegetables.
I am definitely not advocating using bucket loads of bleach – just targeted cleaning in the areas that really matter. Most of us are time pressed, so we don’t want to waste precious home-time doing too much cleaning!
The Murky Days of the 19th Century
Don’t let’s go back to the days of the nineteenth century where children died so young because of infectious diseases and the rest of the population had a reduced life-span. We have the public health movement to thank for improved mortality which was particularly striking in the early part of the last century. Diseases such as cholera and typhoid are a thing of the past in the UK through sanitation measures such as chlorination of water, good sewerage systems and food safety measures. However, new strains of disease such as E. coli O157 and new bacteria such as Campylobacter have replaced them, with thousands of people every year infected, and many hospitalisations and deaths. These diseases are all preventable – so don’t be afraid of a bit of cleaning in the right place at the right time.
The Allergy Theory
People are often saying to me that because we are so clean, there are more people with allergies, but this “hygiene hypothesis” has many flaws. According to the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene “this notion is very much misplaced, and, if acted upon without reference to the risks of infection, would be dangerous for our health.” There are other factors that have been attributed to allergies, including pollution, genetic disposition, lack of physical activity, obesity, socio-economic factors, stress, and even climate change. So please, don’t give me the excuse that we shouldn’t clean because it may be bad for us!
From my personal experience, with all the home hygiene studies I have been carrying out, there is little evidence that homes are clean anyway – from disgusting dishcloths to terrible tea towels and shocking shower trays, I have found no end of potentially dangerous bacteria in homes around the UK and indeed round the world. So, in summary, target the disinfection where it is needed, if nothing else, and don’t forget that hand-washing is still one of the simplest, most important thing you can do for yourself, your family and others in the community.
