Clean or Disinfect? Which Are You Doing First Topanga

Local Chimney Cleaning Topanga — One of the most commonly asked questions about the effects of cleaning is if cleaning chemicals kill germs or whether these products can aniquilize microorganisms to some level. The misconception stems from the amount of misinformation being disseminated through various media.

Even the advertising for some cleaning goods claims that they kill bacteria, germs, or anything. By doing a quick research on the Internet I have found sentences like:

It’s true that “most soap will sufficiently destroy bacteria.” This concept is clearly WRONG!

“Most soap will sufficiently eliminate germs,” is the correct sentence. Bacteria aren’t killed by soap.

Antimicrobial agents, such as pine oil, sodium hypochlorite, quaternary ammonium compounds, or phenols, are found in disinfectants and destroy bacteria and viruses. For effective disinfection, a surface should be clear of heavy soil.

Surfactants and builders are used in disinfectant cleansers to remove grime, as well as antimicrobial chemicals to kill germs. As a result, they are good at both cleaning and destroying pathogens. To ensure disinfection, label directions must be followed.

In order to make disinfectancy claims, disinfectant products must be tested for efficacy and registered with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Disinfection: treatment to destroy harmful micro-organisms. Disinfectant: An agent, such as heat, radiation, or a chemical, that destroys, neutralizes, or inhibits the growth of disease-carrying micro-organisms. Disinfection reduces the number of harmful bacteria to safe levels.

Cleaning: the act of making something clean. Cleaning means the removal of soil, food residue, dirt, greases and other unwanted materials. In order to clean properly, energy has to be applied in the form of heat energy (hot water or steam), chemical energy (detergents) or physical energy (manual labor). Usually a combination of two or more forms of energy is used.

Disinfectants do not have cleaning properties. It is necessary to clean items or surfaces before using disinfectants, mainly because disinfectants are inhibited and neutralized in the presence of organic substances. Even more, many people go wrong when cleaning as they do not carry out disinfection properly or they re-contaminate disinfected surfaces, for example by using dirty cloths to rinse.

Antibacterial cleaning products abound, from soaps and lotions to kitchen and bathroom cleaners. A recent survey has shown that more than 75% of all liquid hand soaps and nearly 30% of bar soaps for sale nationally contain antibacterial agents. This may seem like good news, but recent research has suggested that some antibacterial agents contained in soaps may facilitate the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Not all products are equal. Some products contain an actual antibiotic, while other products such as household cleaners contain chemicals, most often bleach or quaternary ammonium compounds that kill bacteria but don’t necessarily select for multi-resistant germs.

When you read the product label to find out what the active ingredient is, you’ll get a sense of the directions as well as the safety precautions. If “active components” are the things that make a product do its function, like killing bacteria or weeds or disinfecting surfaces, then have you ever pondered what “inert” and “other ingredients” are? They aren’t just water, and they aren’t content to sit about doing nothing at all. Sediment dispersants, which dissolve other components; emulsifying agents, which keep other ingredients suspended in a liquid so they apply evenly; scents, which make them smell more appealing; and surfactants and detergents, which help the product stay where you put it and work better when it is applied.

Those “other ingredients” can be part of the reason that a product carries a signal word to encourage you to use it with care, and some of the first aid or precautionary language may be there to help prevent those ingredients from contributing to risk of injury or damage.