Are you Washing Your Clothes Wrong? Probably.

[launderess]

A Good Number of Yahoo & Similar Articles Are Written

By idiots. Few if any adhere to journalistic standards of research and so forth.

One, you cannot "STERLIZE" laundry in domestic washing machines. Sanitize and sterilize are not the same. Even laundry from commercial establishments that is required to be "sterile" is done so *after* it has been cleaned.

The number of germs that can cause disease from textiles are few, and even then they are limited to handling or otherwise coming into contact with infected/soiled linen.

E.Coli is one of the more "easy" germs to destroy via temperatures in laundry, but that requires wash baths of >160F held for at least ten minutes. Few if any domestic washing machines sold in the USA will do this, and even those that do are going to be front loaders.

In order to "sterilize" or even effectively clean a washing machine you would need to ensure the gunk/biofilm where germs/bacteria live is removed from between the tubs. That is not something a "washing machine cleaning/cleaner" is going to be able to manage. Soon as that process is over the germs that remain will simply live to fight another day. Indeed with a "cleaner" landscape they will have more room to colonize.

The late great Sudsman of Texas posted several good threads on how to "sanitize" laundry. As a commercial laundryman that processed healthcare linens he ought to have known.

 

[norgeway]

As for me..

Colors in warm, all sheets, towels, hot, all whites hot with bleach..only Clorox, I use Sears ultra detergent in an 83 Kenmore 70 washer, pretreat with shout, as for sterilizing...after clothes are dried in an automatic dryer, they are sterilized enough for me!!

 

[norgeway]

Re sanitize..

All you have to do is use a Frigidaire Filtrator dryer...if a germ can live in that heat and steam...more power to him! LOL

 

[mickeyd]

Went way out on a limb yesterday

And washed my cream colored flannel sheets in cold water in my deck installed washing machine because it's plumbed only for cold. Felt a stirring in the innards whilst doing the deed. Half excitement, half anxiety, committing a laundry sin, and going against the grain of my upbringing and a lifetime of practice.

At bedtime, when I got into the sack, I lay there, bug-eyed waiting for cooties to emerge from the flannel weave. Praise, Jesus, the cooties never came.

So then, I waited for the itching to start. Didn't. Surprisingly, I slept just fine with no macrophagic disruption, and dreamed erotically.

I probably will not do it again; it was more impulsive and daring than anything planned or deliberated.

But I do remember that the first germ studies claimed it was the detergent that kills most bacteria; they eat it and they die.

And I recall how many fatalities there were in hospitals before a French physician whose name I've forgotten, instituted hand washing between procedures. Frightening to think of it today, isn't it, that doctors used not to wash their hands.

Please do not tell anyone in my family that I washed my sheets in cold water, especially Geraldine.

OOPS~ Forgot to add: the sheets and pillow cases were sun-dried for hours, and have long heard that direct sunlight is one of the best disinfectants. So maybe that's where all the cooties and itchies went, and why our ancestors who washed their clothes in cold streams and dried them in sunlight survived.

 

[labboy]

Ignaz Semmelweis

Started handwashing in the obstetric ward....made a huge improvement with infection control

 

[stan]

Michael

Your hilarious!
Maybe the cooties are trapped in the washer. Now outside freezing to death.

 

[launderess]

Ignaz Semmelweis

Noticed that women who were delivered by midwives had less development than those by doctors. He traced the infections of childbed fever to physicians coming straight from other patients and or even dead bodies and delivering infants. His proposed solution was hand washing in a chloride of lime solution. It worked and brought cases of childbed fever and deaths down to one percent.

However then as now the medical profession was controlled by a bunch of pig-headed and stubborn men. Dr. Semmelweis and his germ theories ran directly contrary to established medical procedures and theories of the time. Dr. Semmelweis was prevailed to end his "experiments" and long story short had his medical career ruined. The poor man was committed to an asylum at age 47 where he died fourteen days after being beaten by guards.

It would take years later after other physicians including Dr. Louis Pasteur put forth an scientifically provable theory on germs that Dr. Semmelweis's work and such began to attract attention and be put into practice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis

 

[NYCWriter]

Using towels more than once ...

"People use there bath towels more than once? Do they realize, that Guys, rub there, um.. (and other places) after they get out of the shower."

Um, you're drying off a squeaky CLEAN body.

What's the issue?

 

[arbilab]

Where are most infections acquired? In hospitals, where the most "scientific" germicidology is applied. If anything, this demonstrates that scientific germicidology is WORSE than just throwing everything in a tub of Tide at 120F. That is, those with advanced degrees in sanitation fail most grievously in an environment where infectious agents are most prominent.

Now tell me, when was the last time your laundry--or ANYone's--made you sick? Other than a hospital that is. Get a grip on perspective, people. There are more bacteria in your NOSE than in your undershorts after you wash them, almost no matter how you do so. All this germophobia is nothing more than conjecture, when the BEST that DEGREED people can do in an institutional environment is slide backwards toward contamination.

Honestly, if home laundry sanitation were half the issue some of us make it out, we'd all be dead by now.

 

[washman]

My point as well arbilab

I cannot for the life of me find any study anyplace that proves we're all wearing bacteria laden clothes.

That's why I put no faith in the new fangled machines that purport to sanitize your clothes with steam or scaling hot water. That is nothing more than marketing bunk which adds no useful value to a washer.

What it DOES manage to accomplish is getting the customer to overlook the cheap construction and the paltry 1 year warranty.

 

[washer111]

I've Said it Before:

And I'll say it again:

 

I prefer not to do the "Just chuck it in regime" in my laundry. Why? Because I can't cater for each type of clothing in there. If I wash Undergarments/Socks at 60º, I don't want to wash my light/bright shirts AND dark items at this temperature too. 

Nor do I want any residue from those garments on my Shirts/Pants. 

 

I separate my loads to care for each item. That way, I don't have to wash my shirts and pants in hot water when they don't need it. 

Regarding Sanitisers, I don't bother with them. The detergent concentration should've taken care of most of the nasties in the water (flushing them away). 

 

Now as for washers that can heat water to Steaming or Sanitary or Boiling temperatures, a number of models have been able to do this since the 1950's or 1960s in the United Kingdom. You think those things are poorly built? No. Members from that corner of the globe always comment on their simplistic design, good build quality and fast cycles. Hardly "marketing bunk" in my opinion. And these machines can often get clothes cleaner, as they have a wide profile of temperatures the clothes are washed in - starting cold and moving upwards. 

 

[sudsmaster]

Sanitize vs. Sterilize

Thanks, Laundress, for bringing up this point (again).

"Sanitize" seems to be a fairly flexible definition, but for home laundry a minimum temp of 155F with a good effective detergent seems to be the standard. I imagine a commercial or hospital laundry will have higher standards and ways to check the cleanliness of the final wash result.

"Sterilize" is far more defined, but it is something anyone at sea level could do with a home pressure cooker. 15 lbs of pressure (250F) for at least 30 minutes, with articles either unwrapped or wrapped in cloth or paper that allows live steam to contact every surface, effectively will sterilize ordinary articles. Times will vary on the type of article being sterlized and how it's packaged. It's similar in theory to cannning, where one uses the combined high pressure, high heat (250F or higher) and moisture (live steam) to kill the nasties. With an autoclave, times and temps may vary depending not only on what is being sterilized but also the design and operation of the autoclave (a big controlled pressure cooker, basically).

I worked for some years in a public health school research lab and they had the autoclaving down to a science. Later on I worked in private industry that made ostensibly sterile media and I was shocked at the lack of understanding of the basics of autoclaving on their production line. I quickly spotted the cause of their contamination issues, got them to change their process, and after that, no problems.

Dry heat can also be used to sterilize items, but as I recall the temps are even higher and the times much longer. For some pathogens, even autoclaving for any length of time is ineffective. For example, prions (the presumed cause of mad cow disease) are not inactivated by autoclaving, but can be destroyed by flame. And the recommendation for sterilizing cages used to house raccoons infected with round worm is to use a flame thrower. I guess with the raccoons removed first. The eggs of Procyonis baylisascaris being extremely hard to kill.

http://www.cdc.gov/hicpac/disinfection_sterilization/13_0sterilization.html

 

[launderess]

Sanitize At Least In Medical/Nursing/Heathcare Settings

Is defined as reducing possible pathogens (germs) to levels unlikely to cause disease.

The only surfaces or whatever in hospitals that are sterile are labeled as such and come in protective containers. Everything else including linens are sanitized to the extent possible.

 

[launderess]

And Now You Understand

Why so many things formerly cleansed then sanitized or sterilized in healthcare settings have been replaced by disposables. It is just cost effective this way as opposed to all the labour and energy costs in doing otherwise.

Things like bedpans and urinals are obviously cleaned after each use, but they are assigned to each patient and either thrown away or they take them home upon discharge. However make no mistake no one is *giving away* anything. Hospitals bill for those "bedside" kits.

 

[launderess]

Another Thing To Consider

Is how quickly hot temperatures can be reached in laundering equipment.

Domestic washing machines even those equipped to reach "boil" temps do so very slowly for the most part. This can be the result of several reasons but for the purposes of killing pathogens is not the way go. Slow reaching of even temperatures that in theory will kill germs allows many to adopt defences to thwart what they see coming, an increasingly hostile living environment. Yes, you will reduce their numbers but not totally.

Commercial washers that use say steam for heating can go from ice cold to boiling rather quickly. This fast hitting of temps catches "germs" off their guard this they have no time to form defences.

In general however chemical disinfection is more certain than heat. This is probably one of the reasons American laundry both commercial and domestic long stopped boiling laundry and used chemicals (usually chlorine bleach) instead. In food service to the public most all local health codes mandate use of a registered chemical disinfectant where heat is not used for washing/final rinse of dishware.