Dr. Mercola November 20 2008 85,905 views
Making door handles, taps and light switches from copper could help defeat antibiotic-resistant superbugs, according to scientists.
A study has found that copper fittings rapidly killed bugs on hospital wards, succeeding where other infection control measures failed. It is believed that the metal 'suffocates' germs, preventing them from breathing. It may also stop them from feeding, and destroy their DNA.
Lab tests show that the metal kills off the deadly MRSA and C difficile superbugs. It also kills other dangerous germs, including the flu virus and the E coli food poisoning bug.
During the ten-week trial on a medical ward, a set of taps, a lavatory seat and a push plate on an entrance door were replaced with copper versions. The copper items had up to 95 percent fewer bugs on their surface than non-copper versions whenever they were tested.
Germs in your home can show up where you least expect them, even if you diligently try to keep your home clean. Despite good efforts by most to keep their homes germ free, over 65 percent of colds, 50 percent of all cases of diarrhea and 50 percent to 80 percent of food-borne illnesses are caught in the home, and contact with common household items are often thought to be the trigger.
According to a study cited in an ABC News article on November 3rd, the average human hand harbors about 150 different species of bacteria. After taking samples from the palms of 51 college students, the researchers were able to identify 4,742 species of bacteria overall.
Some of these are beneficial; others can cause serious, even life-threatening illness.
Antibiotic-resistant superbugs are on the rise, and hospitals are notorious for being hotbeds for dangerous germs, spread via contact with contaminated surfaces.
Approximately 1.7 million Americans contracted infections during hospital stays in 2007, and a subsequent 100,000 people perished from these diseases, according to the U.S. Center of Disease Control (CDC).
What’s the Germiest Place in Your House?
Another study cited in a recent Washington Post article, found that commonly touched areas in homes where someone had a cold tested positive for cold germs about 40 percent of the time.
Of the areas tested, all salt and pepper shakers were found to be contaminated, as were:
Your kitchen sink area is another notorious hotbed for germs, containing more dirt than a typical bathroom, and over 500,000 bacteria per square inch in the drain.These germs can normally survive on surfaces for two days or longer.
The Awesome Power of Copper
The healing power of copper has actually been recognized for thousands of years. The Egyptians used it more than 4,000 years ago to sterilize wounds and drinking water. The Aztecs used the metal to treat skin conditions.
Today, copper is a common ingredient in medicines such as antiseptic and antifungal creams. And, earlier this year, the United States' Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the registration of a proposed public health claim stating that surfaces composed of certain copper alloys can kill off life-threatening bacteria.
According to Guillermo Figueroa of the nutrition and food technology department of the University of Chile in Santiago, it’s the ions released by the copper that kill bacteria.
“Copper ions separate on contact with bacteria and cause irreversible damage to the bacteria's cells," Figueroa said. "It is a very swift, physical chemical process. They die quickly."
Copper has even been found to be a very effective at exterminating Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MSRA), more commonly known as “the super bug."In tests sponsored by the Copper Development Association Inc. (the Latin-American arm of the International Copper Association), a grouping of 100 million MSRA bacterium atrophied and died in a mere 90 minutes when placed on a copper surface at room temperature.
The same number of MSRA bacteria on steel and aluminum surfaces actually increased over time.
In light of these findings, installing copper faucets, light switches, toilet seats and push plates in germ infested areas such as hospitals and nursing homes could quite literally save thousands of lives each year.
Although it is usually thought to be an expensive metal, copper is not that much more expensive than stainless steel. You can find copper kitchen faucets, for example, for as low as $150-200.
The Safest, Most Effective Ways to Wipe Out Germs If you are looking for one simple way to wipe out germs and reduce your chances of becoming sickened by them, it would be to wash your hands regularly using plain soap and water. It has been shown time and time again that washing your hands with soap and water can kill viruses that cause:
In fact, studies have found that soap and water work better than the waterless, alcohol-based hand wipes and rubs.
That said, avoid becoming obsessive about washing your hands; if you wash them too frequently you can actually eliminate many of the protective oils in your skin, which can cause your skin to crack and bleed.
Other Words of Wisdom
It is important not to make the mistake of believing that copper is so important to killing these infections that you should increase it as a supplement in your body. This would be unwise. Copper is an essential nutrient, but most of us have too much and it would be an error to take large doses of it.
Also it is important to avoid using antibacterial liquids and soaps. While building up antibiotic-resistance and thereby contributing to the creation of superbugs, these products disrupt the balance of bacteria, both good and bad, in your body and in your home, making it much easier for the bad bacteria to flourish.
Furthermore, the active ingredient in most antibacterial products is triclosan, an antibacterial agent that kills bacteria and inhibits bacterial growth. However, triclosan not only kills bacteria, it also has been shown to kill human cells.
Other common disinfectant chemicals are toxic in their own right. For instance Lister’s carbolic acid, now known as phenol, is a common main ingredient in household detergents like Lysol, Pine-Sol and Spic-n-Span. It’s also found in mouthwash. Phenol is toxic, and people who are hypersensitive can experience serious side effects at very low levels.
An all-purpose cleanser that works great for kitchen counters, cutting boards and bathrooms is 3% hydrogen peroxide and vinegar. Just put each liquid into a separate spray bottle, then spray the surface with one, followed by the other.
I don't think I wash my hands more than the average person. I don't use soap when I wash them, either. Just water. You could also say I don't clean my house, carpets, bathroom or sinks nearly often enough. Yet.... I don't get sick. I have only had one or two colds in the past 10 years, and no flu during that time. Perhaps it pays to be not so "clean" ?? ;-)
When I am out at the mall and other public places I do not use the soaps, either! When I use a public bathroom I just rinse my hands under water and dry them well. The soaps used in these places are like detergents and leave my hands dry, rough feeling, and "yucky" so I stopped using these soaps. Once in a blue moon if a place seems particularly dirty I may force myself to use the harsh soaps (IF I have access to some lotion), otherwise, I don't obsess over it. Like you, I have rarely been sick over the past 15 years. Our immune systems get stronger the more we are exposed to germs.
There are so many things one can do if one is exposed to germs and picks up some nasty thing. Pink eye? Clears up in one day with regular use of tea water (unsweetened) dropped in eyes. The flu? Take a ginger bath, ingest raw garlic and cinnamon, and things will not be so bad. A cold? Take a ginger bath (to remove toxins), ingest raw garlic and onions, eat cinnamon and honey combined, drink apple, grape, or cranberry juice to help get body alkalined, and ingest zinc lozenges. Echinacea and goldenseal are great immune boosters, too, and so are elderberries when one has a cold. I rarely get or keep a cold for long.
I absolutely do not obsess over germs! I have had two friends who were/are germ-phobic and have Lysoled their homes beyond belief in order to kill germs and to keep their kids healthy. The ONLY time we use Lysol is when someone is throwing up in our house, then we Lysol the bathroom area (and I am thinking of using vinegar the next time to see how it works). My two friends' kids were always sick! Always. Mine were not. I tried to explain to them that they were making their kids sick by "saving" them from germs, but to no avail as they thought I was crazy even though the proof was in how our kids' immune systems responded. I was told my kids just must have gotten better genes than their kids! No, my kids had better immune responses because I exposed them to LIFE w/o Lysol.
Speaking of pink eye, my grandmother's cure for pink eye was to rub a gold or silver ring on the waterline of the effected eye (whenever you think about it). Was never sure why it worked so well until recent years when it has come out that gold, silver and copper have antibacterial properties.
I also recently switched to silver flatware for the same reason, Grandma always swore that eating off silver was healthful.
I am surrounded by people who buy into the germ theory junk, but I do think I am making an difference by example...who knows?
My 74 yr old Japanese mother-in-law doesn't use dishsoap for cleaning dishes--never has. And yet, I've never seen her sick once. We eat off of the dishes that she cleans with warm water and we don't get sick either. It's quite amazing that the cutting board she uses (that looks like it's screaming full of bacteria) never makes us sick, although she never washes it with soap after cutting raw meat on it.
In almost all Japanese public restrooms, only cold water comes out of the faucet and a lot of the time there isn't soap either. Paper towels are an extreme rarity. Finding a bathroom with both warm water and soap, which so many of us take for granted, is actually quite rare in Japan and people seem to be fine.
LLL
We are all different. I do get two or three colds per year, and I wash my hands regularly. I don't have any carpets in my home, because I have allergies. Yet I never have had the flu (I suspect a natural immunity) and I seem to be immune to tooth decay. No cavities in fifty years, and I usually remember to brush twice per day with an old toothbrush, but I certainly don't floss.
The point is that we all have different natural succeptibilities to things. I am so allergic to everything, that I tend to catch colds easily. I think proper personal health care is knowing what things the individual has to be concerned about.
Pioneers used to toss a silver dollar into their water barrels to prevent contamination of their water supply on the long journey west. It was also the most common metal used in medical devices until the advent of thermoplastics. Plus it's shiny.
Wooh Wooh! Bugs!! Very scary...not.
We have tons of bacteria and other microbes on us and in us all the time. Even the thoroughly disreputable Louis Pasteur finally admitted that it is the host that is what determines whether we get infected or not.
Make sure you eat some hot pepper and some garlic or some other spice.
Try this and 'bugs' will shudder at the sound of your name:
hubpages.com/.../How-I-Cured-Stage-4-Cancer-in-Two-Weeks-For-Less-Than-The-Cost-Of-A-Night-At-The-Movies
You can substitute the less hot jalepenos for the habeneros. The flavored cod liver oil is an excellent anti-viral.
True story:
I used to live across the street from NIH. I had a housemate from China who was doing post doctoral work after getting his medical degree. Every so often he would cook up some sort of pork (!) in a huge pot. He put different spices in it, such as ginger.
Then he's put the food in an UNREFRIGERATED cabinet and leave it there for days! This used to freak me out...I was sure that we'd have all sorts of vermin and he'd get sick.
Not once did a single bug approach it. Nor did he get sick from eating from it for four or five days.
We have way too big a concern about 'bugs' and not enough concern about keeping us, the hosts, healthy and bug impervious.
The best to you.
Kelley Eidem
Together we can cure cancer - one person at a time!
Be careful you do not use so much silver that you turn blue.. ROFL.. Actually I use it in a sinus spray, it has really helped with my chronic winter sinus infections. But I do not use as much as the blue guy did.
I recently have become a minimalist and anti-mega corporation in my cleaning supplies. Besides, most of the national brands are now made in China and I refuse to send one more of my hard earned American dollars to China--well more than I have too, some things you just can't get from anywhere but China.
Anyway, I use white vinegar as an additive in my wash, clothes are cleaner, less residue and no lingering machine oil odors (we own a screw machine shop and the smell carries), I use vinegar, baking soda or steam for most of my cleaning--and I'm happier for the cost savings.
My sister in law has always been appalled that I allow my daughter to get filthy, eat food she drops on the ground and I don't chase her around with anti-bacterial lotion. My niece has been constantly sick and is allergic to everything, my daughter rarely gets sick and has no known allergies.
Just like the when we were told that eggs, butter & coffee were bad, and that fake egss, fake butter and coffee substitutes were better for us, we are being snowed about germs and anti-bacterial crap too.
In all things, I find the closer to nature you can get, the better off you are. Always
TialsWorried,
I too want to become more self sufficient (making my own soaps, etc) and I have made my own laundry detergent, however, I have found that my whites are getting dingy looking. :( Have you any experience with that, and if so, what do you do about it?
TialsWorried: Just like the when we were told that eggs, butter & coffee were bad, and that fake egss, fake butter and coffee substitutes were better for us, we are being snowed about germs and anti-bacterial crap too.
ALAN: This is just another good reason to not watch the evening news and the commercials that support it. Isn't this where most of the misinformation comes from?
Tigator, I use soap nuts to do my laundry with, and add a cup or so of white vinegar to the rinse cycle - it works as a natural laundry brightener/whitener. Just be careful if you've been using a normal soap the first few times you do this as it will cause sud-city to emerge from the machine...
tigator,
I use ~1 cup of 3% hydrogen peroxide in the wash cycle w/ 7th Generation laundry flakes & ~1 cup of baking soda. I start the wash cycle then stop it to let them soak a while. That seems to help because I, too, was having problems with whites looking dingy after I stopped using conventional laundry products.
I think I'll try DizzyIzzy1's suggestion of white vinegar in the rinse cycle, too!
BTW, what is your recipe for laundry soap? I have my grandmother's recipe, but I'm not sure about using it because it has ammonia and lye in it... I'm a bit of a rookie at green/natural living. :)
Craig At Balanced Immune Health:
But is that not the aim of BIG BUSINESS? Create a super bug, then ride to the rescue with a very expensive solution.
I make my own soaps and like them better thaqn anything i can find commercially. Making soap is as easy as baking bread, and in fact, I tell people that if they can make bread, they can make soap. It is a bit time-consuming, about 90 minutes per batch of soap, whether that batch is a 2# one or a 15# batch. I have made soaps from all vegetable oils, from suet, lard, fat from cooking, and even a mixture of the two. I have used calendula flowers, powdered oatmeal (I make this myself), kelp, rosewater, cow milk, goats milk, and even cornmeal (for abrasion). Essential oils, natural colorants, beeswax, lanolin, cocoa butter, shea butter, and jojoba oil have all made their way into my soaps. But I mainly make basic soaps from ordinary oils found around my home.
Homemade laundry soap cannot be beat for its cleaning power and hardness. I make my own laundry soap, then make this into homemade liquid laundry soap for the washer (with borax, washing soda, and water). No more relying on big companies for my laundry needs. I also stopped buying commercial cleaning products quite a few years ago and rely on baking soda (I buy in 50# bags at a local feed mill), white distilled vinegar (cheapest at Wal-Mart), and salt for all of my cleaning needs around the home. Vinegar is great for killing bacteria on kitchen countertops and in the bathroom.
There is something satisfying about making things for yourself~including soaps. The sense of independence from the high-priced, often over scented store-bought products is freeing. And I know exactly what I am using. It is great for those with allergies, too. My sister has a lot of allergies and cannot use soaps with essential oils in them as they make her face burned and red looking, but an all natural soap I make with coconut oil, olive oil, and beeswax fits the bill perfectly and she loves it.
They also make nice gifts.
Hi Lori! I'd also like to know if you would share your soap recipes (to include laundry soap). I made 1 batch of soap 1 time (I thought it was kind of scary, but I'd like to try it again), but I think I had too much oil for the amount of lye and it never got hard. I used it anyway--it was definitely very moisturizing!! It didn't lather up too much, but I thought that was okay too. I really would like to start making my own soaps, lotions, etc. Thanks!
Lynda:)
LoriSmi,
I'm interested in the soap recipes too. Is there a website I can go to?