The parents of my college roommate didn't have hot water. They lived in a fairly well-off Connecticut town next door to an ESPN anchor, so money wasn't the issue it was just a personal choice. Showers were a love/hate thing for sure and I always wondered about sanitation. Will water that's not so hot it will burn you be hot enough to kill bacteria?
Do you think that sterilizing your skin will improve health?
Everyone has loads of bacteria all over them, the vast majority of which are completely benign. AIUI, there's a little ecology there, with all of them competing to survive.
So if you kill them all by sterilizing your whole surface, you create an opportunity for the bad bacteria to gain the initiative and take over the ecosystem when the benign stuff can't fight back as well. The end result, then, could be that where you'd had just a few of the bad guys, you're now covered with them.
Right. Washing dishes in nice soapy 90 degree water doesn't kill any germs. It just feels good on your hands.
But people gave me a lot of crap about using cold water anyway. So part of my process, just to be safe, was to ensure the clean dishes dried very well, next to a window, in the sunlight.
The main reason why you use warm water instead of cold is because together with the detergent (if you use any) the warmth will help to dissolve the greases that keep food stuck to your plates and utensils. That way you flush the bacteria out. Maybe the soap will kill them but then likely they'll be down the drain anyway.
The only stuff that warm water doesn't work well for are as far as I know dairy products and egg-white, because they solidify when warmed up.
Also, there is not much point in thinking you're killing bacteria and then using a dirty dishrag to dry off the dishes :)
Bacteria are pretty hardy, some of them even survive at temperatures above 300 degrees celsius, but you're not likely to run in to them in the home (unless you live in a sulphuric hot spring).
edit: I hope that's 90 degrees Fahrenheit you are referring to.
Comments
The parents of my college roommate didn't have hot water. They lived in a fairly well-off Connecticut town next door to an ESPN anchor, so money wasn't the issue it was just a personal choice. Showers were a love/hate thing for sure and I always wondered about sanitation. Will water that's not so hot it will burn you be hot enough to kill bacteria?
Water has to be sth like 70 C degree hot to kill most bacteria, and it would be too hot for you at that point.
Hygiene works because bacteria are flushed out, not because water kills them (ok, antibacterial soap may kill some bacteria, but not much).
And you do not have to kill bacteria. Your skin is fine with most of them. (Actually you are better of with bacteria on your skin.)
Do you think that sterilizing your skin will improve health?
Everyone has loads of bacteria all over them, the vast majority of which are completely benign. AIUI, there's a little ecology there, with all of them competing to survive.
So if you kill them all by sterilizing your whole surface, you create an opportunity for the bad bacteria to gain the initiative and take over the ecosystem when the benign stuff can't fight back as well. The end result, then, could be that where you'd had just a few of the bad guys, you're now covered with them.
> Will water that's not so hot it will burn you be hot enough to kill bacteria?
no.
That's why sterilization uses steam and / or boiling.
Right. Washing dishes in nice soapy 90 degree water doesn't kill any germs. It just feels good on your hands.
But people gave me a lot of crap about using cold water anyway. So part of my process, just to be safe, was to ensure the clean dishes dried very well, next to a window, in the sunlight.
The main reason why you use warm water instead of cold is because together with the detergent (if you use any) the warmth will help to dissolve the greases that keep food stuck to your plates and utensils. That way you flush the bacteria out. Maybe the soap will kill them but then likely they'll be down the drain anyway.
The only stuff that warm water doesn't work well for are as far as I know dairy products and egg-white, because they solidify when warmed up.
Also, there is not much point in thinking you're killing bacteria and then using a dirty dishrag to dry off the dishes :)
Bacteria are pretty hardy, some of them even survive at temperatures above 300 degrees celsius, but you're not likely to run in to them in the home (unless you live in a sulphuric hot spring).
edit: I hope that's 90 degrees Fahrenheit you are referring to.