Posted on October 31st, 2008 by Craig Maltby, Editor
The hands of slime
Well, here’s something to make your holiday season: wear rubber gloves before you to
uch the fridge door handle or use the TV remote. According to a new study (sponsored by Lysol, of course), these two surfaces can harbor cold bugs up to two days after someone with a cold touches them. Others near the top of the list are light switches, sink faucets and phones.
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone’s immune system were balanced, and you didn’t have to worry about this stuff? We could also save a lot of money on Lysol.
In yet another interesting development (from last summer) it appears surfaces made of copper and its alloys, brass and bronze, may be very effective at actually killing germs. Hospitals are especially interested in seeing if door push plates, door knobs and other hand-contact surfaces can be replaced with copper ones. If I were the U.S. Mint, I’d make every coin out of copper. Imagine the wonders! In fact, how about hotel bed sheets coated with copper flake. I could handle it until body parts eventually turn green.
November 5th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Hi Craig! Silver is another metal that has anti-microbial properties. My husband works in the security hardware field and there is one manufacturer, Assa Abloy, who has a whole line of antimicrobial door handles/locks that are more resistant to germs that the hospitals are using currently (read more here http://www.assaabloydss.com/e-newsletter/Issue%202/Issue%202%20full/issue2full.html). Silver has long been used for these purposes. If we could only look to the past more at times to pick up on the wisdom that is already there. But I guess it is more convenient to spray some chemicals on things, lol. You have a great site!!
November 5th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Thanks Terri:
The surface-germ story on silver is interesting. Thanks for sharing. Have you or anyone else examined dietary collidal silver? It’s a form of suspended silver particulates that some people ingest as a supplement. They claim many disease fighting, even currative benefits of the product. I’m a bit skeptical because silver is not found in the human diet, it’s not part of any food matrix, it’s not a recognized mineral nutrient, and you can get some pretty nasty side effects (skin irreversibly turning blue) if you ingest too much. Yet, the germ-killing evidence of surface silver is compelling.
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:57 pm
You know Craig I was JUST talking with someone about colloidal silver today. I have heard great things about it (pink eye, ear infections, etc). However, I have a son on the Autism spectrum and detoxification is impaired so we have to watch all metals, even dietary. If it were not for that, I would certainly look more closely at it given the positives I have heard. Just don’t overdo it or you’ll be like the blue guy on the news, lol.
January 5th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Yes. I’ve seen The Blue Man Group perform twice. I will never look at them the same way again.