What is the difference between disinfection and sterilisation?
In daily life, we often hear the words cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization, but not many people truly understand them.
Many people’s cleaning and disinfection practices may only be for psychological comfort, rather than true scientific methods.
Today, let’s talk about this topic and see how to properly protect the health of family members.
What is the difference between cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization?
Cleaning involves washing away visible dirt, such as rice grains and oil stains on children’s clothes. But this is just the first step, because cleaning can only remove most bacteria and cannot completely eliminate them.
Disinfection can eliminate all harmful microorganisms except spores, such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc. The commonly used disinfection methods include high-temperature disinfection, chemical disinfection, etc.
Sterilization can kill all microorganisms on items.
Common sterilization methods include high-temperature sterilization, chemical sterilization, etc.
Although sterilization is rarely used in home environments, understanding its concept helps us better understand the importance of cleaning and disinfection.
In daily life, we often encounter some disinfection misconceptions.
For example, some people like to use boiling water to heat dishes and chopsticks, believing that it can disinfect them
. However, in reality, this conventional approach does not achieve the desired disinfection effect.
To achieve disinfection effect, it is necessary to completely immerse the dishes in 100 ℃ water for at least 5 minutes.
But our daily routine of “scalding” is far from meeting this standard.
For example, some people like to wipe their hands with wet wipes or use hand sanitizer.
But there are many types of wet wipes and hand sanitizers on the market, some are just for cleaning, some have disinfection functions, and some may be irritating to the skin.
If suitable products are not selected, not only will disinfection not be achieved, but it may also cause harm to the skin.
What is the correct disinfection method?
There are also different disinfection methods for different items.
·We can put the bowls and chopsticks in a clean pot and boil for 15 minutes for disinfection. Although boiling to 100 ℃ for 5 minutes can kill the majority of pathogens, for safety reasons, we recommend boiling for 15 minutes.
Plastic bowls and chopsticks, due to their poor heat resistance, are not recommended to be disinfected by boiling·
The best way to clean hands is to wash hands with flowing water and soap.
If there are no conditions, you can choose wet wipes with disinfection function.
But for hand sanitizers, frequent use in daily life is not recommended due to their potential skin irritation and flammability·
Disinfection of toys is particularly important for children’s toys, as they often put them in their mouths.
For heat-resistant toys, steam disinfection can be used; For heat-resistant toys, they can be wiped with disinfectant wipes, rinsed with clean water, and then air dried· Underwear disinfection is important for cleaning underwear. As it is close to the skin, it is not recommended to use highly irritating disinfectants. Simply wash and dry in the sun.
In daily life, we should keep it clean and disinfect it if necessary.
However, excessive disinfection may actually disrupt the human body’s ecological balance and reduce resistance.
Therefore, we should choose appropriate cleaning and disinfection methods based on the actual situation. By properly cleaning and disinfecting, we can effectively prevent the occurrence of diseases and protect the health of our families. Let’s take action together and use scientific methods to protect the health of our families!
