The onslaught of the New Coronavirus has made everyone aware of the importance of health and the demand for disinfection products has increased greatly. For disinfection products, I guess you all think of alcohol, 84 disinfectant, but have you found that these products are often used at home, and it is actually very troublesome to disinfect anywhere and anytime you go out, so disinfection wipes are actually a very good product that is easy to carry and can effectively disinfect.
Different types of disinfectant wipes
1). 75% alcohol disinfectant wipes, with a germ removal rate of 99.9%, are safe and effective and are commonly used as a disinfectant wipe; due to their alcohol volatility, the wipes are relatively easy to dry and therefore require high sealing for storage.
2). Quaternary ammonium salt disinfectant wipes are less toxic and irritating, have no corrosive effect and have less odour, especially for those allergic to alcohol.
3). Iodine-based disinfectants are the oldest disinfectants, generally iodophor. It is less used in disinfectant wipes. It is broad-spectrum and effective; it is safe, does not irritate skin mucous membranes and has no odour.However, it has colour and is easy to contaminate clothing.
4). guanidine disinfectant wipes, is a new generation of disinfectants. It has fast-acting disinfection function and good sterilization effect. Safe and non-irritating to skin mucous membranes.
But the concentration of alcohol commonly used in the market for sterilisation is usually around 75%, so why is this the concentration chosen?
Experimental data proves that the best concentration of alcohol for disinfection is about 75%. 75% or even higher concentration of alcohol wipes are usually used in hospitals, which can kill E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, etc., and are also effective against the new coronavirus. When the alcohol molecules are close to the bacteria they cannot instantly coagulate the proteins around the bacteria and their surface, thus forming no protective film, and can smoothly enter the cells of the bacteria, completely denature the absorbed proteins, destroy the bacteria and achieve the sterilisation effect.
In daily life, it is common for some people to use medical alcohol to scrub wounds for the purpose of sterilisation. However, it is worth noting that either too high or too low alcohol wipes cannot completely achieve the effect of eliminating bacteria. Too high a concentration of alcohol will form a protective film on the surface of the bacteria, preventing it from entering the bacteria’s body and making it difficult to kill the bacteria completely; if the alcohol concentration is too low, it can enter the bacteria, but it cannot solidify the proteins in its body, which also cannot kill the bacteria completely, broken down as follows.
- 95% alcohol is used to wipe down UV lamps. This alcohol is commonly used in hospitals, but is not commonly found in homes.
- 40%-50% alcohol can prevent bed sores. The back, waist and buttocks of patients who are bedridden for a long time can cause bedsores due to long-term pressure. If a little 40%-50% alcohol is poured into the hands during massage and the patient is evenly massaged into the pressurised areas, it can achieve the purpose of promoting local blood circulation and preventing the formation of bedsores.
- Alcohol of 25%-50% can be used to physically reduce fever. Patients with high fever can use it to rub their bodies for the purpose of cooling down. This is because rubbing the skin with alcohol causes the patient’s skin blood vessels to dilate, increasing the skin’s ability to dissipate heat. Its volatility also absorbs and carries away a large amount of heat, bringing relief to the symptoms. However, the concentration of alcohol should not be too high, otherwise it may irritate the skin and absorb a large amount of water from the epidermis. To do this, wet a gauze or small towel with alcohol and wring it until it is semi-dry to wipe the neck, chest, underarms, limbs and the palms of the hands and feet.
Different concentrations of alcohol can play a different role, in the use of wet wipes, 75% of alcohol is more disinfection effect is best.
When selecting disinfectant wipes, people need to consider the following points.
1). Does it contain alcohol
The general public is not clear about the amount of alcohol content, but most can look at the packaging and instructions. Now some alcohol wipes outer packaging although playing 75% alcohol, but will also add a “containing” the word, containing 75% alcohol is not equal to the entire wipe liquid alcohol accounted for 75%. The real 75% alcohol wipes smell a strong alcohol smell after opening.
There are also disinfectant wipes that combine ethanol with other germicides, which greatly improve the germicidal effect and speed of disinfection through their synergistic properties. Compound disinfectants contain a variety of ingredients with a relatively reduced ratio of each single ingredient, and therefore have fewer side effects such as toxicity and irritation to humans. Generally these disinfectant wipes contain less than 75% ethanol, but the germicidal effect is not weak.
2). Water used for disinfection wipes
The water used for disinfecting wipes in general is EDI purified water and RO purified water. RO purified water: is pure water produced by RO reverse osmosis technology; EDI purified water: is pure water produced by EDI technology.
- In terms of water quality standards, the purity of EDI ultrapure water is higher than the purity of RO purified water.
- From the process, EDI ultra-pure water equipment is generally used RO reverse osmosis treated water as the feed water.
3). Types of alcohol
Alcohol disinfection wipes contain alcohol mainly from medical alcohol. Industrial alcohol contains a certain amount of methanol, aldehydes, organic acids and other impurities, which are highly toxic and cannot be used for disinfection of the human body,Severe poisoning can lead to blindness and even death.
4). With or without germicidal agent
Alcohol is a relatively easy to evaporate substances, alcohol evaporates, the wipes will lose the ability to sterilize, so if you want to have a long-term sterilization function, is allowed to add a certain amount of germicidal agent.
5). With or without nourishing ingredients
Alcohol tends to cause dry hands and feet, and wipes with nourishing ingredients can make up for this. However, there are differences in nourishing ingredients, from chemical-based ones to plant extracts, such as shea butter extract and chamomile extract. In comparison, those with plant extracts as nourishing ingredients are not harmful to the body, but if chemical additives are used to achieve moisturising effects, such wipes will have a greater impact on the skin when used for a long time. Therefore, it is best to choose wipes with natural nourishing ingredients or wipes without additives.
So how can you tell if it’s a real 75% alcohol wipe? Here are a few ways to tell.
1.smell, like 75% alcohol wipes such as high alcohol content of wipes, the smell is very heavy, nose, smell will have the feeling of the upper head. When you smell, must be small mouth inhalation Oh!
2.wring a wring, after taking out the wipes, hard wring, if wring can not be something to prove that the alcohol content is too little, not enough wet, wipe not clean; moisture content is too high, without wringing will have water down the feeling of dripping; and if it is 75% alcohol, hard wring will only have the feeling of liquid dripping down.
3.drying a dry, 75% alcohol wipes on the table to dry: to the 5th minute, the smell of alcohol is still thick; to 9 minutes, the alcohol has evaporated almost, the wipes are only slightly damp, to 12 minutes, touch it and touch the dry wipes almost.
4.burn a burn, we all know that alcohol is flammable, especially in the case of high alcohol content, an instant fire will burn a lot, of course, there is a certain danger in this method, according to the first three steps to test the true or false, please do not easily try to experiment with fire oh.
What to look for when choosing disinfectant wipes
1. Pay attention to ingredients and effectiveness
Not all disinfectant wipes can kill the virus, it depends on the specific ingredients used in the disinfectant wipes, generally containing 75% alcohol wipes, iodine wipes, filter type disinfectant wipes in the correct use of the method is able to kill the new crown virus, you must look at the ingredients when choosing wipes is not able to disinfect.
2. Pay attention to the hermeticity
When choosing disinfectant wipes, you should also look at the packaging seal of the product. If the packaging seal is not good or is broken, bacteria will penetrate deep into the wipes, and the ingredients contained in the wipes will also evaporate, and the sterilization effect will be greatly reduced.
3. Pay attention to the feel and smell
Some wipes are dense, some are soft, some have a pungent smell and some are odourless. It is advisable to choose wipes with a soft and thick feel that are not easy to rub or leave behind crumbs, and choose wipes that do not have a fragrance or irritating smell, so these wipes have fewer added ingredients and are less irritating to the respiratory tract.
4. Pay attention to irritation
When wiping the skin with wipes, if they are very irritating, they can affect the skin and, in severe cases, the respiratory system, so choose wipes that are as less irritating as possible.
