Talk:Disinfectant

Killing viruses
The definition of a disinfectant states that it kills viruses. Viruses are not living things, however; they only have some, but not all, of the properties of living things.
 * There's actually [|some debate] about that. — ceejayoz talk 13:49, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
 * The word used in drinking water regulations is "inactivate" rather than "kill." Alicia Diehl (talk) 19:45, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Salt
Salt is the most effective disinfectant for wounds. Pack a wound with it sometime and see how fast it heals. 24.54.208.177 17:19, 5 September 2005 (UTC)

ha.--Yugyug (talk) 13:26, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Sanitizers
The article states that '. . .sanitizers are high level disinfectants. . .' which can be a misleading statement.

"High Level Disinfectant" is a specific definition used by the FDA to identify "a germicide that is intended for use as the terminal step in processing critical and semicritical medical devices prior to patient use. Critical devices make contact with normally sterile tissue or body spaces during use. Semicritical devices make contact during use with mucous membranes or nonintact skin (21 CFR 880.6885)." FDA website.

Whereas disinfectants typically effect a 6-log [or more] reduction of vegetative organisms to pass the AOAC Use-Dilution Test [99.9999% kill], food contact sanitizers effect a 5-log [99.999%] reduction of vegetative organisms.

Many high-level disinfectants kill endospores, although possibly not to the level of a true chemical sterilant.

In general, for environmental surfaces there are three kinds of germicides: sanitizers [lowest level of kill], disinfectants [higher level of kill] and sterilants [highest level of kill]. All three depend upon mode of use, contact time, temperature and application methods.

Jim Smith

209.145.162.138 21:34, 9 March 2007 (UTC)


 * A discussion of high-level, intermediate-level, and low-level disinfectants could improve the quality of this entry. Rbulling 21:03, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Recharacterization of Thymol as a phenolic disinfectant
Thymol is a phenolic disinfectant. Its chemical name is 5-methyl-2-(1-methylethyl)phenol, and scholarly articles refer to it as a phenolic disinfectant. Therefore, I am moving the Thymol entry under the Phenolic heading.

I wonder whether the statement about Benefect violates Neutral Point of View guidelines by promoting one commercial product.

Rbulling 18:57, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Removal of Septustin M reference
The text describing is essentially identical to the text on Septustin M, tagged for speedy deletion (see Talk:Septustin M ), so I am removing the reference in the Disinfectant article. The text is both an advertisement for a product and badly translated.

Rbulling 20:24, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

== Treatment of

Pls disable the autodirect from the topic of sanitizer....
unless the definitions of the both are specified in the article

Please have a look at the defs at

http://www.midsussex.gov.uk/page.cfm?pageID=1783 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.62.138.33 (talk) 00:01, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Chlorine in Public Pools
Not a major deal, but I thought I'd point out that the section about sodium hypochlorite as a disinfectant in pools isn't entirely true. When a pool is chlorinated, it can be chorinated by elemental chlorine gas, di-chlor, tri-chlor, lithium hypochlorite, and calcium hypochlorite as well as sodium hypochlorite. Sodium hypochlorite is just the most commonly used chlorinating agent because it's cheap and relatively easy to use. If somebody feels like changing this, feel free, but I don't have a source for this handy at the moment. I just remembered it from my pool operator class (I'm a lifeguard).

Peteweez (talk) 05:57, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

It is Bleach/Chlorine, rather than HP that kills cells. HP is the safest Bleach substitute out there and the only one I don't get a bad reaction from.

BLEACH http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WSN-4TX7KY2-J&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=eee2257265ed702e941a9daf731ae0b2

BLEACH ARTICLE http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6829b ```` —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.77.75.185 (talk) 19:02, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Sunlight and ultraviolet light.
They are not equivalent. The word sunlight should be removed entirely, or the sentence could be changed to: "The disinfecting properties of ultraviolet light (a component of sunlight) are powerful." Joezuyus (talk) 14:52, 24 February 2009 (UTC)joezuyus

What is the most common disenfectant used in hospitals —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.109.130.165 (talk) 20:33, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

See the infos from Google scholar
--222.67.202.167 (talk) 08:07, 11 June 2010 (UTC)
 * http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?as_q=disinfectant+sunlight&num=10&btnG=Search+Scholar&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_occt=title&as_sauthors=&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&as_sdt=1.&as_sdtp=on&as_sdts=5&hl=en


 * http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&q=allintitle%3A+disinfectant+ultraviolet+light&btnG=Search&as_sdt=2000&as_ylo=&as_vis=0

--222.67.202.167 (talk) 08:08, 11 June 2010 (UTC)
 * http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&q=allintitle%3A+disinfectant+UV&btnG=Search&as_sdt=2000&as_ylo=&as_vis=0


 * http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&q=allintitle%3A+disinfectant+water&btnG=Search&as_sdt=2000&as_ylo=&as_vis=0

--222.67.202.167 (talk) 08:11, 11 June 2010 (UTC)
 * http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&q=allintitle%3A+disinfectant+holy+water&btnG=Search&as_sdt=2000&as_ylo=&as_vis=0

--222.67.202.167 (talk) 08:17, 11 June 2010 (UTC)
 * http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&q=disinfectant+%22holy+water%22&btnG=Search&as_sdt=2000&as_ylo=&as_vis=0

Controversies
--222.67.202.167 (talk) 08:20, 11 June 2010 (UTC)
 * http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&newwindow=1&q=disinfectant%20NEAR%20%22holy%20water%22&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=ws

Removal of picture of soldiers being "disinfected"
I removed the picture of the soldiers standing around, naked, allegedly waiting to be disinfected. While I understand that Wikipedia is not censored (WP:CENSORED), that doesn't mean that we should include any picture of naked people "just because." Nothing in that picture should a disinfectant, there was no clear evidence that the picture was, for certain, linked to disinfectants, and even if we could verify that it did, having the picture doesn't add anything to the reader's understanding of disinfectants. That picture may be appropriate on a page about the history of military health treatment or sanitation, but not on the page explaining what a disinfectant is. Qwyrxian (talk) 02:33, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

Removed Accelerated Hydrogen Peroxide: it was blurb for ahptechnology.com's product.
I removed this section on "Accelerated Hydrogen Peroxide". The section is a general overview of different disinfectants and AHP is a variant of peroxide. Plus, the section was extremely public-relations heavy and close to the company's website info: viz, "globally patented", "synergistic blend", "benefits and efficacy of AHP have been validated by third party blah blah"--Petzl (talk) 03:17, 13 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Accelerated Hydrogen Peroxide, also known as AHP, is a globally patented technology for cleaning, disinfection and sterilization. AHP is a synergistic blend of commonly used safe ingredients, that when combined with low levels of hydrogen peroxide, dramatically increase its germicidal potency and cleaning performance.  The inert ingredients, which include surfactants, wetting agents and chelating agents, are listed on the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) and Health Canada Inerts lists in addition to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS) List.  The benefits and efficacy of AHP have been validated by third party clinical studies conducted by scientific organizations and third party researchers that are recognized by government regulatory agencies in Canada, the U.S and Europe.  The evidence available suggests that products based on Accelerated Hydrogen Peroxide, apart from being good germicides, are safer for humans and benign to the environment.


 * I can't agree more on the style, but the correct course of action is not, as one would "obviously" react, to delete it. Instead, it has to be replaced. --vuo (talk) 21:47, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

Alcohols - Inaccurate Information
I am going to give the benefit of the doubt why this misinformation has been presented as fact, without references, and contrary to decades of evidence to the contrary. I have asked for citations an am preparing updated information with citations. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shabooshabooshaboo (talk • contribs) 19:35, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Steam or heat as disinfectant
I think something should be said about using steam or heat as a form of disinfectant, such as steam cleaning for carpets or upholstery, or just plain cooking food to a proper temperature. --71.82.64.203 (talk) 14:14, 20 March 2016 (UTC)

In addition, not all chemical forms of disinfectant are effective against all pathogens. Viruses and Bacteria are separate classes, for example. To call them "germs" is particularly misleading. Antibacterial agents are not always effective in stopping the spread of viruses. --71.82.64.203 (talk) 14:14, 20 March 2016 (UTC)

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Why were the halogen compounds removed from oxidizing agents to "inorganics"?
"Active" halogen derivatives (O- and N-chlorinated derivatives, and iodofors), such as hypochlorites, chloramines and polyiodides are oxidizing agents (hence their common iodometric titration analysis) and a good few of them are organic derivatives (such as chloramine-T, troclosene sodium or iodinated povidone). Why were they renamed/moved to "inorganics"? That is a quite nonsense category on its own, because it does not adress the mechanism of action (i.e. oxidizing action on biomolecules), instead describing some imaginary quality as "inorganic". The category "oxidants" comprises the peroxides, ozone, metal oxo salts as well as "active halogen" derivatives (hypochlorites, chloramines ans iodofors, as opposed to aliphatic and aromatic halogen derivatives, such as monochloroacetate, chlorocresol or chlorhexidine). Any thoughts on why the hypochlorites, chloramines and iodofors were excised out of the oxidant category? Cheers,--91.89.195.4 (talk) 00:38, 17 September 2019 (UTC)