{"id":4197,"date":"2020-03-27T20:00:39","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T20:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ecosforrosewood.temp513.kinsta.cloud\/?p=4197"},"modified":"2024-08-05T15:47:57","modified_gmt":"2024-08-05T15:47:57","slug":"askthegreenscientist-the-science-of-handwashing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecos.com\/live-cleaner\/askthegreenscientist-the-science-of-handwashing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Science of Handwashing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWash your hands.\u201d This reminder has become as common these days as \u201cGood morning\u201d or \u201cHow\u2019s the weather?\u201d. But beyond the <\/span>CDC\u2019s guidelines<\/span><\/a> for washing our hands, we\u2019re still left with questions: How exactly does washing my hands prevent the spread of disease? Do I need antibacterial soap? How often do I need to wash my hands? Will this really protect me?<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start first with why washing your hands is the best protection against the new coronavirus (and lots of other pathogens).<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

On average, we <\/span>touch our face<\/span><\/a> hundreds of times a day, most of the time without even noticing it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019ve noticed recently that it\u2019s almost a reflex, like when I\u2019m thinking hard about something, a la Rodin\u2019s famous statue \u201c<\/span>The Thinker<\/span><\/a>.\u201d We\u2019ve all seen the nation\u2019s leaders and top doctors broadcast updates every day this week and, despite their own warnings to \u201cstop touching your face,\u201d many <\/span>can\u2019t seem to break the habit<\/span><\/a> either.<\/span><\/p>\n

Touching your face is a problem because most of the time this involves touching the mucous membranes of our nose, mouth or eyes, which are more vulnerable to pathogens. Not touching your facial mucous membranes, an area known as the \u201cT-zone,\u201d and washing your hands are two of the <\/span>most important steps<\/span> you can take to help prevent infection.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new coronavirus causing the current pandemic is classified as an \u201c<\/span>enveloped<\/span><\/a>\u201d virus; this means there\u2019s an outer lipid (fatty) layer around the outside of the cell that makes it particularly easy to deactivate. Notice that the term isn\u2019t \u201ckill,\u201d as viruses aren\u2019t actually alive. They are \u201c<\/span>metabolically inert<\/span><\/a>,\u201d meaning they can\u2019t replicate without a host; they must use the cells of a host (such as a human) to replicate.<\/span><\/p>\n

The good news is that <\/span>hand soap<\/span><\/a> is <\/span>very effective<\/span><\/a> at disrupting enveloped viruses like coronavirus. The coronavirus has a membrane of oily lipid molecules, which is studded with proteins that help the virus infect cells. Soap molecules have a head that bonds to water and a tail that avoids it. Soap destroys the virus when the water-shunning tails of the soap molecules wedge themselves into the lipid membrane and pry it apart, deactivating the virus. Soap then traps dirt and the destroyed virus, which wash away in water.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to remember that antibacterial soap isn\u2019t any more effective than regular soap. Remember how your doctor didn\u2019t want to prescribe you antibiotics last time you had a cold? That\u2019s because the common cold is caused by a virus \u2013 rhinovirus to be specific \u2013 and antibiotics are medicines that are only effective on bacteria. The same is true for antibacterial hand soaps; they are <\/span>no more effective<\/span><\/a> than regular soap at deactivating viruses because their added antibacterial chemicals are only effective on bacteria.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Now are you convinced you should wash your hands?<\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A note about how often to wash: I\u2019ve been using the approach of every time I change activities or enter or leave a room. Open the fridge? Wash your hands. Restroom (of course, wash your hands!). Checked the mail? Wash your hands. Left the house for any reason? You know the drill. Right now, we need to be vigilant and change our behavior while we navigate these difficult new times.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not many battles in this pandemic are going to be as easy and straightforward, but in the case of washing your hands, it\u2019s something small but powerful we all can do to help protect ourselves and our loved ones.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Go forth and be soapy.<\/span><\/p>\n

-Jenna Arkin, ECOS Green Scientist & VP of Innovation<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWash your hands.\u201d This reminder has become as common these days as \u201cGood morning\u201d or \u201cHow\u2019s the weather?\u201d. But beyond the CDC\u2019s guidelines for washing our hands, we\u2019re still left with questions: How exactly does washing my hands prevent the spread of disease? Do I need antibacterial soap? How often do I need to wash my hands? Will this really protect me?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":12007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[524],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4197"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24709,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4197\/revisions\/24709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}