Why does everyone wanna use Bleach?

Kennieyk

Kennieyk

Joined
Feb 5, 2003
Messages
959
Its one of the worst things you could put on metal ! Its highly corosive. To make a knife germ free a better choice would be boiling,alcohol,presure cooker! Plus a 100 other ways . Why would anyone tell a new person to use bleach ? JMO!
 
For disinfecting, only a weak bleach solution is required. I think 10% was quoted by one knowledgable poster. At that concentration, a bleach solution is not overly corrosive. And the idea isn't to leave the knife in it overnight or anything. A minute or so should do the trick. Then, the knife can be rinsed with water and dried throughly.

Are there other methods?

Of course. You've listed boiling, alcohol, and a pressure cooker. These all have potential problems of their own.

There are a hundred ways to skin the proverbial cat because there are a hundred different cats out there.
 
I think your avg bleach (clorox etc) is about 5%. I might be wrong about that, but trust me on this...take one part avg bleach and 10-15 parts water for an excellent household disinfecting solution. Use on knives, countertops, cutting boards, toilets, etc., out of a spray bottle. Spray on, wipe off, done. Store out of the light, or mix what you can use up directly.
 
A 10% bleach solution would eat through the deck of an M1-A2 Abrams! A solution made of 1 part HOUSEHOLD bleach to 10 parts water, on the other hand, is not too corrosive if rinsed off fairly promptly, and does effectivly kill almost all pathogens.
 
Well you can use it on your knives ,, but I dont see the point in using even a little bleach on any type of steel !
 
Originally posted by Kennieyk
Well you can use it on your knives ,, but I dont see the point in using even a little bleach on any type of steel !
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Disinfecting it completely!
 
Bleach destroys a wide spectrum of pathogens. It will kill live bacteria and fungi, destroy spores, and destroy non-living things like viruses and prions. The thing that makes bleach work is its powerful oxidizing capacity. It is widely used because it generally works. It is simple to use reliably. Alcohol is not as effective. Boiling may not work unless you do it for a long time. At my altitude it might never destroy some pathogens. Alcohol, boiling, and pressure cookers are safe on your blade, but they can definitely dull the finish of your handle. A quick wash with a bleach solution followed by a thorough rinse will not damage your knife and it will work pretty reliably. Bleach is primarily a problem if not fully removed. I would run a lot of hot water over my knife when I was finished.
 
Originally posted by Jeff Clark
I would run a lot of hot water over my knife when I was finished.
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:confused: why hot water? Wouldn't cold water be just as effective, and maybe less damaging to the blade?
 
Unless you are going to be doing surgery with your knife I don't see the sense in sterilizing a knife. I work in a hospital in an ICU and I get all kinds of stuff on my small Mayo hawk. A little spit and wipe off on my labcoat seems to work pretty well for me. And of course the occasional alcohol wipe. Hydogen peroxcide (H2O2) might be a reasonable alternative. In a 3% solution it should be relatively benign. I rinse my mouth and clean my ears with the stuff so it should be OK on metal. Also a little antibacterial soap and warm water should be good for anyones purpose. Maybe if you soaked your knife in infectous stuff you may need to clean it well but for me only a very small part of the blade comes in contact with soiled material. Bugs don't do well on metal.
 
Yeah I dont understand why people need there knives steril . Unless your a serial killer who goes around stabbing people who may have aids or something . Could you guys explain ?
 
A lot of us use our knives for things such as cutting out splinters, lancing blood blisters, etc. I like to have them clean when I'm doing stuff like that(though I tend just to sterilize before osmething like that, rather than always sterilizing).

And yes, household bleach varies in the 4-6% range depending on brand and batch, so 5% is an almost exact estimate.
 
would it not be better to sterilize the wound after you pop cut or whatever ? I think washing the blade with some good soap would be far more easy . Then sterilize the cut!
 
The folks who are primarily interested in sterilizing knives are police, rescue workers, firemen, paramedics/EMTs, etc. You get to a car accident. The poor soul is cut up all over the place and bleeding all over. The last thing you want to do is crawl into that unstable car with him so that you can undo his seatbelt neatly. You're just gonna cut that belt. You're wearing a couple or three or five layers of gloves yourself these days, but you're gonna get his blood all over your knife. (By the way, the car is totaled anyway. When the wreck goes to the scrap yard, the first thing they do is cut the belts anyway. Wrecking yards do not sell used seatbelts; the liability risk is just way to high. So, they cut 'em to be sure. So, why should the rescue workers risk their lives crawling into an unstable car just to neatly undo a belt that's junk anyway?) You don't know where this guy has been or who he is or what he does with his life. He's just wrapped his car around a telephone pole. Not all folks who wrap their cars around telephone poles are IV drug users, but a good fraction of them are. You don't know if he has AIDS or Hepititis (sp?) or whatever other sort of nasty thing.

And remember, if you're a professional rescue worker, you probably do this a couple times a week. The odds are not on your side.

All of us have, I suspect, at least once accidentally cut ourselves with our own knife. Furthermore, the next time you go to rescue someone, you may accidentally nick them with your knife. So, after it's been covered in some bum's blood, you want to get that knife sterilized in a reliable way.
 
I cut food with a lot of my knives. I don't want poison ivy on my food. I don't want whatever is on raw meat on my vegetables. I don't see why anyone would question why someone else likes tools cleaner than just wiped off.

Hey, bleach is cheap, alcohol's cheap, soap is cheap, water is almost free, and it only takes a few minutes over a week's time to keep your gear reasonably clean, if not constantly sterile.
 
You cant keep a knife blade steril for any period of time ! Germs spores are all over it seconds after you sterilize it. I also doubt you sterilize your knives forks and spoons . If your knife comes in contact with someone elses blood I can see trying to sterilize it.
Other than that soap and water would be fine !
 
Originally posted by Kennieyk
You cant keep a knife blade steril for any period of time ! Germs spores are all over it seconds after you sterilize it. I also doubt you sterilize your knives forks and spoons . If your knife comes in contact with someone elses blood I can see trying to sterilize it.
Other than that soap and water would be fine !
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The purpose of the thread is not about having a "sterile" knife..... get your head out of your behind on that issue.

the purpose of bleach soloution is to clean up your knife after it has been exposed to bloodbourne pathogens.... Hep A,B and C, Aids, HIV and any number of little nasties that someone elses blood may contain.

the point of Nuetralizing all bloodborn pathogens on your knife or any contaminated TOOLS is to stop the spread of the disease.

I don't want to take my EDC knife home and have a 10-12 year old child get ahold of it and get Hep C, Hep C happens to be the most infectious of the bunch right now and is uncurable, yes it can go into remission but you will live with it for the rest of your life.

This is the THIRD Thread I have had to defend my choice to conduct my life in a responsible manner and protect myself and the ones I love from some of the nasties I play with out in the field, when I roll up on a "patient" I don;t know where that person has been..... and neither would YOU if you happen on an MVA or such. Frankly even Family Members I would watch out for.... if any of them have had a blood transfusion in the last 10 years Hep. C is a very real possibility.

Use some common sense, you do have it don't you ??? if you get someone else's blood on your blade then use a weak bleach or germicide soloution, suggested soaking time is 10-20 minutes.

Otherwise why worry..... if you get your own blood on your blade and you have had a recent HIV/Hep test then don't worry about it.

It's your life to live either way..... live it as you see fit, you didn't have to read either of the de-contamination threads and ou don't have to follow tried and true methods of killing Bloodborn Pathogens.

Just don't berate people that take the life of themselves and thier loved ones as a little higher priority then you Obviously take with your's.
 
Just like to add....

Why was SARS such an epedemic in Canada with 39 people dead..... because people have no clue how to properly disinfect thier tools and stop the spread of disease.

out of those 39 dead, only ONE was a healthcare worker..... those patients had perhaps hundreds of people working on them and yet only ONE healthcare worker contracted the disease.

We live and Work in a Field where one drop of blood on a scratch can make us sick.... and perhaps dead, I take my job seriously and I do my job professionaly. Part of that responsibility is clean tools and not cross contaminating the patients, myself, my co-workers and my family.
 
Yeah I dont understand why people need there knives steril . Unless your a serial killer who goes around stabbing people who may have aids or something . Could you guys explain ?
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Someone pass the popcorn please....
Jim
 
Cool, according to Mr. Westicle, SARS is gotten from unclean tools. Doubt it. But someone should tell the researchers and start an ad campaign. By the way, you guys up north figure out why the hospital worker infection rate for SARS was 3X the rate in Hong Kong? Maybe they clean their tools better in Hong Kong.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't need a recent HIV/Hep test to know my own blood on my own knife is not a danger to small children.

Geez Looweez, I thought cabin fever season was over in Canada.

If you clean your knife with hot soapy water, the normal guy won't get any pathogens...maybe not the EMT dudes, but then they're dealing with lots of blood and portions of society which have higher disease rates. Sure Hepatitus lasts longer than Aids outside a live person, but the odds that you'll get it from a dried blood stain inside a folder are pretty small.


Proud to be human.
 
Here's a simple question for you:

If you were going to have surgery, would you like the doctor to use impliments that are sterile, or would it be ok with you if they used stuff that they just sort of wipped off after the last surgery they did, that looks clean anyway?

Each of us has, I'm sure, cut ourselves with our own knife accidentally at one time or another. And, an emergency worker may also accidentally cut someone he's trying to help.



You cant keep a knife blade steril for any period of time ! Germs spores are all over it seconds after you sterilize it.
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True. When you put a simple strip bandage on a small cut, you'll see that the package says, "Guaranteed sterile UNTIL The package is opened." Doctors in surgery know this. The moment you remove a tool from its sterile package, it can become contaminated by germs in the air. Even in a most-modern hospital operating room where great precautions are taken, there are germs in the air. But, HIV is not floating around in the air. Hepatitus isn't either. These are not called, "blood-bourne pathogens" for no reason. So, you are correct when you say that it is impossible to keep a knife completely sterile. But, you can remove some of the worst germs.



Mr. Esav Benyamin also points out the possibility of using a knife is food-preparation. By now, we all know that a knife used to cut, for example, raw chicken, shouldn't be used then to prepare a salad. Many foods can contain germs that will be killed when the food is cooked and thus don't ultimately pose any threat to us. But, some foods are not cooked. It's important to prevent cross-contamination between those categories.
 
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