David Cragg tells us he was 'always told to wash hands after touching copper or lead. Is this incorrect?'
The study about to be conducted by the NHS is to put in copper tap-tops (I'm sure there's a plumby word for them....), door handles, loo flush buttony things (ditto), replace the metal parts on stethoscopes and pens etc. with copper, and so on. It has been found that bugs which survive for upto 3 hours on stainless steel may only last 10 minutes on copper. Thus what bugs come OFF of your hands are killed and not transferred. I'm sure they'd be more than happy if you continue to wash your hands after touching these metals, but you'd need to touch a lot of metal and lick your hands after for there to be a toxic buildup I'd have thought. Beeky will know! (This might also sort out the anomaly that as MRSA rates have dropped through the use of alcohol gels, the rates of c. difficile have risen - because it's soap that kills that one. It's too much to hope that people in hospitals will soap AND alcohol gel wash at every turn. Dermatitis, what's that all about?) Brenda Keens Nb Megabugs
