SOAP—THE KILLER

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 76, 11 March 1933, Page 10

SOAP—THE KILLER

DEADLY TO ALL CERMS. SOME LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS. It is common knowledge that soap and water help to wash germs away. But what is not generally known is that even dilute solutions of soap and water quickly kill most germs. Soap compares very favourably with many antiseptics which cost much, smell still more, and are advertised as the crowning achievements of modern science. During the Great War, infected eating utensils were suspected of promoting epidemics of pneumonia, bronchitis, and other diseases of the respiratory system. How to sterilise such utensils ? Experiments showed that ordinary soap solutions (about i per cent.) for washing dishes kill the germs responsible for influenza and pneumonia.

Experiments with chemically pure soaps and with different commercial soaps show that it does not matter what particular brand of soap is used ; they are all powerful germicides. It is not, therefore, necessary to buy a special, costly brand of soap in order to secure a good antiseptic. The concentration of soap in ordinary thick lather used in washing the hands is about 1 in 12. Only one-tenth of this concentration is strong enough to kill germs. The germs that quickly die in soap and water include those responsible for diphtheria, pneumonia, influenza and meningitis. Typhoid bacilli are much more resistant. Time, as every Red Cross worker knows, is often a vital factor in fighting disease. And the housewife who bestirs herself with soap, scrubbing brush and pail of water instead of waiting with folded arms for the official disinfector will have killed a goodly proportion of dangerous germs before he arrives.