By Massimiliano Borgia
The Italians are establishing a new relationship of affection with chlorine and alcohol, two products that refer more to our mothers than to our daily lives. Yet, even in 2020, these are the most recommended compounds to exterminate Covid-19 virions, possibly laid on surfaces, and active for a time ranging from 4 to 8 hours (but some studies say 12).
So, armed with alcohol and bleach, we are learning that the most risky home environment (together with the entrance, where you enter with shoes and where you hang clothes used to go out) is, of course, the kitchen. In the kitchen we open the shopping bags, we put trays, cans, bottles, jars, packages, all objects that activate from the supermarket, and the shopping bags, which they shot with us. In the kitchen we handle the different foods, going from a blanched vegetable to a still raw steak, from the fridge to the worktop, from the sink to the hob.
If washing with hot water in the dishwasher (mandatory in restaurants and canteens) is recommended to sanitize dishes, glasses and pots, the best products are alcohol and chlorine.
All in all, in sanitization processes, viruses are among the most fragile contaminants and are among the first to disappear. Much more resistant to the products are, for example, some bacterial spores.
In the meantime, for a good sanitization the rule that must first be cleaned, that is wash, always applies. It is washed with hot water, because the high temperature activates the detergent molecules better. This acts on small blocks of fat substrate or glucose crusts by easing the surface tension between the dirt molecules and the surface to be cleaned. The detergent therefore has a surfactant action that weakens and dissolves the microenvironments of culture where bacteria take root and multiply and where virus virions are better hidden.
Once the aggregations of lipids, proteins and sugars have been removed, viruses (but also bacteria and spores of fungi) are only partially eliminated. He washed, but he did not "sanitize". Sanitization involves, in fact, the almost total elimination of bacterial, fungal and, indeed, viral loads.
For sanitization, biocidal compounds are needed, that is disinfectant; able to eliminate pathogens in contact.
Another thing are antiseptics, which prevent engraftment on a surface. But for sanitization they need disinfectants. The best are, as mentioned, alcohol and chlorine.
Alcohol is the normal "denatured alcohol", that is, where ethanol or ethyl alcohol at 95% by volume (5% is a residue of water) derived from the distillation of fermented sugars of numerous agricultural products ( cereals, potatoes for example). 95% alcohol (or even 100% obtained through further industrial processes) should be used with 70% dilution: only in this way is it effective on all bacteria because a stronger alcohol would harden the membranes of some bacteria making them resistant.
So alcohol at 70% is also very effective against viruses.
If it is effective for bacteria because it dehydrates their cells by killing them, on viruses, alcohol denature, that is, changes their protein structure, and dissolves the envelope, the protein envelope of lipophilic Coronavirus viruses, making it impossible to take root inside. a human cell.
It is important that you pass the alcohol with a clean cloth or sponge without rinsing: alcohol should be given time to get in touch with the virus virions and to attack them. Not for nothing, it is customary to immerse health utensils and tools in alcohol. But even a good pass is fine: even if the alcohol evaporates, the virions are already dead.
Even better than alcohol is chlorine.
With chlorine everything dies. The problem is that chlorine in gaseous form is absolutely harmful to contact with the eyes and by inhalation (it is a chemical weapon of war), for this reason, chlorine compounds must never be used at temperatures above 40 degrees. Just as they must always be used very, very diluted, otherwise they are powerful corrosives: in fact, bleach has chlorine at 5% of the volume.
The most effective compound is undoubtedly sodium hypochlorite or sodium hypochlorite which we know by the industrial names of bleach, varechin, euclorine, amuchin.
These are broad-spectrum products (wider than alcohol) very effective against the virus, bacteria, fungi but also against resistant bacterial spores. It is no coincidence that chlorine is the most famous biocide, also because Italy has always been a leading country in this production.
As with alcohol, chlorine is effective if it manages to "touch" the virion. For this, it is important to first dissolve the dirt where the virions lurk and then pass the chlorine. Just as it is important to make it fit well into micro-cracks and tight spaces.
Chlorine forms hypochlorous acid on contact which creates an acidic environment and is an oxidizing agent. Oxidant means that it oxidizes the molecule with which it reacts, and breaks the chemical bonds by acquiring lost electrons from the molecule in question. On bacteria it has the ability to combine directly with membrane proteins and with the numerous enzymes involved in microbial metabolism. On the virus it has the ability to break the bonds of its external structure, killing it (if it can be said for a virus) on contact.
Also for sodium hypochlorite it is important that the product is not rinsed and that it is left to act for at least 10 minutes. After a few hours it degrades, therefore it is not able to protect the surfaces from the deposition of new virions: you will have to sanitize again to eliminate the new viruses (and the new bacteria).
As regards disinfection of the skin, it must be clear that a 5% sodium hypochlorite compound such as bleach cannot be used because it is too irritating. Instead, the amuchina is fine, which is 1,1% and because it is gel. The gel structure obtained by adding glycerol (glycerin) allows the solution to stick to the skin without slipping off. In fact, even in the case of skin disinfection, it is important that the sodium hypochlorite remains in contact with the Covid-19 virions for a few minutes. Only in this way do they really kill themselves.
Speaking of hands, "in the time of Coronavirus" it is not allowed to hold long nails. It is not the effect of yet another restrictive decree, but common sense tells us: only with the nails always balanced at the end of the attachment can we avoid that virions, hidden under the nails, are not vegan killed by biocides by the hands. That of long nails, redone, attached, rebuilt is another of the renunciations to which we must bend if we want to reduce the risk of infecting ourselves and our loved ones.
