The Dirt on Laundry and How to Reduce Your Risk of Getting Sick

The Dirt on Laundry and How to Reduce Your Risk of Getting Sick Rosemary Brandt Does our laundry carry germs that can make us sick? UArizona researchers review the current science on how to safely tackle the dirty job. Thursday College of Agriculture and Life SciencesiStock-1048940596.jpgHealthCollege of Agriculture and Life Sciences Media contact(s)Rosemary Brandt College of Agriculture and Life Sciencesrjbrandt@email.arizona.edu520-358-9729Clothing, linens, towels, cleaning rags, reusable diapers – laundry has a way of piling up. The often-dreaded chore is one of the ways we help maintain a clean and healthy household, but with the current COVID-19 pandemic and cold and flu season right around the corner, is a standard wash enough?The soiled laundry in our hampers can be contaminated with all sorts of germs, from bodily fluids to food debris, all of which can be a source of pathogenic bacteria, fungi and viruses. Environmental microbiologists and public health researchers at the University of Arizona recently held a workshop with a panel of laundry cleaning and sanitization experts to review the current knowledge and science surrounding laundry best practices.  " We really wanted to approach it analytically, using a quantitative microbial risk management approach, " saidCharles Gerba, an environmental microbiologist from the UArizonaCollege of Agriculture and Life Sciences. " What ' s the process and what ' s really important? There really hasn ' t been a lot of ...
Source: The University of Arizona: Health - Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Source Type: research