Article: How washing machines can put your family's health at risk

**low-1** · 10-24-2011, 02:54 PM

Originally Posted by bent

has nothing to do with laundry but, watched discovery channel last night (love Mike Rowe) and his body was an experiment... EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. now I'm deciding if I need to shower 3 x a day as opposed to 1, to shave my eyebrows-to keep the eightlegged microorganism from sucking out my eyebrow oil... LOL, way I see it, someone is trying to stir up panic about germs (go eat a tsp of dirt) to sell something to kill them. close the lid when you flush, keep toothbrushes covered, razors covered, scald you clothes, burn your food... your good to go.

Watched that too, good show.

**Spirit Deer** · 10-24-2011, 11:21 PM

Originally Posted by Telephus44

Count me in the germs are overrated camp. Unless I'm going to start showering with bleach every 5 minutes, there are always going to be some germs on me somehow.

Even then, it's unlikely you'd get rid of all of them. And don't forget, there are germs IN your body too.

If it was that easy to get rid of every single germ, there would be no infections in hospital patients after surgeries.

**Libby** · 10-28-2011, 10:04 PM

Originally Posted by bent

way I see it, someone is trying to stir up panic about germs (go eat a tsp of dirt) to sell something to kill them. close the lid when you flush, keep toothbrushes covered, razors covered, scald you clothes, burn your food... your good to go.

This reminded me of the new trend of 'automatic soap dispensers' - Um..last time I checked, you can wash the soap dispenser. Talk about marketing!

Originally Posted by nuisance26

~I wash poopy cloth diapers in our washer. We have a new efficient washer that doesn't actually use hot water on the hot cycle. My showers are warmer. So I know the hot water is doing nothing to kill germs.
It was frustrating trying to find a reasonably priced washer that used straight hot water. I gave up after a month of shopping.
The dryer or sunshine should be killing bacteria though. I know it won't kill everything but it does a pretty good job: Germs in the Laundry | Dr. Laundry
I don't worry too much about it. The only time my kids have ever had stomach bugs was from being around other kids who were sick.
I would prefer if my washer was rigged to straight hot water though.

~

I agree that most germs are spread person to person and could be prevented with frequent and proper hand washing.

After reading that link - I think I'm going to start adding bleach to the unmentionables load!

---------

Next question - is oxygen bleach as effective as liquid bleach in terms of disenfecting?

**Spirit Deer** · 10-28-2011, 10:14 PM

Originally Posted by Libby

This reminded me of the new trend of 'automatic soap dispensers' - Um..last time I checked, you can wash the soap dispenser. Talk about marketing!

What puzzles me about why anyone should panic over a germ on a soap dispenser is, if you're touching the soap dispenser, it would usually be for the purpose of getting soap to, get ready... WASH YOUR HANDS! So the problem is?

**Anastasis** · 12-11-2011, 04:14 PM

Bacteria is everywhere. The only nod I make towards this article is my scrubs are put in a separate hamper, taken off as soon as I get home (usually involves me standing naked in my apartment, glad I live alone!) - washed on hot, twice. And that's IF they don't have anything obviously gross on them. If they have anything on them, they get left at the hospital/thrown away. (Hospital doesn't provide laundry for us).

Plus I wash my underwear separately on hot.

**frugalfranny** · 12-11-2011, 04:41 PM

No, no heebie jeebies........just reinforced my thinking that other than the 'hot water thing' the one thing that would help if everything QUIT being anti-bacterial!!!!

WE NEED SOME BUGS..........to develop our immunity. I think
that is creating more problems than admitted to in any reporting.

I use powder........and will continue to do so until it totally disappears. And use hot water on everything I can.......plus if I don't like the temp. of my 'warm'....and I remember to check it......I will put some hot in with it. Harder on clothes??? Probably, but I can afford to buy more clothes better than pay a hospital bill for Mersa.

Agree with other poster............WASHING HANDS PROPERLY is probably the most important thing we can do.

**mndtrp** · 12-11-2011, 07:21 PM

Originally Posted by Greebo

No, dryers get up to around 160F - not enough heat in an hour to kill a germ.

Which means the washing machine isn't getting hot enough, either.

**greekislandgirl** · 12-12-2011, 04:23 AM

I do all my wash in cold water with powder detergent. I think what I will take from this article is to do my kitchen towels separately. We have so little laundry that I struggle to find enough things to make a load (I usually just divide into darks, lights, and sheets).

I don't consider e.coli on my regular clothes a problem. It's only a problem if you eat it. I've had e.coli before and it put me in the hospital, I'm not saying it's not serious, but it's literally EVERYWHERE. Killing the ones on your clothes isn't going to get you very far. I got e.coli from take-out, incidentally.

(I've had everything else in that article too - norovirus, MRSA, and dozens of UTIs - but none of it was ever caused by my clothes.)

**lparker** · 12-12-2011, 10:36 AM

If you want to wash with hot water, try hooking the hot water line to the cold water inlet of the washer and wash with "cold".

**Greebo** · 12-12-2011, 10:47 AM

Originally Posted by lparker

If you want to wash with hot water, try hooking the hot water line to the cold water inlet of the washer and wash with "cold".

Uh...

what?

**freebs** · 12-12-2011, 12:39 PM

i think everyone would be amazed at how dirty our clothes still are after washing. My washer quit and i started using tall buckets and plungers. WOW i was amazed at how dirty the water got almost instantly! That shows you that the washers dont clean the clothes as clean as what we think they should be!

**lparker** · 12-12-2011, 01:20 PM

Greebs - you ARE a little fuzzy in the head this morning! There were a couple posters above that mentioned that they couldn't wash with HOT water because of their machines...thus my post. Sorry if it's too far out-of-the-box for you this morning

**Greebo** · 12-12-2011, 02:19 PM

Originally Posted by lparker

Greebs - you ARE a little fuzzy in the head this morning! There were a couple posters above that mentioned that they couldn't wash with HOT water because of their machines...thus my post. Sorry if it's too far out-of-the-box for you this morning

OH I see - yeah I had a rough weekend - far too much overtime.

**leighcat** · 12-15-2011, 08:28 AM

I am more concerned about the shady practices going on with our food in this country than getting sick from my washing machine.
Growing up as a kid in Vermont we ate veggies straight out of a garden grown in manure and dirt and didn't get sick. Of course the cows were fed only grass and not pumped full of antibiotics and hormones. We never even heard of the things that people are dying from now. Also hospitals are much dirtier than any washing machine. We have residents come back from the hospital that are sicker than when they left the nursing home.