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

[Libby]

How washing machines can put your family's health at risk: Low temperatures and mixed loads are spreading dangerous bugs | Mail Online

This article does make sense but has me rethinking how I do my laundry. I do use liquid laundry detergent and powdered oxygen bleach. I already separate socks & undies into their own load, towels too and they get washed in 'warm' but the temp on our hot water tank is higher then the average thus our 'warm' is venturing into 'hot'. Everything else gets washed in cold.

Heat supposedly kills germs and the one thing this article didn't mention was the use of dryers. We have a gas dryer and it gets very hot - I wonder if thats effective in killing germs too?

Anyone else get the heebie jeebies after reading this? Are you going to change how you do laundry now? How do you do your laundry? Thoughts?

[imagine]

We was all underwear socks sheets blankets curtains bathmats/bath rugs and towels in the sanitizing wash. The washer heats the water coming into to 160 degrees
We also do extra rinse cycle

I wash every other day at minimum so a santizing wash happens every other day if not nearly daily so I do not run a washer cleaning cycle. Although we live in a high mold area my washer has not ever grown mold

We have always done the ultra hot wash because of our allergies

[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. ~

[frugalwarrior2]

funny this should come up. I recently started spritzing our washer w/ bleach and rinsing between loads.You know just wiping out the drum. I was flabbergasted to see the scum left inside. I started it after washing dog towels (feet wiping) but now every load.

[daylily]

Wouldn't the dryer heat kill the germs?

[ladykemma2]

how about just not worrying about it and let your immune system do its work?

the article is from the UK where they don't have clothes dryers.

[monkeywrangler71]

I think bleaching and boiling away every germ and/or bacterium in the house is putting families at risk.

There's a reason why laundry used to be boiled, and if body lice start making a big comeback, I'm sure it will come back in fashion.

[Spirit Deer]

Isn't the Daily Mail a tabloid? 'Nuff said about that.

I think I'll file this with the thousands of other things I don't need to worry about.

[dcompton]

We are way too germophobic as a culture. I agree. Except in very special circumstances, this is just not worth worrying about.

[Jayne]

I have always washed my kitchen towels, table linens aprons etc in hot water by themselves with a little bleach. Mixing them with other laundry is just plain yucko to me. Undies and socks get hot water, extra rinse and by themselves too. Bath towels and rags get hot also same as do sheets. I've been adding white vinegar to my wash loads as a disinfectent.

[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.

[Greebo]

Wouldn't the dryer heat kill the germs?

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

[HappyMama]

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

Agreed, thank you!

[Spirit Deer]

I saw an Oprah show years ago geared towards worrying people about household stuff. The 'expert' she had on talked about how most kitchen sinks have more bacteria than the average toilet bowl and stuff like that, all accompanied by Oprah's over-the-top gasps of amazement and shocked facial expressions. No mention was made, of course, of beneficial bacteria or harmless bacteria, and what percentage of those made up the bacteria found in the sinks. Of course homes have lots of bacteria around, since they are not sterile 'white rooms' like you would find in a lab. The media love to whip people into a frenzy over stuff like this, because it's good for ratings, not because it's really a health hazard we need to be informed about.

Sometimes people forget to think about what's not being said in reports like these, instead of focusing on only what IS being said. Namely what's not being said in the above article is how many millions of families use laundry that's washed in cold water, and how few, if any, people have actually gotten sick because of it.

I don't use bleach in my laundry, very seldom anyway, and won't start. We are on a septic system and the bacteria I'm most concerned about are the little guys who live in our septic tank and break down waste. Bleach kills them and contributes to the ruination of the septic system, so why would I want to kill off that beneficial bacteria?

[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.