To not understand the 60 degree Covid19 wash

[Trolltoes]

Sorry if this is really obvious but I haven’t found an answer yet so hoping the hive mind can help. I understand that soap, washing up liquid, bleach break down the fatty membrane of Covid 19 band that we need to wash hands for 20 secs + so why are experts saying to do a 60 degree laundry wash? Surely the soapy detergent has things in it that will break down the fatty membrane? Am thinking that a 60 degree wash will wreck most of my clothes!

@JustStayHome

That Dettol Laundry Ckeanser only works on CV if you SOAK the clothes for 15 minutes, it's in the back of the bottle. If you just put it in with the wash it's ineffective on CV

I bought a couple of bales of cheap tea towels to use as hand towels as they're easier to soak & to dry. I'm washing in a long hot wash.

Other clothes I'm just washing on a full wash @40, with plenty of detergent. All line dried.

(I am hoping/assuming the reports saying 60 deg are as misinformed as the 'specialists' on the news saying handwashing water needs to be warm/hot' when the ACTUAL specialists say cold is fine, it's the 'washing away' that's important, the temperature is irrelevant) until someone with some decent credentials says otherwise, that's what I'm doing.

Too many of the 'specialists' that the BBC are dragging on to answer questions, have less than no clue what they're on about

....... Even weirder than that. Why are we washing our food packaging when we arrive home from the shops and frantically washing our hands and not touching our mouth when the advice says of you eat the CV your stomach acid will kill it off??? It makes no sense!!!!

In restaurants we have always been instructed to wash our uniforms at 60 degrees to kill bacteria and prevent cross contamination. I don't think the 60 advice is meant to be specific to CV, just that it's good practice for hygiene reasons to wash at that temperature. It's actually written into my contract regarding my uniform.

NotMeNoNo, I did say earlier in the thread that I had heard it on the TV programme Coronavirus how clean is your house [where both a Dr and an expert repeated it] and have seen it reported in a range of newspapers. When I've checked, as well as reputable sites like Which?, it's also on the NHS website so I'm not asking for authentication [interstingly, I haven't actually seen it on social media] but am asking for help understanding the science behind it as nowhere have I seen a reason for why.

Trolltoes - the reason why is because they are just trotting out advice on destruction of pathogens, not on covid-19 specifically. The “experts” telling you this have not been testing out different laundry cycles on covid 19... It is not new advice for NHS staff to wash their work clothes at 60c. If they were not doing this pre-covid 19, I would be disgusted. The advice for everyone else, currently, is to follow the advice on washing labels.

Totally agree the advice is contradictory. If soap breaks down the virus therefore rendering inactive, the temperature doesn't matter. And although the stuff we put in the washing machine is different from the stuff we use on our hands, it's still soap .

I can understand people who have been directly in contact with patients with Covid19 being more cautious. But for the rest of us? Totally excessive. Everything in this house gets washed at 40 or 30 then outside to dry. I think i've done a 60 wash once, to deal with super manky kit after DS had a week at scout camp.

I don't think the virus remains viable for very long on fabric anyway so it is probably mostly irrelevant before it even goes in the machine.

Don’t freak out- I was all whites on 90 and everything else on 60. Always have, nothing has ever been wrecked. I did try 40 a few times, but they smelt weird, and that’s 4 different washing machines. (May have something to do with training infection control for 10 years 🤷‍♀️- habit I can’t get out of!!).

Why are we washing our food packaging when we arrive home from the shops and frantically washing our hands and not touching our mouth when the advice says of you eat the CV your stomach acid will kill it off??? It makes no sense!!!!

Because the virus is transmitted via your mucous membranes (mouth, nose, eyes) to your respiratory system. If mixed with saliva and then stomach acids as you actually eat, apparently it doesn’t get chance to attach itself and proliferate within your upper respiratory tract cells.

When you wash your hands, the soap and water don’t kill the virus. You wash the particles away.

Lovemylot1 - I thought it killed it by breaking its structure apart

I watched that clean house programme , it was well over the top IMO. kn I dont have much trust in journalism websites even the BBC. I dont know the exact reason for 60 degrees apart from its a decent hot wash, but nowhere is recommending ALL clothes washed at 60. NHS and Which mention sports clothes, towels, uniforms etc which you would hot wash anyway, the way i read it anyway.

I think the 60 degrees is for care staff etc. And is the standard advice for nhs uniforms. I’ve switched to home made scrubs for work at GP practice (normally wear office clothes) so that I can wash them hot along with husbands work clothes when we both get home in a separate wash but still washing all my normal clothes as the labels demand.

Tip- If you do wash at 60 read your washing machines guide as many don’t maintain the temp for long enough (found this out when washing cloth nappies) and outs has a particular “hygiene” wash that actually makes the stated temp! May also be time for a comeback of ironing? We used cloth hankies (now switches back to tissues for the duration) and iron them as that’s a great way to kill anything!

When you wash your hands, the soap and water don’t kill the virus. You wash the particles away

No that is not correct. The soap kills the virus. However, washing rather than applying hand sanitiser is more effective because you will indeed also wash off the virus.

"When you wash your hands, the soap and water don’t kill the virus. You wash the particles away."

Wrong. Soap destroys the outer lipid (fat) layer of the virus and deactivates* it, since the virus can't attach itself to human cells and infect them without its outer layer.

• "Deactivates" and not "kills" because viruses are not alive. They are just bits of code (RNA) that copy themselves if they manage to enter a cell.

See here

I'm working with Covid patients and we are told by our NHS Trust to wash our uniform at 60 degrees immediately after each shift.

Good explanation of how soap works here: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/12/science-soap-kills-coronavirus-alcohol-based-disinfectants

I think it’s just for scrubs etc that are likely to have come into contact with it.

I wash normal clothes at whatever temperature they require. Anything like cloths or hand towels, I drop into a bucket of Milton for an hour.

The virus definitely won’t die at anything less than 40 degrees, because the average human body temperature would kill it

It's a good thing that it's the detergent that kills it.

Soap in the detergent will destroy the virus. It's then rinsed away.

The CDC recommended guidelines for cleaning and disinfecting are here.

www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/disinfecting-building-facility.html

The CDC are much better than PHE on this kind of stuff.

Laundry

For clothing, towels, linens and other items

Launder items according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Use the warmest appropriate water setting and dry items completely.
Wear disposable gloves when handling dirty laundry from a person who is sick.
Dirty laundry from a person who is sick can be washed with other people’s items.

Bedding and towels are washed at 60, everything else at 30 or 40. I don't think my clothes would strand being washed at 60!

PHE England

www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance/stay-at-home-guidance-for-households-with-possible-coronavirus-covid-19-infection

Laundry

To minimise the possibility of dispersing virus through the air, do not shake dirty laundry.

Wash items as appropriate in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. All dirty laundry can be washed in the same load.

If you do not have a washing machine, wait a further 72 hours after your 7-day (for individual isolation) or 14-day isolation period (for households) has ended when you can then take the laundry to a public launderette.

Do not share towels, including hand towels and tea towels

I used to sell cloth nappies. We were told by a hospital in this area which did a trial for us that the NHS guidelines for washing bedding etc was 72 degrees C for 8 minutes. Nappies going back on the same baby were fine washed at 40 degrees and line dried. Both my DDs have survived it to adulthood.

I'm still washing everything at 40 degrees and line drying it. I don't have (or need) a tumble drier because I have 2 long lines outside. None of it smells - my dad is currently living with us and after drying his clothes for several years on an indoor airer, he loves the smell of line-dried washing. I do chuck a spoonful of white vinegar into the rinse cycle instead of fabric conditioner and it keeps my towels soft.

Doesn't UV also kill off the bug, so in this weather a 40 wash and hang outside?

Don't think so.

I do towels, nappies and bed linen at 60 all the time.
Clothes at 30 or 40 depending.
90 maintenance wash on machine monthly.

Last month we had a bout of Norovirus in the house so I did bedding and towels at 90 and the clothes we’d worn at 60 just in case. Will do the same if we get Coronavirus.