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From: ILPI Support <info**At_Symbol_Here**ILPI.COM>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Disinfecting money Was: [DCHAS-L] Recommend: Video explaining COVID-19
Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2020 11:37:27 -0400
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: FCECBDDD-67B5-489D-97DC-9718BA614599**At_Symbol_Here**ilpi.com
In-Reply-To <4a180a5409fa47cd91bcf02ea8a98afb**At_Symbol_Here**usw.org>
On a slightly tangential if not cheeky note (I am known for that, I guess), there's nothing like going out to the store, taking all your precautions of a mask, wiping your groceries down when you get home, ditching your clothes before entering the house, taking a shower etc. but forgetting about the money that you used. Obviously, a credit card is preferable here assuming you sanitize properly before/after using the machine or, ideally, something like the Sam's Club app which lets you scan and check out with your phone.
Anyway, if you do use money, I'd first suggest telling the cashier to keep the change. But assuming you do get change, I'd err on the side of caution and throw that change into a paper bag and leave it somewhere to die for a week rather than sticking it back in your wallet or pocket, cross contaminating along the way. If you need that money right away, coins are easy (dilute bleach), but what about paper money?
The internet has a couple of suggestions, including one for ironing the bills without steam. In the US, our bills are made from a 25% linen 75% cotton mix along with some polymeric security threads. I didn't see any explicit procedure so I just went ahead and tried my own when I got home from the bank the other day. 220 =B0F in the oven for half an hour. I obviously did not culture and test this, but it has to do the trick. Hot enough to break down any sebum and do in the virus, but not hot enough to noticeably change the bills beyond a very marked crispiness. The house had a pleasant aroma of money during the process, which is something that Glade should consider for one of their scents for the bling crowd. Actually, it's really just the same smell as ironing clothes.
The only real problem with this technique is that if you leave the bills in there after heating, someone else may come along and preheat the oven to 450 without looking inside-hmmmm could be bad. Proper signage is recommended.
An anecdotal, potentially apocryphal, story on the Internet suggested that someone tried microwaving their money which resulted in a fire. By the way, if your are bored, which is likely if you've read this far, search on Youtube for "microwave CD-ROM".
Finally, of course, the notes could also be washed with detergent and then dried. Of course, that would be money laundering; please check your state and federal laws before using. However, for countries which have the sense to use plastic for their currency, a good washing would be very easy with only air or towel drying required.
Stay safe and remember to laugh!
Rob Toreki
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Monona is right (as usual). The virus can live longer than one day on a hard surface. But probably not 17. That number is based on a study of surfaces in staterooms on the Diamond Princess that had been inhabited by confirmed positive cases. They were sampled 17 days later, but before any disinfection. What the researchers found was viral RNA, not live virus. That was no surprise. You'd expect viral fragments to persist long after the virus is broken up. CDC did a poor job of reporting this, so journalists got the impression that a fomite could be infectious for several weeks. The consensus seems to be that the maximum is 3 days on a hard surface, less on a porous, absorbent one. But those numbers don't matter all that much. Surfaces where positive cases have been or in high-traffic areas ought to be disinfected a lot more often than every couple of days, and at the moment people ought to be washing up after touching anything outside their own house.
I have one other small quibble. The video talks about droplet and fomite transmission, but not aerosol. Even the CDC now admits that possibility (although WHO isn't there yet). Droplets fall out fast. Aerosols are not as infectious, but they linger.
Nevertheless, it's a terrific teaching tool. The best I've seen.
Mike Wright
Michael J. Wright
Director of Health, Safety and Environment
United Steelworkers
412-562-2580 office
412-370-0105 cell
"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world."
Jack Layton
Peter, Brilliant, beautiful and perfect for explaining to people. But I have to tell you there is one error in it.
Peter, The statement that the bug lives for 24 hours on surfaces, is incorrect. There are now 4 studies of COVID-19 on surfaces, and the people who did the studies, except for one, erred in not recording the humidity and temperature over the time of the tests. So lengths of time that live virus was found on surfaces appear to be inconsistent ranging from hours to 17 days. But these results are not inconsistent when you factor in what is known about viruses. For example, the 17 day and other long survival times were found on hard surfaces on a cruise ship study where the humidity is very high. This is easy to explain when you look at the three major factors that influence survival time:
a) humidity (higher humidities --> longer survival)
b) temperature (too low inactivates but may not kill; mid-range with an optimum temp some where; too hot kills)
c) the nature of the surface. (porous = shorter life; hard surface = longer life; toxic surface , e.g., copper, = shorter)
So the NIOSH study for reusing N95s by putting them in paper bags for 5 days showed the virus dead in 2-3 days. Paper bags are necessary to dry out the mask and keep humidity from being trapped in the bag.
The 24 hour number in the video unfortunately made it more difficult to convince our people who are subletting to HCWs that it would be best to disinfect hard contact surfaces after occupancy by virus positive/exposed tenants.
Any chance this one wee boo could be repaired and a perfect video release?
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