Tag Archives: pneumonia

Is Vinegar a Good Disinfectant for Patient Medical Equipment?

So, I said, why do you think vinegar is a disinfectant as effective as chlorine bleach?  It doesn’t claim to disinfect on any vinegar bottle I’ve seen.

She replied everybody knows vinegar is what we use to clean and disinfect face masks and tubes for C-Pap and Bi-Pap machines.  Chlorine bleach smells too much.

That was a recent, not rare exchange between me and another person who also uses respiratory equipment that needs to be disinfected from time to time.

I use dishwashing soap and a mild solution of bleach and let my Bi-Pap hoses and mask soak for a while – 20 minutes or longer.  I don’t use vinegar as a disinfectant because I don’t like the smell and it doesn’t claim to disinfect.

I wonder why some patients are told to use vinegar to clean and disinfect respiratory equipment since it is not a disinfectant.

***

“…Is Vinegar an Acceptably Safe Alternative for Chlorine Bleach when Disinfecting…

It is not safe to use as a disinfectant for any medical equipment. If you are looking for information on cleaning home healthcare items, you must follow your physician’s advice.

There’s a whole genus of bacteria Pseudomonas out there that really don’t give a hoot about vinegar. Is Pseudomonas an issue? Well, for some people, it certainly is. If you have anyone in your home with Cystic Fibrosis, it can cause pneumonia, in patients on chemotherapy it can cause skin infections, etc. Ever heard of hot tub rash? Pseudomonas is the likely culprit. So there are cases where vinegar really isn’t the smart choice. In hospitals, Pseudomonas can be particularly devastating, it’s the cause of Necrotising Entercolitis in NICU patients and devastating skin infections in burn patients.

Dilute solutions of chlorine bleach applied properly is the only agent I feel comfortable recommending when disinfection truly matters. If you use chlorine bleach properly, there should not be a significant source of fumes.

http://www.home-ec101.com/is-vinegar-an-acceptably-safe-alternative-for-chlorine-bleach-when-disinfecting/

More later…. Sharon O’Hara

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Swine Flu, Airline Fuel and Lungs

http://www.nationaljewish.org/about/mediacenter/pressreleases/2009/swine-flu.aspx

I made the following comments on Christopher Dunagan’s ‘Watching Our Waterways’ and thought it might bear repeating here in light of the Swine flu and the jet dumping fuel over Bainbridge Island – all affecting lungs.

http://pugetsoundblogs.com/waterways/2009/04/30/little-or-no-effect-expected-from-dumping-of-jet-fuel/comment-page-1/#comment-9052
“Most studies of health effects relate to long-term exposure”
“a heavy odor, which some considered overwhelming. ”

Well…the lungs filter and I imagine keep some residue from the toxins.
I do not know for sure, but it seems reasonable that it would, considering what we know about first hand smoking, second-hand smoke and lungs.

“Long-term exposure” might well describe the accumulative affect of inhaling different toxins over the years, not just inhaling one toxin over time.

Over time, the toxin residues build up in the lungs and may cause lung problems.
Asthma? COPD? Lung Cancer? Sarcoidosis (cause unknown) usually makes itself at home in the lungs too.
Over time of inhaling toxins, the lungs might become weakened and susceptible to such things as Pneumonia.
“If you inhale toxic materials, you can injure your lungs and cause chemical pneumonia.bugs and other diseases affecting the lungs….”
http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/bacterial-pneumonia

Take smokers for example (keep in mind only about 20% of smokers get COPD, (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) 4th leading cause of death in the US – While approximately 80% COPDers were smokers.

It might take 20 years for a person to develop symptoms enough to talk to their doctor about shortness of breath and other indicators. By that time, 50% of the lungs may already be destroyed.
Early detection can save lives by the simple and fast Spirometry test. Talk to your doctor, get tested – the quality life you save might be your own.

http://www.nationaljewish.org/programs/tests/pulmonary-physiology/pulmonary-function/spirometry.aspx
National Jewish is the leading Pulmonary Hospital in the US, according to US News and Reports – more importantly, National Jewish in Denver offers FREE Spirometry testing throughout the year.

We take our lungs for granted until they are damaged. So a little inhaling of the:
“” heavy odor, which some considered overwhelming. ”
Might well be the wake-up call or the 3nd to the last nail pounded in your lung coffin.

Remember our lungs filter everything we inhale – Be good to them.

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