Does rubbing alcohol kill surface germs?

Use a water dish soap and vinegar mixture in place of surface cleaners in a spray bottle. Works great
 
weich said:
Yes, but some of the concentrations are more effective than others. I believe the 70% is better than the 90% in this regard.
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70% ethanol is the most effective in general. That’s what we use in bio labs for spot killing and sanitation.

Basically no alcohol of any concentration will be effective on an unclean surface though. It will kill the outermost layer(s) and you’ll have plenty of healthy cells underneat them, a biofilm, under a hardened layer of dried Cheeto dust or whatever.
 
My name is said:
Yes but it don't kill herpes
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BJ@LW&WW said:
rubbing alcohol typically IS isopropyl alcohol.

what are these oils you speak of. most oil is practically insoluble in alcohols.

and as someone had mentioned before, the combination of water and ipa is what makes it a strong germicidal solution. at 91%, you have less than optimal amount of water and are consuming a more expensive product for less efficacy.
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Rubbing alcohol contains isopropyl or ethyl alcohol, but is not entirely comprised of it a great deal of the time. A lot of mixtures have wintergreen oil (it's usually dyed green as well), castor oil, other perfume oils, acetone, other dyes, etc. Denatured alcohol likewise is very often ethanol with additives to prevent people from drinking it. Looking at a bottle of 91% isopropyl alcohol the only ingredients are isopropyl alcohol and water. You do not want rubbing alcohol with additives, always look at the ingredients list.

Buying 91% you can just take an empty spray bottle and dilute it with water as needed, it's more cost efficient than buying 50% or 70% by itself when they are sold at the same stores. I dilute it in a spray bottle to clean most things.
 
Plissken said:
Rubbing alcohol contains isopropyl or ethyl alcohol, but is not entirely comprised of it a great deal of the time. A lot of mixtures have wintergreen oil (it's usually dyed green as well), castor oil, other perfume oils, acetone, other dyes, etc. Denatured alcohol likewise is very often ethanol with additives to prevent people from drinking it. Looking at a bottle of 91% isopropyl alcohol the only ingredients are isopropyl alcohol and water. You do not want rubbing alcohol with additives, always look at the ingredients list.

Buying 91% you can just take an empty spray bottle and dilute it with water as needed, it's more cost efficient than buying 50% or 70% by itself when they are sold at the same stores. I dilute it in a spray bottle to clean most things.
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hmm i guess ive never seen rubbing alcohol that contains and dyes, or castol oil. google search of castor oil and rubbing alcohol comes up with nothing.

part of the reason why 'rubbing alcohol' is just ipa the vast majority of the time is because ethanol (or ethyl alcohol as youre calling it) is regulated and more expensive. when i buy 140 proof or 190 proof ethanol, it contains trace methanol to discourage drinking. ipa on the other hand doesnt need it because you'd have to be suicidal and retarded to drink ipa. that shit is beyond foul.
 
nick jacoby said:
I use it to clean my phone, computer keyboard, refrigerator handles, etc.

Does it actually kill germs?
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A mix of hydrogen peroxide, vinegar and baking soda would be better and less harsh on whatever you're cleaning.
 
LuchaBear said:
A mix of hydrogen peroxide, vinegar and baking soda would be better and less harsh on whatever you're cleaning.
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The official way to use 70% ethanol for surface Decon as described in my UK Lab internal H&S guide is to spray the surface and leave it to act for up to 5 mins. This is necessary to disrupt the microbial membranes. If you wipe up immediately after spraying, you are just spreading things around.

This was only one of the decon measures. For viruses we had some serious kill measures, up to formaldehyde fogging of the entire lab. Depending how gross your home is, that may be the better option...
 
UKBBC said:
The official way to use 70% ethanol for surface Decon as described in my UK Lab internal H&S guide is to spray the surface and leave it to act for up to 5 mins. This is necessary to disrupt the microbial membranes. If you wipe up immediately after spraying, you are just spreading things around.

This was only one of the decon measures. For viruses we had some serious kill measures, up to formaldehyde fogging of the entire lab. Depending how gross your home is, that may be the better option...
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I heard the same for Clorox/Lysol wipes, that you need to let the surface dry on it's own or else it won't do anything.
 
I think I saw that one bad thing actually likes alcohol.

Also, I've seen on TV people using these UV light wands, I think. I read you need at least several minutes of UV sunlight to kill some stuff.
 
i dunno dude, germs are really small, and alcohol is a liquid. I dont know how u could rub it hard enough to kill the germs.
 
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