CAUT Folks, I suppose everyone knows someone who toils in some corner of the medical services industry. I am closely related to 4 physicians (my brother Darryl and my other brother Darryl ... : >) who all agree that one of the surest defenses against the transmission of this type of infectious disease is simple handwashing. In hospitals, of course, where the stakes are very high, it is prudent to locate hand sanitizer dispensers in many areas. However, in public facilities, such as our colleges and universities, enhanced personal hygiene (aka ... wash your hands before playing or at least after playing just as you would after other ... ahem ... 'activities') offers the same ... and quite possibly better protection against bacteria and virus transmission. That little squirt of anti-bacterial gel, while effective, somehow doesn't seem quite as thorough as a soap- and-hot-water scrub. So, short of Nossaman's suggestion to hose down the students before entering their studios, keep on educatin' but resist the temptation to introduce any more chemicals to our precious instruments than the ones found in our tool kits. Cheers to all ... so far enjoying the fall without sneezes and sniffles. Stan Kroeker, RPT ... who no longer eats out of communal chip bowls On 23-Sep-09, at 6:53 PM, Jim Busby wrote: > All, > > My son Eric is a new Pharmacist and "up" on all the latest, and has > some pretty good sources for products. I asked him to do some > research and here is what he told me; > > - Hydrogen peroxide is NOT proven to kill flu germs. It may, but > Eric says he wouldn't trust it w/o testing. > - Lysol wipes HAVE been proven to kill type A flu (Swine flu is type > A) but not type B, which is a lot of the others > - Clorox wipes say they kill flu but they have NOT done the testing. > THey have the same active ingredient as Lysol, but other stuff is > different and the bottom line is it's NOT tested/proven. > - Lysol wipes (all wipes w/o alcohol) need 10 minutes to be > effective (!!! I didn't know that!) > - Alcohol/alcohol wipes take only 30 seconds and is effective > - Sprays (Lysol or Clorox) are far more effective than wipes, mainly > because of the alcohol, and take 30 seconds, but...they have > alcohol, (which we believe is bad for keytops and finishes.) (Is it > really??) > - Flu and other viral germs can live on a surface like piano keys > for 2 days, but Eric says say 3 to be safe. > > I'm revising the revisions of my revised rough copy of the "policy"... > > For whomever told me that Hydrogen Peroxide would kill flu germs, do > you have a source for seeing the tests? Eric couldn't find any. > > Does alcohol really hurt keytops, or is this another urban pianotech > legend?? I've never seen it, but there's a million things I haven't > seen. > > I hate to run this into the ground, but it looks like we need to > study this more. I don't know about you, but BYU and Snow College > want something definitive ASAP, and I'm afraid profs will take it > upon themselves to start hosing down the piano after each student. > Hence my pressing this query. > > Thanks. > > Jim Busby -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20090923/37c6a496/attachment.htm>
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