p. 374 | DISINFECTION AND DISINFECTANTS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 12, 1900

DISINFECTION AND DISINFECTANTS.

By California State Board of Health

DISINFECTION is the destruction of the poisons of infectious or contagious diseases. Deodorizers, or substances which destroy smells, are not necessarily disinfectants, and disinfectants do not necessarily have an odor. Disinfection can not compensate for want of cleanliness or of ventilation.

DISINFECTANTS TO BE EMPLOYED.

Roll sulphur (brimstone), for fumigation; this is a cheap and efficient substance for fumigating rooms; it is positively destructive to disease germs, when efficiently used.

Sulphate of iron (copperas), dissolved in the proportion of one and a half pounds to the gallon of water, is a cheap and reliable deodorizer and antiseptic for closets, cesspools, sewers, etc.

Sulphate of zinc, in the proportion of four ounces of sulphate and two ounces of common salt to the gallon of water, is efficient and harmless for clothing, bed linen, blankets, etc. It should be used boiling hot, and the articles to be disinfected should be plunged into it and thoroughly boiled.

Corrosive sublimate, in the proportion of a quarter of an ounce to the gallon, is an unsurpassed germicide and disinfectant, but has the disadvantage of being excessively poisonous, and therefore dangerous for general use.

Carbolic acid is of uncertain strength, is expensive, and experience has shown that it must be employed in comparatively large quantities to be of any use. It is also liable, by its strong odor, to give a false sense of security.

HOW TO USE DISINFECTANTS.

1. In the Sick-Room.—The most available agents are fresh air and cleanliness. The clothing, towels, bed linen, etc., should, on removal from the patient, be placed in a tub of the zinc solution, boiling hot, if possible. All discharges from the patient should either be received in vessels containing the copperas or corrosive sublimate solution, or if this is impracticable, should be covered with the solution. Unnecessary furniture, especially that which is stuffed, carpets, and hangings, should be removed from the room at the outset, if possible, otherwise they should remain for fumigation and treatment.

2. Fumigation with sulphur is the only practicable method of disinfecting the house. For this purpose the rooms to be disinfected must be vacated. Heavy clothing, blankets, bedding, and other articles which can not be treated with the zinc solution, should be opened and exposed during fumigation, as directed below: Close the rooms as tightly as possible, stopping up every crevice and keyhole; place the sulphur in iron pans supported upon bricks placed in wash-tubs containing a little water, set it on fire with alcohol or kerosene sprinkled upon it, and allow the rooms to remain closed twenty-four hours. For a room ten feet square at least two pounds of sulphur will be required; for larger rooms proportionately larger quantities will be necessary.

3. Premises, cellars, yards, stables, gutters, privies, cesspools, water-closets, sewers, drains, should be liberally treated with the copperas solution; it is cheap and effective, and may save your life. The copperas solution may be easily prepared by hanging a basket containing about sixty pounds of copperas in a barrel of water.

4. Body and Bed Clothing.—It is best to burn all articles which have been in contact with persons sick of infectious or contagious diseases. Articles too valuable to be destroyed should be treated as follows: Cotton, linen, flannels, blankets, etc., should be treated with the boiling-hot zinc solution; introduce piece by piece; secure thorough wetting, and boil for half an hour. Furs, silks, heavy woolen clothing, bed covers, and beds, which can not be thus treated with the zinc solution, should be hung in the room during fumigation, their surfaces fully exposed, and their pockets turned inside out; afterward they should be hung in the open air—beaten and shaken. Pillows, beds, stuffed mattresses, upholstered furniture, etc., should be cut open, the contents spread out, and thoroughly fumigated. Carpets are best fumigated on the floor, but should afterward be removed to the open air, and thoroughly shaken and beaten.

5. Corpses should be washed thoroughly with the zinc or corrosive sublimate solution, then wrapped in a sheet wet with the solution, and buried at once. Metallic or metal-lined coffins should be used when possible, and always when the body is to be transported for any considerable distance.

If these notes of warning and guides to action are heeded, and fear does not usurp the place of common sense, we have little to dread from cholera personally. It is the unthinking multitude, the selfish egotist, the “wait-until-it-comes” people, that we have to fear. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” and there is no disease to which this aphorism so aptly applies as cholera.—California State Board of Health.