The Clarinet BBoard

The Clarinet BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Previous Message | Next Message

RE: sanitizing reeds

Author: L. Omar Henderson
Date: 2001-04-10 12:32

One must be careful about semantics here. Just a little course in Bacteriology 101 (Virology maybe too) then a comment. Sanitize means to remove germs and clean the item, it says nothing about the residual germ content, - disinfect is to kill germs and remove them, and by definition, render the item not infectious (probably in a general sense not an absolute sense because it depends on the bug of interest), and sterilize means to render sterile or completely remove infectious agents. Different bugs and viruses have different levels of infectivity and resistance to chemicals used to disinfect or sterilize. The "statics" e.g. bacteriostatic, is to render a condition which does not favor growth of germs or inhibits the growth of existing germs. Chemicals that sanitize, disinfect or sterilize depend on intrinisic bacteriacidal, moldicidal, fungicidal, virus-cidal, etc. properties, concentration, temperature and length of time of action to produce effects. The route of infectivity of the bug, mold or virus depends on whether it is infective from air, spores, contact, blood-borne only, etc. It makes it very difficult to generalize and qualify when an agent used on a reed, mouthpiece, or other horn related item is potentially infective to one's self or others. We who make agents to clean, sanitize, disinfect, and potentially sterilize reeds, mouthpieces or other products must walk a fine line (because of our lawyer and insurance friends) about product claims. It is vastly more expensive to produce, certify, quality control and monitor products that have a higher level of disinfecting potential, and the cost of the product probably reflects these latter elements rather than the cost of raw materials. All this boring stuff being said, hydrogen peroxide is only a mid level disinfecting agent and to make it fit catagories 2 and 3 takes the addition of other agents. Sterilization is really tough because anything strong enough to sterilize (in the chemical arena - not steam sterilization) is probably toxic to humans too or leaves some nasty after tastes on reeds and mouthpieces even after rinsing. Alcohols also are not terrific sterilizing agents and should not be used on rubber mouthpieces anyway. We all have a necessary collection of bacteria in our mouths (normal throat flora) and we are surrounded by mostly benign bugs throughout our lives. It is probably not necessary to kill all the bugs on reeds or mouthpieces unless they have been used by individuals with pathogenic bacteria or viruses that lend themselves to infecting others. Our bodies also have a wonderful machinery to protect us from everyday infections to which we are constantly exposed. Do not get too paranoid about this whole topic because history dictates that we would all be dead now if this was a huge problem. This is probably too large a topic to explore in detail here.
The Doctor

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics