How soap and water works against germs?
Hi there, hope you all are doing well.
During this COVID -19 pandemic are you all taking good care of yourself, following social distance, wearing mask and most importantly washing hands every 20min . I’m washing my hands more often than I ever did before, and since a few days this made me feel like obsession for washing hands. But then after reading few articles I learned this is one of the best way to keep germs away.
This made me more curious to find out how washing hands or more specifically using soap and water has jumped out to be the most significant out of all other preventions.
Today, through this post let’s discuss how soap and water works on germs . Hey! but before jumping into that I have a riddle for you to crack. Here you go :
I’m as light as feather but still you can not hold me very long. Who I’m? (Answer:? Or you can find it below)
Did you know : Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician and scientist,
was the first person to observe and realise that keeping hands hygiene ( washing hands or disinfecting hands) can drastically reduce the rate of infection being passed on .
Hands are most vulnerable to get germs on as in day to day life we touch numerous things inside and outside of house , shake hands , cover our face while sneezing and coughing.
To understand, how soap and water are significant , let’s first briefly understand the chemical properties of water ,soap and germs. . This will make it more obvious to understand the importance of washing hands.
WATER : water molecules have two kinds of bonds one is covalent bond which is within one molecule of water between Oxygen and Hydrogen atom. And second one is Hydrogen bond between two water molecules which bind them together ( by oxygen atom of one and hydrogen atom of other molecule). This second one the Hydrogen bond gives water the property of surface tension ( tension of the surface film of a liquid caused by the attraction of the particles in the surface layer by the bulk of the liquid, which tends to minimize surface area) due to which they appear as droplets and due to this tension force only things can float on water.
SOAP : soap is a surfactant ( i.e a substance which tends to reduce the surface tension of a liquid in which it is dissolved or in other words it breaks the surface film of liquid or water to enter and get mixed with molecules of liquid .) Soap molecules are pin shaped where one end is polar region also called hydrophilic ( i.e this end readily binds with water molecule when ever gets in contact with water) and the other end is non-polar also called hydrophobic ( i.e is it keeps away water, but binds to other things like dirt, oil etc..) .
GERMS : Most of the germs (bacteria and viruses) they have an outer envelope or cell wall which is made of lipids (oil or fat) and proteins.
After understanding chemical properties ,now let’s see how it works . But before that take your riddle’s answer : Breath
In hand washing, soap when lathered with water , surfactant property of soap breaks the surface tension of water and enter within water molecules where through its hydrophilic end it binds with water molecules, as a result of which water molecules gets separated from each other and this decreases water’s viscosity ( i.e resistance of a fluid to flow or change in shape due to internal friction or in other words the state of being thick, sticky . It denotes opposition to flow.) makes water more runny.On the other hand, the hydrophobic end of soap molecules binds with lipid bilayer and protein membrane of viruses and bacteria . Together these all make a bubble or also called as micelle.
Besides these chemical interactions, the mechanical force by rubbing hand for several seconds help soap molecules to kills microorganism by disorganizing their membrane lipid bilayer and denaturing their proteins . It also emulsify the broken lipid molecules, enabling them to be carried away by running water.
Now, before ending it here, another riddle struck to me , you probably can guess this one .
I’m too small can be said as invisible, but too large to be present everywhere. Who I’m?
I hope the concept of washing hands is thoroughly enjoyable through here , and proves its significance.
Answer for riddle : Germs
So washing hands every 20-30 min is not an obsession but is a need. Need to take care of yourself and your loved ones and of your society as well.
Keep washing hands. Take care!
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