{"id":3438,"date":"2020-04-13T02:38:43","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T02:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asadkarim.co.uk\/?p=3438"},"modified":"2020-04-06T10:39:21","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T10:39:21","slug":"copper-destroys-viruses-and-bacteria-why-isnt-it-everywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asadkarim.co.uk\/?p=3438","title":{"rendered":"Copper Destroys Viruses and Bacteria. Why Isn\u2019t It Everywhere?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/xgqkyw\/copper-destroys-viruses-and-bacteria-why-isnt-it-everywhere<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It could destroy\nnorovirus, MRSA, virulent strains of E. coli, and coronaviruses\u2014including the\nnovel strain currently causing the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1852, physician\nVictor Burq visited a copper smelter in Paris’s 3rd arrondissement, where they\nused heat and chemicals to extract the reddish-brown metal. It was a dirty and\ndangerous job. Burq found the facility to be “in poor condition,”\nalong with the housing and the hygiene of the smelters. Normally, their\nmortality rates were “pitiful,” he observed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, the 200\nemployees who worked there had all been spared from cholera outbreaks that hit\nthe city in 1832, 1849, and 1852. When Burq learned that 400 to 500 copper\nworkers on the same street had also mysteriously dodged cholera, he concluded\nthat something about their professions\u2014and copper\u2014had made them immune to the\nhighly infectious disease. He launched a detailed investigation into other\npeople who worked with copper, in Paris and cities around the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1854 to 1855\ncholera epidemic, Burq could not find any deaths of jewellers, goldsmiths, or\nboilermakers\u2014all those who worked with copper. In people in the army, he found\nthat musicians who played brass instruments (brass is partly copper) were also\nprotected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1865 Paris\nepidemic, 6,176 people died of cholera, out of a population of 1,677,000\npeople\u2014that\u2019s 3.7 people out of every 1,000. But of the 30,000 who worked in\ndifferent copper industries, only 45 died\u2014an average of around 0.5 per 1,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After visiting 400\ndifferent businesses and factories in Paris, all of which used copper, and\ncollecting reports from England, Sweden, and Russia on more than 200,000\npeople, he concluded to the French Academies of Science and Medicine in 1867\nthat \u201ccopper or its alloys, brass and bronze, applied literally and pregnantly\nto the skin in the cholera epidemic are effective means of prevention which\nshould not be neglected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, we have\ninsight into why a person handling copper day in and day out would have\nprotection from a bacterial threat: Copper is antimicrobial. It kills bacteria\nand viruses, sometimes within minutes. In the 19th century, exposure to copper\nwould have been an early version of constantly sanitizing one’s hands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, studies\nhave shown that copper is able to destroy the microbes that most threaten our\nlives. It has been shown to kill a long list of microbes, including norovirus,\nMRSA, a staph bacteria that has become resistant to antibiotics, virulent\nstrains of E. coli that cause food-borne illness, and coronaviruses\u2014possibly\nincluding the novel strain currently causing the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If copper were more\nfrequently used in hospitals, where 1 in 31 people get healthcare-acquired\ninfections (HAI), or in high-traffic areas, where many people touch surfaces\nteeming with microbial life\u2014it could play an invaluable role in public health,\nsaid Michael Schmidt, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Medical\nUniversity of South Carolina, who studies copper. And yet, it is woefully\nabsent from our public spaces, healthcare settings, and homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat happened is\nour own arrogance and our love of plastic and other materials took over,\u201d\nSchmidt said of the cheaper products more frequently used. \u201cWe moved away from\ncopper beds, copper railings, and copper door knobs to stainless steel,\nplastic, and aluminum.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the\nmicrobes that make us sick can live on hard surfaces for up to four or five\ndays. When we touch those surfaces, the microbes can make it into our bodies\nthrough our nose, mouth, or eyes, and infect us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On copper surfaces,\nbacteria and viruses die. When a microbe lands on a copper surface, the copper\nreleases ions, which are electrically charged particles. Those copper ions\nblast through the outer membranes and destroy the whole cell, including the DNA\nor RNA inside. Because their DNA and RNA are destroyed, it also means a bacteria\nor virus can\u2019t mutate and become resistant to the copper, or pass on genes\n(like for antibiotic resistance) to other microbes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before people even\nknew what bacteria and viruses were, they knew that copper could\u2014somehow\u2014ward\noff infection. The first recorded medical use of copper is from one of the\noldest-known books, the Smith Papyrus, written between 2600 and 2200 B.C. It\nsaid that copper was used to sterilize chest wounds and drinking water.\nEgyptian and Babylonian soldiers would similarly put the shavings from their\nbronze swords (made from copper and tin) into their open wounds to reduce\ninfections. A more contemporary use of copper: In New York City\u2019s Grand Central\nStation, the grand staircase is flanked by copper handrails. \u201cThose are\nactually anti-microbial,\u201d Schmidt said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The copper smelters\nwere, ostensibly, exposed to less of the cholera bacterium because their\nsurroundings included a lot of copper that bacteria couldn’t live on. That and\nthey potentially were covered in copper particles. If metallurgy doesn’t call\nto you, there are now some products that are advertised as “copper hand\nsanitizers,” but they work only if you can expose every surface of your\nhands to the copper for at least a full minute\u2014essentially transferring any\nmicrobes to the copper surface to be killed. It could be difficult to get to\nevery part of your skin’s surface, so having copper surfaces in your\nenvironment paired with handwashing would be the ideal combination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schmidt said that\nusing copper along with standard hygiene protocols has been shown to reduce\nbacteria in health care settings by 90 percent. A study from 1983 found that\nhospital door knobs made of brass, which is part copper, barely had any E. coli\ngrowth on them, compared to stainless steel knobs which were \u201cheavily\ncolonized.\u201d This is significant because of how rampant healthcare-acquired\ninfections are: In the U.S. alone, there are about 1.7 million infections and\n99,000 deaths linked to HAIs per year, which cost between $35.7 and $45 billion\nannually, from the extra treatments people need when they get infected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Microbes that live\non surfaces in patient rooms and common spaces in hospitals play a role in\ngetting a HAI\u2014and this is where copper could help. And during this pandemic,\nwhen there is serious concern about the spread of the novel coronavirus via\ncontaminated surfaces, a virus-killing substance seems worthwhile indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A study from 2015\nfound that a different coronavirus, human coronavirus 229E, which causes\nrespiratory tract infections, could still infect a human lung cell after five\ndays of being on materials like teflon, ceramic, glass, silicone rubber, and\nstainless steel. But on copper alloys, the coronavirus was \u201crapidly\ninactivated.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a new preprint\non SARS-CoV2, the strain that causes COVID-19, researchers at the National\nInstitutes of Health virology laboratory in Montana sprayed the virus onto\nseven different common materials, reported MIT Technology Review. They found\nthat it survived the longest\u2014up to three days\u2014on plastic and stainless steel,\nsuggesting that surfaces in hospitals or steel poles on public transit could be\nplaces where people pick up the illness. Just a single droplet from a cough or\nsneeze can carry an infectious dose of a virus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill Keevil, a\nprofessor of environmental healthcare at the University of Southampton in\nEngland who has previously received funding from the Copper Development\nAssociation, said that if copper surfaces were put in communal areas where many\npeople gather, it could help reduce the transmission of respiratory viruses,\nlike coronavirus 229E and also SARS-CoV2. Other than hospitals, he thinks the\nideal locations for copper are public transportation systems, like buses,\nairports, subways. But he doesn’t stop there: He would also like to see copper used\nin sports equipment in gyms, like weights, along with other everyday objects,\nincluding shared office supplies, like pens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the preprint,\nSARS-CoV2 “liked copper least,” Antonio Regalado wrote in MIT\nTechnology Review. “The virus was gone after just four hours.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2012, Schmidt\nand his colleagues ran a clinical trial in three hospitals, Memorial Sloan\nKettering Cancer Center in New York City, Medical University of South Carolina,\nin Charleston, and Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Administration Medical Center,\nalso in Charleston. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, they figured\nout which items closest to a patient were the most contaminated with\nmicrobes\u2014those were the bed rails, the nurse call button, the arm of the\nvisitor chair, the tray tables, and the IV pole. Enveloping these items in\ncopper reduced the presence of microbes by 83 percent. As a result, HAIs were\nreduced by 58 percent, even though the researchers had introduced copper to\nless than 10 percent of the surface area of the room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have other\nmethods of killing bacteria and viruses to mitigate HAIs, including ultraviolet\nlight and hydrogen peroxide gas. But both require a hospital room to be empty,\nand once sick people re-enter rooms, surfaces can easily be contaminated again.\n\u201cCopper is continuously working 24\/7 without supervision, without any need to\nintervene, and it never runs out,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cAs long as the metal’s there,\nit’s good to go.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So given how well\nit could work, for hospital infections and for health more generally, why isn\u2019t\ncopper everywhere? Why isn\u2019t every door knob, every subway rail, every ICU\nroom, made of copper? Why can we easily buy stainless steel water bottles, but\nnot copper? Where are the copper iPhone cases? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn’t seem\nlike we’ll run out of copper in the near future, according to the World Copper\nFactbook from 2019. Copper is one of the most recycled of all metals\u2014nearly all\ncopper can be recycled and not lose any of its properties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctors and healthcare\nworkers might not be aware of its properties, as Keevil wrote in The\nConversation: \u201cWhen doctors are asked to name an antimicrobial metal used in\nhealthcare, the most common reply is silver\u2014but little do they know that silver\ndoes not work as an antimicrobial surface when dry\u2014moisture needs to be\npresent.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There might also be\na perception that copper is too expensive, Schmidt said, despite the fact that\nthe numbers indicate it would ultimately save money. One of Keevil and\nSchmidt’s studies from 2015 did the math: The cost of treating an HAI ranges\nfrom $28,400 to $33,800 per patient. Installing copper on 10 percent of\nsurfaces cost $52,000 and prevented 14 infections over the course of the\n338-day study. If you take the lower end of the HAI treatment cost ($28,400),\nthen those 14 prevented infections saved a total of $397,600, or $1,176 a day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even when factoring\nin how much the copper cost initially, you’d make that money back in savings\nwithin two months, Schmidt said. And considering that the copper never loses\nits microbial killing abilities\u2014hospitals would quickly be saving money (and\nlives). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Your payback\nis literally in less than two [prevented] infections,\u201d he said. \u201cI really\nstruggle with this. Since 2013, I have been literally begging, groveling,\npleading, with any and all concerned to make a completely copper encapsulated\n<\/p>\n\n\n

[hospital]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

bed.”\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He recently did\nconvince a company to invest, and said they\u2019re in the process of testing it to\nshow that it could reduce infections even further than 58 percent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another reason\ncopper may have been passed over for steel, plastic, or glass is that it can\neasily tarnish and requires a lot of cleaning to remain shiny. \u201cBut copper is\nantimicrobial regardless of how grody it looks, if it turns green on you, it\nstill has the ability to kill bacteria and viruses and fungi,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some places around\nthe world have started to use copper. In Chile, a theme park called\nFantasilandia, replaced a lot of its commonly touched surfaces with copper. At\nthe Atlanta airport, 50 water bottle filling stations are now made with copper.\nBut Schmidt believes it should be more widespread. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that one of\nthe reasons scientists are worried about the current coronavirus is how\ninfectious it is, and a major way people might be getting it is from touching\ncontaminated surfaces. He thinks it’s possible that the pandemic could raise\nawareness for copper\u2014if it motivates anyone to start using it. Imagine, he\nsaid, if our hospitals and public spaces already had copper in place\u2014it\u2019s\nimpossible to say for sure, but it\u2019s likely that transmission would have been\naffected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have great\nconfidence that it would work because bacteria or viruses are the ones causing\nthe infection,” hesaid. “If their numbers go down, common sense would\ntell you: you should have fewer infections.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/xgqkyw\/copper-destroys-viruses-and-bacteria-why-isnt-it-everywhere It could destroy norovirus, MRSA, virulent strains of E. coli, and coronaviruses\u2014including the novel strain currently causing the COVID-19 pandemic. In 1852, physician Victor Burq visited a copper smelter in Paris’s 3rd arrondissement, where they used heat and chemicals to extract the reddish-brown metal. It was a dirty and dangerous job. Burq found the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asadkarim.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asadkarim.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asadkarim.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asadkarim.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asadkarim.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.asadkarim.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3439,"href":"https:\/\/www.asadkarim.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3438\/revisions\/3439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asadkarim.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asadkarim.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asadkarim.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}