With COVID-19 spreading at an unprecedented rate, we¡¯re all too cautious about touching surfaces, washing our hands regularly, but one thought would have surely crossed our minds -- why can¡¯t these common surfaces resist viruses and bacteria from getting accumulated?
What stops researchers from developing surfaces that would be resistant to such disease-causing elements and keep us all safe?
Well, you¡¯ll be surprised to know that there is one material that destroys viruses and bacterias within minutes of coming in contact -- it's copper.
If you look at home fixtures today, most of them are made of steel or some other material that¡¯s not too expensive. In hospitals, we see more of steel? -- even though it sucks at being resistant towards bacterias and viruses. However, there was a time when copper alloys were widely used.
India is not new to the properties of copper, as many in the old days consumed water stored in copper vessels (some still do today). Ayurveda has revealed that apart from anti-bacterial and anti-microbial benefits, water which is rested overnight in a copper vessel helps in strengthening body immunity thanks to ions that it releases in the water over time.?
The water is also known to act as an antioxidant, which reduces free radical damage in the body and promotes longevity while also stimulating the brain.
In case you didn't know, Coronaviruses are essentially large family of viruses which cause illness in animals or humans. Coronaviruses in humans cause symptoms ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).
According to a 2015 research by University of Southampton, copper can effectively help to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses, which are linked to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). Animal coronaviruses that 'host jump' to humans, such as SARS and MERS, result in severe infections with high mortality. Researchers found that a closely-related human coronavirus - 229E - can remain infectious on common surface materials for several days, but is rapidly destroyed on copper. However, we still didn't know if copper or copper alloy surfaces can neutralize the recent Coronavirus strain (SARS-CoV-2) that's spreading COVID-19 around the world.
According to a study published in American Society for Microbiology, researcher Rita R Corwell From the University of Maryland, she studied the impact of coronavirus (not COVID-19) on different surfaces and found that except copper, coronaviruses survived and thrived. She stated, ¡°Exposure to copper destroyed the viral genomes and irreversibly affected virus morphology, including disintegration of envelope and dispersal of surface spikes.¡±
Before the 1980s, copper alloys were commonly adopted everywhere. A research paper by Phyllis J Kuhn, from 1983 brings to light the disappearance of copper and its significance.
In one of the training exercises that she conducted, students at Hamot Medical Centre in Pittsburg swabbed various surfaces around a hospital -- including toilet bowls, doorknobs. While the toilets were clean of any microbial activity, she noticed some fixtures were dirty with bacteria growing on them.
In her paper, she said that even though stainless steel looks shiny and clean as opposed to push plates made of brass (a metal with 67 percent copper, 33 percent zinc), the steel (88 percent iron and 12 percent chromium) fixtures had large amounts of bacterial build-up.
She concluded stating, ¡°If your hospital is being renovated, try to retain old brass hardware or have it repeated; if you have stainless steel hardware, make certain that it is disinfected daily, especially in critical-care areas.¡±
Copper destroys viruses and bacterias without needing anything else. According to a study conducted on a US Department of Defense grant, researchers looked at infection rates at three hospitals, only to find that hospitals with copper alloy fixtures had 58 percent less infection rate.
But why did it lose its charm over the years? Well, copper is still used prominently in the wires that power our homes, due to its unprecedented conductivity with electricity. But copper and its alloys aren¡¯t cheap.?
Moreover, brass and copper get dark with exposure to air, which looks dirty over time and requires constant maintenance with cleansing solutions/liquids, something stainless steel doesn¡¯t get affected with.
But looking at the number of infections patients come in contact with, at a hospital, killing around 90,000 annually, the one-time investment of using copper alloys across the hospital could help save many lives. Maybe copper and its alloy-based surfaces need to make a comeback, what do you think?