Cleaning, disinfecting and sterilising

In detail

Cleaning removes visible soil and much of what is living in it, by physical means. Disinfecting reduces micro-organisms to a level considered safe, by chemical means. Sterilising eliminates all microbial life, which is a laboratory and clinical standard rather than a domestic one. The distinction matters practically because the two domestic processes depend on each other in one direction. Soil physically shields micro-organisms and consumes disinfectant chemically, so a disinfectant applied to a dirty surface may not reach what it is meant to kill. This is why guidance for disinfectant products specifies cleaning first and then disinfecting, as two steps rather than one. The other common misunderstanding concerns contact time: disinfectants require a specified period of wet contact to work, and a surface wiped and immediately dried has been cleaned but not disinfected, whatever the label on the bottle claims. For most domestic surfaces, thorough cleaning is the appropriate goal and disinfection is warranted only in specific situations.

Why

• Sodium hypochlorite (chlorine bleach) is explained by Cleaning, disinfecting and sterilising
• Calcium hypochlorite is explained by Cleaning, disinfecting and sterilising
• Sodium dichloroisocyanurate is explained by Cleaning, disinfecting and sterilising
• Kitchen sponge microbiota is explained by Cleaning, disinfecting and sterilising
• Carbolic acid is explained by Cleaning, disinfecting and sterilising
• Cresol disinfectant is explained by Cleaning, disinfecting and sterilising
• Chlorine dioxide is explained by Cleaning, disinfecting and sterilising
• Kitchen is explained by Cleaning, disinfecting and sterilising

  Why this room needs two steps when most rooms need one.

• Two-stage disinfection is explained by Cleaning, disinfecting and sterilising