I hate to heap more doubt on an already crazy world, but paper towels say things like “strong” and “absorbent” and “more sheets”, but they don’t say anything about being clean or sterile. Yet we use them that way.
I hate to heap more doubt on an already crazy world, but paper towels say things like “strong” and “absorbent” and “more sheets”, but they don’t say anything about being clean or sterile. Yet we use them that way.
I think your use cases are the standard use (dry surface and scoop up gunk before sanitizing).
However, the first use case presents a problem: if you sanitize your hands/surface and then dry with a non-sterile paper towel, what’s to say you haven’t just smeared contaminants all over the surface again?
I do remember a study in bathrooms a few years back that found that the materials and composition of a paper towel tend to trap contaminants instead of spreading them (just like wood/paper cutting boards)… so paper towel likely has some built-in antimicrobial properties, but that window between manufacture and use is pretty wide open. We entrust a LOT to a bit of shrinkwrap.
Wise words internet stranger!
I’m going to look back fondly on this conversation in 9 years, 1 month, and 22 days when a Bacillius Cereus outbreak spreads across 30 states and is found to be originating from contaminated paper towels
We almost never actually need to sanitize anything you come into regular contact with. (Unless you work in a medical field, I guess…)
And if you’re freaking out about microbes and fecal matter, don’t ask what you’re breathing in with every breath you take.
Funny thing about the medical field and sanitizing… I had a relative in biochemistry. Their sanitizing regime was very specific. And when asked about hospital sanitizing practices, they could run off a long list of biological hazards common to a hospital setting that not only would not be destroyed by their practices, but were likely to mutate in novel ways.
And yet, other than C.Dif, most people survive visits to the hospital just fine.
So yeah, just the paper towel’s built-in antimicrobial properties are likely enough in most settings where a person would use them… assuming people aren’t using them to pat down a raw chicken and then wipe the counter.
I mean, part of it is how clean are you trying to keep your hands, and for how long? Short of a surgical environment, sterility for more than a few moments isn’t realistic. The goal is just to keep your hands cleaner than “just took a shit and used my hands to handle toilet paper” for a while. Paper towels are good enough to achieve that.