Antimicrobial copper kills viruses and bacteria, so why isn’t it used on surfaces the public regularly touches?

Antimicrobial copper kills viruses and bacteria, so why isn’t it used on surfaces the public regularly touches?

There is so much concern about the Covid19 virus, yet most of the surfaces we touch allow the growth of germs and allow viruses to collect.

Copper, a reddish-brown metal is one of the few surfaces that many germs and viruses cannot grow on.

In the 1800s, the cholera epidemic did not affect people who handled copper. Copper is found in bronze and brass which are alloys of copper.

According to Vice, “It has been shown to kill a long list of microbes, including norovirus, MRSA, a staph bacteria that has become resistant to antibiotics, virulent strains of E. coli that cause food-borne illness, and coronaviruses—possibly including the novel strain currently causing the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is the opinion of the author of this vice article that copper was replaced by plastic and surfaces of other metals that are cheaper to install and these surfaces allow the spread of viruses and bacteria.

Are we going to learn from this moment?

Check out the vice article that reports copper can be a possible solution to how we keep surfaces germ and virus free.  Check it out.

Copper Destroys Viruses and Bacteria. Why Isn’t It Everywhere?

It could destroy norovirus, MRSA, virulent strains of E. coli, and coronaviruses—including the novel strain currently causing the COVID-19 pandemic.

By Shayla Love

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 facility to be “in poor condition,” along with the housing and the hygiene of the smelters. Normally, their mortality rates were “pitiful,” he observed.

Yet, the 200 employees who worked there had all been spared from cholera outbreaks that hit the city in 1832, 1849, and 1852. When Burq learned that 400 to 500 copper workers on the same street had also mysteriously dodged cholera, he concluded that something about their professions—and copper—had made them immune to the highly infectious disease. He launched a detailed investigation into other people who worked with copper, in Paris and cities around the world.

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