Talk:Sterilization (microbiology)

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Contents 1 Steam Sterilization 2 Medicine and Surgery 3 Milk 4 Microwaves 5 Filtration 6 Kill Rate 7 Organism Name 8 Alcohol 9 Dry and Moist heat

[edit] Steam Sterilization

The biological indicator I'm using says to crush the ampule after it has been through the sterilization cycle. I don't think there would be any where you want to crush the ampule before sterilization??

[edit] Medicine and Surgery

Sterile parts of the body? Are there sterile parts of the body? Thirty to forty years ago blood was thought to be sterile. Bloodborne pathogens were unheard of. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.117.126.2 (talk) 13:26, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Milk

SMELLY people What type of sterilization do you think affects the taste of milk?

[edit] Microwaves

University of Florida engineering[1] researchers have found that microwaving kitchen sponges and plastic scrubbers — known to be common carriers of the bacteria and viruses that cause food-borne illnesses – sterilizes them rapidly and effectively. [2] Brian Pearson 02:53, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Filtration

Shouldn't there be a section about sterilization by filtration, which is extensively used to sterilize, for example, heat sensitive protein solutions in biology research? --mglg_(talk) 23:09, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

Well, why not. If you know that, write it there.--Juan de Vojníkov 14:59, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Kill Rate

I found the text below the middle of the Wikipedia article - I think it doesn't belong there; it belongs here, or perhaps on a page about the term kill rate in general. Jutta 17:43, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

NB #1: Unfortunately it is common diction to say "the kill rate is log6" or "the germ reduction is log6", which strictly speaking is not only wrong but nonsensical. By saying this one means that the germ reduction is 6 orders of magnitude or the survival probability of each single germ is 10-6. (This wrong diction originates from a misunderstanding of the mathematical expression log 106 = 6)

NB #2: Strictly speaking it is also wrong to talk about single germs or the like. It's correct to use the item cfu or colony forming unit. The main problem is not inevitably the presence of germs (bacteria, spores, ...) but their ability of fast fissiparous, which gives an exponential increase of the number of the germs with time. If one tries to count "a number of germs" one has to, simply spoken, cultivate them on an agar plate, let them grow for a few days and count the macroscopic colonies which have formed. Each of these colonies is resulting from 1 cfu (= 1 "augmentable germ").

Example #1: One item which has to be sterilized carries a contamination of 107 germs prior to sterilisation. The germ reduction capability of the sterilisation process is 6 orders of magnitude (=106 or "log 6"), which means the survival probability of the germs is 10-6. If such items are sterilised the average number of "surviving germs" or, correctly spoken, cfu's which are found on the items after sterilisation is: 107 / 106 = 10 or 107 * 10-6 = 10.

Example #2 (statistically equivalent to #1): A lot of items which have to be sterilized are carrying a contamination of 10 germs each prior to sterilization. The germ reduction capability of the sterilisation process is 6 orders of magnitude (=106 or "log 6"), which means the survival probability of the germs is 10-6. If one sterilises a statistically significant number of these items the average number of cfu's which is found on the items after sterilisation is: 10 / 106 = 10-5 or 10 * 10-6 = 10-5. This means that, in average 1 cfu is found per 105 = 100.000 items.

Jutta, I agree. I just started a Sterility assurance level page for this specific topic. --Microbiojen 01:59, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Organism Name

The steam sterilization indicator organism "Bacillus stearothermophilus" has been renamed to "Geobacillus stearothermophilus" Ekwhite 23:35, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Alcohol

Isn't alcohol used for sterilization? Puddytang 02:06, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

My question exactly. This university course states the following[3]:

(a) Alcohols work best as 70 to 99% mixtures with water

(b) Alcohol-water mixtures are additionally more penetrating than pure alcohols

(c) Either ethanol or isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol may be employed for disinfecting

(d) Alcohols are especially appropriate for application to sites in which their propensity to evaporate away is convenient (e.g., to disinfect skin prior to injection)

(e) The down side of alcohols is that they are not terribly penetrating nor capable of killing endospores or other resistant cells

(f) Alcohols should not be applied to wounds since they can cause tissue damage

--Ty580 04:49, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Dry and Moist heat

Do not support the merger.

These articles dry heat and moist heat:

1. do add more information

2. provide a point to link to

3. are important individual entities and are one of the foundations of sterilization, and need special mention.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Sarindam7 (talk • contribs) 19:15, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

I will not interfere any more, this is not my domain of expertise. But please be careful of not duplicating/repeating stuff that is in this article. If the other articles merits it then obviously this article may have to be split. Regards. --Triwbe (talk) 19:55, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Discussion closed. Proposition withdrawn.sarindam7 (talk) 09:51, 3 June 2008 (UTC)