Can dish soap cause cancer? 4 hours without washing dishes = eating poison? 3 ways to wash dishes that may be harmful to your health
"After eating, wash the dishes and chopsticks"
"Well... you can do whatever you want me to do, I just hate washing dishes."
This conversation often happens after Xiaojiu and her mother have finished eating, but usually the resistance is ineffective, so the pile of dishes will be in the sink, squeezed with detergent, and soaked...
Do you know how many bacteria can be produced by soaking the bowl in water for a while before washing it? In addition, in fact, there are many misunderstandings about washing dishes in life, let's take a look together.
1. Not washing dishes for 4 hours = eating poison?
Faced with a pile of bowls after a meal, will you wash them off immediately or drag them as long as you can? Then there are rumors that not washing dishes for 4 hours is equivalent to eating poison.
Why do you have this point of view? Perhaps it has something to do with two arguments:
Bacteria need an adaptation period of 1-4 hours to enter a new environment. At this stage, the reproduction is relatively slow, but after 4 hours, the bacteria will enter the rapid reproduction period.
There is rich oil in the bowl, which creates good conditions for the growth and reproduction of bacteria, such as Proteus, Salmonella and other bacteria in the soaking bowl, which can easily lead to the occurrence of intestinal diseases .
These two views are well-founded and seem to be convincing, but is this really the case?
First, the pathogenic bacteria must reach a certain number before they may cause poisoning and infection.
The detergent used to clean the tableware has a certain bactericidal function, so the number of pathogenic bacteria in the tableware may not reach the level, and the human body itself has strong immunity, so it is not easy to cause poisoning and infection.
Second, not all bacteria are necessarily harmful.
There are various classifications of bacteria, but not all of them are harmful. For example, Proteus is a kind of harmless bacteria, while Salmonella is harmful, but its growth rate is slow, and the optimum temperature for reproduction is 37°C. Therefore, the soaking bowl is actually not an excellent growth environment for it.
Therefore, it may be an exaggeration to say that not washing dishes for 4 hours is equivalent to "eating poison". However, it is not a good thing to pile up the dishes without washing them . After all, there are too many harmful bacteria or incomplete cleaning, and there is also the risk of "disease from the mouth".
2. Will washing dishes with dish soap every day cause cancer?
Generally speaking, dishwashing liquid is often used to wash dishes. Is there any health risk in this cleaning method?
The main components of detergent include surfactants, pigments, essences and so on. The ingredients such as essence and pigment in it are to make the dishwashing liquid smell better and look better, while the surfactant is the component with the highest content in the dishwashing liquid except water, and it is the main reason that the dishwashing liquid can clean the dishes and chopsticks. heroes.
The surfactant of dish soap is the main object of people's concern about dish soap.
However, this kind of worry is actually "unnecessary".
First, there are many types of surfactants, but the surfactants used in detergents have been tested and proven to be safe after years of actual use, and they are reliable surfactants.
Second, the country has strict regulations and standards for the product quality and safety of dishwashing liquid, and will also regularly check the safety of different brands of dishwashing liquid.
Therefore, as long as we buy qualified dishwashing liquid produced by regular enterprises, we should not worry too much.
However, there are two or two types of dishwashing liquid that are recommended to be used less.
• Bulk dish soap
Bulk dishwashing liquid is a "three-no product" with no specific manufacturer, date, and content of ingredients. It may contain harmful substances to the human body. If you use this type of dishwashing liquid to clean tableware, it is likely that "disease will come from the mouth" .
• Excessive promotion of antibacterial and bactericidal products
The surfactants in dishwashing liquid have cleaning and bactericidal effects, and dishwashing liquid products under the banner of "antibacterial and bactericidal" may contain alkylphenols and trichloride, which are likely to destroy the balance of the ecological environment.
So how to choose a qualified detergent?
When choosing detergent, pay attention to whether the product meets the standards of "GB14930.1-2015 National Food Safety Standard Detergent":
3. Common dishwashing misunderstandings, be careful that the more you wash, the dirtier it will be
1. Is the dishcloth an all-purpose cloth?
Many housewives use dishcloths as all-purpose cloths, but in fact, this will make them more and more dirty, and may cause pathogenic bacteria to flow around with the rags.
At the same time, it is not recommended to use porous materials such as cleaning sponges as dishcloths. This material has strong water absorption capacity, but it is easy to leave food residues, allowing a large number of bacteria to grow and multiply.
It is recommended to choose a microfiber cloth or a "lazy rag" for dishcloths. In addition to washing with detergent and wringing to dry, regular disinfection should also be paid attention to, and the dishcloth is preferably 1-3 months Change it again.
2. Washing chopsticks is perfunctory
When many people clean their chopsticks, they wash them by hand. In fact, this may damage the protective layer on the surface of the chopsticks, and grooves and cracks appear on the surface of the chopsticks. On the contrary, it is easier to breed germs and microorganisms. In addition, the cleaned chopsticks are rarely dried, and are usually placed directly in the chopsticks basket, which is likely to make the chopsticks moldy and produce a first-class carcinogen - aflatoxin.
Therefore, it is best to wash the chopsticks one by one in the water diluted with detergent. The cleaned chopsticks should be drained and then put into the hollow chopsticks basket, and the chopsticks basket should be cleaned regularly.
In addition, we must also pay attention to the disinfection of chopsticks. If possible, you can buy a chopstick disinfection machine. If you don’t have one, you can also boil the chopsticks in boiling water for half an hour, which can kill most of the bacteria on the chopsticks. Ordinary bamboo and wood products have a shelf life of 3 to 6 months, so they should be replaced in time after the shelf life has passed or if there is obvious deterioration.
3. After washing the bowls and plates, stack them without draining
After washing dishes, many people stack them up and put them in the cupboard without controlling the water, and take them out for use the next day. Will this cause secondary pollution of the dishes?
Household Appliances Research conducted a study in which the testers first sterilized all the tableware and coated the surface of the tableware with sterile broth, and then divided the tableware into two groups evenly, and one group of tableware was directly washed after cleaning. Stack them in cupboards for storage, while another set stands upright on a shelf in a ventilated location.
Three days later, the experimenter found that the total number of bacteria in the standing tableware was 8000cfu/set, which was in line with China's hygienic standard, while the number of bacteria in the stacked tableware was 560000cfu/set, which was 70 times that of the standing tableware.
What are the risks posed by bacteria?
In terms of short-term harm, common viral bacteria such as Salmonella, Escherichia coli, and norovirus can cause acute gastroenteritis symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, and dehydration, and there may even be a risk of shock.
In terms of long-term effects, long-term ingestion of mold may contain aflatoxin, and related studies have confirmed that aflatoxin has a certain relationship with the occurrence of liver cancer, esophageal cancer, and gastric cancer.
Washing dishes is actually a very trivial housework, but it contains a lot of knowledge. As the saying goes, "disease enters from the mouth", so we should understand the hidden health risks caused by improper operation in dishwashing.
References:
[1] "No washing dishes for 4 hours = eating poison? Notice! The more you wash the dishes, the dirtier they are. Don’t do it again.” Popular Science China. 2021-07-13
[2] "Is long-term use of detergent harmful to the body?" ". Medical Code. 022-01-28
[3] "Attention! This dish soap hurts hands and causes cancer! ". Family Doctor Online. 2022-03-14
[4] "Is your dishcloth clean?" This kind of material is the easiest to breed bacteria, and every family has it! ". Health Times. 2020-11-03
[5] "Wash chopsticks and make these two mistakes, liver cancer-causing germs will entangle you!" Especially the first one, 90% of families will commit it". Family Doctor. 2018-01-13
[6] "Washing dishes like this increases the bacteria by 70 times! Don't eat it in your stomach." New Evening News. 2022-04-12
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