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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday May 07 2020, @07:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the what's-that-smell? dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

These last few weeks we've all been reminded about the importance of washing our hands. It's not complicated: you just need soap, water, and about 30 seconds worth of effort. In a pinch you can even use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. But what if there was an even better way of killing bacteria and germs on our hands? One that's easy, fast, and doesn't even require you to touch anything. There might be, if you've got a high voltage generator laying around.

In his latest video, [Jay Bowles] proposes a novel concept: using the ozone generated by high-voltage corona discharge for rapid and complete hand sterilization. He explains that there's plenty of research demonstrating the effectiveness of ozone gas [as] a decontamination agent, and since it's produced in abundance by coronal discharge, the high-voltage generators of the sort he experiments with could double as visually striking hand sanitizers.

[...] Despite what appears to be the nearly complete eradication of bacteria on his hands after exposing them to the ozone generator, [Jay] is quick to point out that he's not trying to give out any medical advice with this video. This simple experiment doesn't cover all forms of bacteria, and he doesn't have the facilities to test the method against viruses. The safest thing you can do right now is follow the guidelines from agencies like the CDC and just wash your hands the old fashioned way; but the concept outlined here certainly looks worthy of further discussion and experimentation.

Source: https://hackaday.com/2020/04/28/washing-your-hands-with-20000-volts/

[Ed Note - A lot of the comments in the hackaday article express concern about exposure to ozone at the levels that are generated here. Don't try this at home kids!]


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @08:22PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @08:22PM (#991442)

    If it works on the hands, let's use it on the whole body. You never can be too sure where germs might hide. This should be deployed to the entrances of supermarkets, government offices, temples, etc and give everyone a full body shock upon entering.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @08:28PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @08:28PM (#991446)