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posted by janrinok on Tuesday June 23 2015, @03:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the a-bright-idea dept.

Two high school students, Sum Ming Wong and Kin Pong Li, both living in Hong Kong have designed and built a door handle that kills germs, thus preventing the spread of disease through hand contact. They demonstrated their handle at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair held last month in Pittsburgh—taking second place in the materials science category.

One of the ways that ailments such as cold and flu are passed is via contact, and one of the main avenues is via door handles—a sick person coughs into their hand then uses the handle to enter a bathroom, office, or other location, depositing germs. Others that enter the same room pick up the germs from the door handle and invite the germs into their own bodies by touching their eyes or noses. Door handles that kill such germs on contact would stop them from spreading—that is what Wong and Li set out to build.

The pair started by noting that a mineral called titanium dioxide is quite toxic to germs, but it hasn't been used as an antibacterial agent much because it requires the presence of UV light. To get around this problem, the team ground some of the mineral and then used it to coat a glass tube, they then affixed a LED onto one end of the tube—it shines UV light onto the insides of the glass tube—any germs that land on the outer side are then killed by the mineral (testing showed it to be 99.8% effective). Putting the glass tube onto brackets allowed for it to be used as a door handle.

Read More at PHYS.ORG

[Source]: Society for Science & the Public


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by hankwang on Tuesday June 23 2015, @06:48PM

    by hankwang (100) on Tuesday June 23 2015, @06:48PM (#200028) Homepage

    I never touch them directly. Usually I just grab part of my shirt, or sleeve,

    Are doorknobs really so filthy that you need to bother? Although... on the very few occasions that I was in the US, I noticed that they had these hot-air hand driers in most places. In practice, that means: blow for 20 seconds (while the invisible germs are being blown around), then give up and open the door with still semi-wet hands, and the door handle is still wet from the previous users.

    Fortunately, over here (Netherlands), paper towels or cloth towel dispensers are much more common.

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by edIII on Tuesday June 23 2015, @08:16PM

    by edIII (791) on Tuesday June 23 2015, @08:16PM (#200074)

    I assume they have Ebola on them, myself.

    Being a man, I can tell you that a percentage of my lot are the most disgusting, unhygienic, raised-in-a-barn screaming monkeys, and that I'm just happy when they're not feces everywhere and pools of urine.

    Issue of trust I guess. If I knew it was only mature adults in the restroom, perhaps. So in a lawyers offices on the 90th floor... maybe you could touch the handle. In a movie theater on Friday during summer? Just pee into the bathroom from the hallway. Nobody will notice.

    --
    Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2015, @09:29PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2015, @09:29PM (#200109)

      Being a man, I can tell you that a percentage of my lot are the most disgusting, unhygienic, raised-in-a-barn screaming monkeys, and that I'm just happy when they're not feces everywhere and pools of urine.

      Indeed. Frankly, having some guy open the door with his "semi-wet hands" is the least of our worries; at least he bothered to wash his hands. I recall a study from several years back which looked at hygiene in restaurants. I recall that they found the highest concentration of fecal material was on the used eating utensils. Apparently a lot of people don't wash their hands after taking a dump. The guys where I work seem to be particularly filthy and unhygienic. I know at least one of the guys here does not wash his hands after taking a dump. Just recently I entered a restroom here at work to find that some guy had taken a massive dump then "forgot" to flush the toilet. Then there are the times I have found little bits and pieces of toilet paper strewn all over the floor. Then, of course, there are all the times when the floor is covered in urine and paper towels. Seriously, do you guys behave this way at home?!? Most of the guys at work are married; I can't imagine their wives letting them get away with this (*ahem*) shit. So, yeah, I really can believe that the restroom door knobs are horrendously filthy.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Wierd0n3 on Wednesday June 24 2015, @12:15AM

      by Wierd0n3 (1033) on Wednesday June 24 2015, @12:15AM (#200162)

      I work at a convenience store, and i can tell you, girls can be MUCH worse. I've never had the same cleanup issues in the men's room as the girls. we may miss the toilet on aiming, but we also don't have feminine products that we leave in the middle of the floor for whoever else follows us to find and deal with for us.

      I could list a few paragraphs of the things i have found working at night, but lets just leave it at that thank you.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2015, @08:25PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2015, @08:25PM (#200084)

    Personally I prefer a hot air blower to an empty paper towel dispenser. People are very wasteful with paper towels. Many take three or more right away and only use the middle instead of taking one and using all of it. Also, there are hot air blowers that work well enough. A high air volume is more important than a high temperature (and cheaper too).

    Anyone designing a building with public restrooms should simply not put any doors in, but make the entrance go around a corner or a wall to block the view. Tall "saloon" doors that swing open both ways are an option for older buildings.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2015, @01:26AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2015, @01:26AM (#200192)

      make the entrance go around a corner or a wall to block the view

      That's the way they've been doing it in airports for many decades.
      Now, it does take just a bit more space.

      ...then there are the true idiots who don't have a clue how to design a lavatory:
      The door opens inward and the trash receptacle is far away from the door.
      (If there is an inward-opening door, the most sanitary method to operate the door is to use the paper towel you just used and grab the knob|handle with that, block the door open with your foot, toss the towel, and exit.)

      -- gewg_