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To rinse germs from the water pipes + transmission of Pseudomonas

Question
Dear expert team,
I have 2 questions:
- about "letting the water run" in the mornings: in our house, the water literally shoots out of the pipes...in case of letting it run for 5 minutes, this would be an immense consumption of water and I would like to know if it is necessary in this case...is there a rule, after which time interval (after how many minutes) approximately the germs are rinsed from the pipes?
- Pseudomonas is transmitted via aerosols (right?)...does one have to dry the dishes instantly or can one also let them dry?...or do the germs go from the wet dishes into the air and are transmitted like this??
Thank you very much for your answer,
Best regards,
ML
Answer
Dear questioner,
to your first question: how long one has to let the water run: concrete guidelines on the exact time, based on so-called "hard data" do for sure not exist, however empirical values that allow a certain judgement. A similar question has already been answered by Prof. Döring (see links below to come the full question/answer). Hereby he stated, that one minute would well be enough. With this measure one wants to get rid of the standing water from the pipes and the adherent bacteria from the tap; this can be done by using hot or cold water. However: in case of hot water there is of course the side effect (in case the water is really hot), that probably germs are killed additionally (by the heat), that have probably not rinsed from the pipes.

To your second question, if one can let the dishes dry: in case one puts the wet dishes into e.g. a rack, in that every plate can dry instantly by itself, it is not a problem; like this, the inhalation equipment is also dried. In case one puts numerous wet plates closely on top of the other and 24 hours later there is still water between the plates, the risk is greater, that Pseudomonas could grow in the humid and can then be swirled up. However one would have to inhale this Psedomonas-containig aerosol directly, i.e. the water would have to be swirled up as an aerosol; it is anyhow not like this, that the germ goes during the process of drying just like that into the air and is then inhaled if one enters the kitchen, as the germ does not solve from the water into the air spontaneously. It is different, if the lung of a CF patient is colonized with Pseudomonas and he exhales Pseudmonas-containig drops, then definitely distances can be covered, however not in case of letting the dishes dry.
Hope that this helped you,
Best regards,
Dr. Daniela d'Alquen

ecorn-cf.eu/index.php?id=65&L=1&tx_expertadvice_pi1%5Bshowitem%5D=505&tx_expertadvice_pi1%5Bsearch%5D=tap%20water


ecorn-cf.eu/index.php?id=65&L=1&tx_expertadvice_pi1%5Bshowitem%5D=126&tx_expertadvice_pi1%5Bsearch%5D=bath


ecorn-cf.eu/index.php?id=65&L=1&tx_expertadvice_pi1%5Bshowitem%5D=705&tx_expertadvice_pi1%5Bsearch%5D=hygienic%20measures
21.07.2014