When I was at the CleanMed 2010 conference a couple of weeks ago in Baltimore, a nurse asked me how she could sanitize the clothing she wore at the hospital without using chlorine bleach.

I personally have never been concerned about killing germs on my clothing, but I could see how she could be, so I started doing some research.

One of the first things I came across was an article from the New York Times, published a decade ago, about germs in the laundry. The research team of Dr. Charles Gerba, professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona,

randomly visited 60 homes and washed a sterile washcloth in their machines. One-fifth of the machines contained E. coli, while a quarter were contaminated with fecal matter.

The laundry, Dr. Gerba contends, is becoming less clean. Fewer Americans wash clothes in hot water, and only 5 percent use bleach, he said. Wash cycles are only 20 minutes, while the average drying time is only 28 minutes. Dr. Gerba found that some salmonella and hepatitis A survive through laundry — including the dry cycle — and remain on clothes. ”We have no idea how well we clean clothes,” he said.

Dr. Gerba’s own laundry machine yielded E. coli, prompting him to change his own washing habits. SCIENTIST AT WORK: CHARLES GERBA; On Germ Patrol, at the Kitchen Sink

Hmmm, I’ve never had reason to believe that harmful micro-organisms were in my laundry, but I do wash in warm water (not hot) and don’t use bleach. This is one of those times when taking an action that benefits the environment (saving energy by using warm or cold water instead of hot) may not be good for your health.

So, if you want to sanitize your laundry, how could you do it without toxic disinfectants?

You could add tea tree oil or grapefruit seed extract to the wash. Both have disinfectant properties. I found many websites that say grapefruit seed extreact is becoming a disinfectant and sanitizing agent in hospitals and clinics (though the government requires products sold as disinfectants registered with the EPA, so I’m not sure about this–maybe someone working in a hospital could post a comment about their first hand experience with this).

Or you could get one of the new washing machines with a “sanitize” cycle, that disinfects while you wash. Many models have them now. Look for a NSF certification that ensures that “at least 99.9% of organisms are removed when the washer’s sanitazation cycle is selected and there is no carryover of organisms between loads after sanitization cycle is used.

Hanging laundry outdoors in the sunshine will do it too, as ultraviolet rays kill germs.

You can also use oxygen bleach. According to the Natural Choices website, “The oxygen bleach Natural Choices uses is sodium percarbonate which is made by treating natural soda ash with oxygen. In this process the soda ash picks up oxygen and releases it when added to warm or hot water. The released oxygen is what does the cleaning, stain removal and sanitizing.” Oxygen does kill micro-organisms. Hydrogen peroxide also can be used to provide sanitizing oxygen. We use it in our chlorine-fee swimming pool to kill bacteria and algae.

Mothers who use cloth diapers on their babies face this question daily. Traditionally, diapers have been presoaked with vinegar or borax to disinfect.

Any other suggestions?

The major thing I am running into researching this is lack of test data that shows how well each of these methods actually work to disinfect. So I can’t give a definitive answer at the moment, but the above is what is being recommended.