Cited Studies for Disinfectants

[cutekid]

A little background: My DP and I both have degrees in Environmental Health with a concentration in Public Health. For several years we were preached the effectiveness of Clorox and Quats Ammonia. As these are the top two EPA approved sanitizers. I have always cleaned our home with vinegar and baking soda. I sometimes throw in Tea Tree Oil. M
I have only done minimal research on the effectiveness of diluted white vinegar, lemon juice, TTO ect. Now I am in the this on going argument with my DP over why we should be using more natural and not mention friendlier chemicals to clean and disinfect our home. While I can go to any number of websites that says TTO is a proven disinfectant and vinegar is a disinfectant. It doesn't give more info than that. I need some actual working numbers.
Now I am wondering if anyone might have this info on hand.
I need to know at what concentration TTO, and White Vinegar works for bacteria like E-coli and Samonella. I also need to know the contact time.
BTW, if anyone knows a natural solvent other than grain alcohol that can disslove TTO, I would like to know.

Thanks.

[mykdsmomy]

I was just thinking about this last night.....I'd really like to see actual studies on the effectiveness of vinegar and TTO (our HFS owner told me that TTO and the like loses it's disinfecting power after an hour or so of being mixed with water)...not sure where he got his info from.

[mk12]

Here is an article that mentions a study on the effectiveness of vinegar followed by peroxide:

http://www.michaelandjudystouffer.co...es/vinegar.htm

In tests run at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, pairing the two mists killed virtually all Salmonella, Shigella, or E. coli bacteria on heavily contaminated food and surfaces when used in this fashion, making this spray combination more effective at killing these potentially lethal bacteria than chlorine bleach or any commercially available kitchen cleaner.

The best results came from using one mist right after the other - it is 10 times more effective than using either spray by itself and more effective than mixing the vinegar and hydrogen peroxide in one sprayer.

Reference note: Articles on Dr. Sumner's original research work appeared in the scientific news journal, "Science News," in the issues that were published on August 29, 1996, and on August 8, 1998.

I think I've seen other articles and at least one other study about the efficacy of this same combo and it's superiority over chlorine.

[Meiri]

While I believe the research, I have not gotten good results from using vinegar, straight, on mold and mildew. Had to return to judiciously sprayed diluted chlorox for that.