Does fumigating a room with vinegar have a sterilizing effect?

In life, many people choose to use vinegar to fumigate the room for disinfection, especially in winter, when cold viruses are rampant. At this time, you need to frequently sterilize the place where you live to kill the virus molecules in the air, which can effectively avoid diseases. Vinegar fumigation is a folk remedy, but you must choose steam fumigation. So does vinegar fumigation really have a sterilization effect?

Using fumigation with vinegar to kill germs in the room to prevent colds is a "folk remedy" familiar to many people. However, some people reported that in order to prevent colds, they poured vinegar into the humidifier before going to bed. As a result, the whole family experienced difficulty breathing, sore throats, and nausea in the middle of the night. After turning off the humidifier, the discomfort symptoms gradually eased. Mr. Lu from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention clearly pointed out that vinegar has no effect on disinfection or sterilization, and it is wrong to use vinegar fumigation to prevent colds.

There is indeed a folk belief that vinegar can disinfect, kill bacteria and prevent colds, but disinfection experts have long since conducted experiments to prove that vinegar has no effect on disinfection or sterilization, let alone killing viruses. Experts from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention remind the general public that for families, the best way to prevent colds and disinfect is to ventilate, rather than blindly using vinegar. If the concentration of fumigated vinegar is too high or the time is too long, it will not only cause symptoms such as difficulty breathing and nausea, but also cause damage to the skin and respiratory mucosa.

Zhang Bo, director of the Respiratory Department of the General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army Air Force, believes that the acetic acid smell of smoked vinegar has an irritating effect on the respiratory mucosa, and can especially cause attacks or aggravation of symptoms in patients with bronchitis, emphysema, asthma, etc.

Be aware of two misunderstandings about preventing and treating colds. The reason why many people believe that vinegar has the effect of disinfection and sterilization may be because it contains acetic acid. Yu Kang, director of the Department of Nutrition at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, said that acetic acid does have disinfecting and bactericidal effects at a certain concentration, but the effect is not very good, and it is not recommended for use even at high concentrations. The acetic acid concentration in vinegar is very low, far from being enough to disinfect. Vinegar tastes good as a condiment, but it cannot be used as a disinfectant.

In addition to fumigation with vinegar, many families also often use peracetic acid and Lysol, which are commonly used in hospitals, to sterilize. Experts from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention remind that it is best not to keep these disinfectants in homes. Because these drugs have strong oxidizing ability and high acidity, they are not only unsafe to the human body, but also cause certain damage to furniture. If you must disinfect the room, the safest way is to go to the health and epidemic prevention department and ask professional disinfection personnel to spray or fumigate the room with a concentration of medicine according to the size of the room.

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