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    * 03-16-20
    * [57]evidence

[58]Copper kills coronavirus. Why aren’t our surfaces covered in it?

Civilizations have recognized copper’s antimicrobial properties for
centuries. It’s time to bring the material back.

  Copper kills coronavirus. Why aren’t our surfaces covered in it?
  [Source Images: ekimckim/[59]Blendswap (toilet),
  blenderjunky/[60]Blendswap (bathroom)]
    *
    *
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    *

  [61]By Mark Wilson5 minute Read

  In China, it was called “qi,” the symbol for health. In Egypt it was
  called “ankh,” the symbol for eternal life. For the Phoenicians, the
  reference was synonymous with Aphrodite—the goddess of love and beauty.
  advertisement
  advertisement

  These ancient civilizations were referring to copper, a material that
  cultures across the globe have recognized as vital to our health for
  more than 5,o00 years. When [62]influenzas, bacteria like [63]E. coli,
  superbugs like MRSA, or even coronaviruses land on most hard surfaces,
  they can live for up to four to five days. But when they land on
  copper, and copper alloys like brass, they begin to die within minutes
  and are [64]undetectable within hours. “We’ve seen viruses just blow
  apart,” says Bill Keevil, professor of environmental healthcare at the
  University of Southampton. “They land on copper and it just degrades
  them.”

  No wonder that in India, people have been drinking out of copper cups
  for millennia. Even here in the United States, a copper line brings in
  your drinking water. Copper is a natural, passive, antimicrobial
  material. It can self-sterilize its surface without the need for
  electricity or bleach.

  Copper boomed [65]during the Industrial Revolution as a material for
  objects, fixtures, and buildings. Copper is still widely used in power
  networks—the copper market is, in fact, growing because the material is
  such an effective conductor. But the material has been pushed out of
  many building applications by a wave of new materials from the 20th
  century. Plastics, tempered glass, aluminum, and stainless steel are
  the materials of modernity—used for everything from architecture to
  Apple products.  Brass door knobs and handrails went out of style as
  architects and designers opted for sleeker-looking (and often cheaper)
  materials.

  Now Keevil believes it’s time to bring copper back in public spaces,
  and hospitals in particular.  In the face of an [66]unavoidable future
  full of global pandemics, we should be using copper in healthcare,
  public transit, and even our homes. And while it’s too late to stop
  COVID-19, it’s not too early to think about our next pandemic.

The benefits of copper, quantified

  We should have seen it coming, and in reality, someone did.

  In 1983, medical researcher Phyllis J. Kuhn [67]wrote the first
  critique of the disappearance of copper she’d noticed in hospitals.
  During a training exercise on hygiene at Hamot Medical center in
  Pittsburgh, students swabbed various surfaces around the hospital,
  including toilets bowls and door knobs. She noticed the toilets were
  clean of microbes, while some of the fixtures were particularly dirty
  and grew dangerous bacteria when allowed to multiply on agar plates.
  advertisement

  [Photo: Backiris/iStock]“Sleek and shining stainless steel doorknobs
  and push plates look reassuringly clean on a hospital door. By
  contrast, doorknobs and push plates of tarnished brass look dirty and
  contaminating,” she wrote at the time. “But even when tarnished,
  brass—an alloy typically of 67% copper and 33% zinc—[kills bacteria],
  while stainless steel—about 88% iron and 12% chromium—does little to
  impede bacterial growth.”

  Ultimately, she wrapped her paper up with a simple enough conclusion
  for the entire healthcare system to follow. “If your hospital is being
  renovated, try to retain old brass hardware or have it repeated; if you
  have stainless steel hardware, make certain that it is disinfected
  daily, especially in critical-care areas.”

  Decades later, and admittedly with funding from the [68]Copper
  Development Association (a copper industry trade group), Keevil has
  pushed Kuhn’s research further. Working in his lab with some of the
  most feared pathogens in the world, he has demonstrated that not only
  does copper kill bacteria efficiently; it also kills viruses. (In 2015,
  he even [69]demonstrated this phenomenon with a precursor to COVID-19,
  coronavirus 229E).

  In Keevil’s work, he dips a plate of copper into alcohol to sterilize
  it. Then he dips it into acetone to get rid of any extraneous oils.
  Then he drops a bit of pathogen onto the surface. In moments it’s dry.
  The sample sits for anywhere from a few minutes to a few days. Then he
  shakes it in a box full of glass beads and a liquid. The beads scrape
  off bacteria and viruses into the liquid, and the liquid can be sampled
  to detect their presence. In other cases, he has developed microscopy
  methods which allow him to watch—and record—a pathogen being destroyed
  by copper the moment it hits the surface.

  The effect looks like magic, he says, but at this point, the phenomena
  at play is well-understood science. When a virus or bacteria strikes
  the plate, it’s flooded with copper ions. Those ions penetrate cells
  and viruses like bullets. The copper doesn’t just kill these pathogens;
  it destroys them, right down to the nucleic acids, or reproductive
  blueprints, inside.

  “There’s no chance of mutation [or evolution] because all the genes are
  being destroyed,” says Keevil. “That’s one of the real benefits of
  copper.” In other words, using copper doesn’t come with the risk of,
  say, over-prescribing antibiotics. It’s just a good idea.
  advertisement

In real-world testing, copper proves its worth

  Outside of the lab, other researchers have tracked whether copper makes
  a difference when used in real-life medical contexts–which includes
  hospital door knobs for certain, but also places like hospital beds,
  guest-chair armrests, and even IV stands.

  In 2015, researchers working on a Department of Defense grant compared
  infection rates at three hospitals, and found that when copper alloys
  were used in three hospitals, it [70]reduced infection rates by 58%. A
  similar study was done in 2016 inside a pediatric intensive care unit,
  which charted [71]a similarly impressive reduction in infection rate.

  But what about expense? Copper is always more expensive than plastic or
  aluminum, and often a pricier alternative to steel.  But given that
  hospital-borne infections are costing the healthcare system as much as
  [72]$45 billion a year—not to mention killing as many as 90,000
  people—the copper upgrade cost is negligible by comparison.

  Keevil, who no longer receives funding from the copper industry,
  believes the responsibility falls to architects to choose copper in new
  building projects. Copper was the first (and so far it is the last)
  antimicrobial metal surface approved by the EPA. (Companies in the
  silver industry tried [73]and failed to claim it was antimicrobial,
  which actually [74]led to an EPA fine.) Copper industry groups have
  registered over 400 copper alloys with the EPA to date. “We’ve shown
  copper-nickel is just as good as brass at killing bacteria and
  viruses,” he says. And copper nickel doesn’t need to look like an old
  trumpet; it’s indistinguishable from stainless steel.

  As for the rest of the world’s buildings that haven’t been updated to
  rip out the old copper fixtures, Keevil has a piece of advice: “Don’t
  remove them, whatever you do. These are the best things you’ve got.”
  advertisement
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About the author

  Mark Wilson is a senior writer at Fast Company who has written about
  design, technology, and culture for almost 15 years. His work has
  appeared at Gizmodo, Kotaku, PopMech, PopSci, Esquire, American Photo
  and Lucky Peach

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