South Australia Public Health writes, in part, the following:
-
Before you buy second-hand clothes or sheets, it's wise to check the seams and creases for bed bugs, their eggs, and their waste products. Bed bugs usually scurry away and hide when exposed to light.
-
The risk of catching something from a second-hand item is small, but you should eliminate the risk by disinfecting the item at home. Proper disinfection eliminates your risk of catching athlete's foot or other things.
-
Wash everything in extraordinarily-hot water.
- [For full disinfection, this may need to reach a higher temperature than what your water heater produces. You may see my post here for advice on how to produce such hot water, and for advice on how to get extra disinfection power by using sunlight and other tricks.]
-
If you buy something unwashable, such as a suit, you may:
- dry-clean it, or
- dry it in a tumble dryer set to "high heat" for ten minutes, or
- seal it in a plastic bag for five days.
-
If you buy second-hand jewelry, see here.
I would add:
-
Washing certain items in hot water may destroy them, or may make the dyes bleed. When I wash items in hot water, I like to hand-wash them by themselves, in a bucket, so that the released dyes don't mix into the rest of my clothes.
-
Many thrift stores don't disinfect items before selling them to you. This is why you should disinfect them yourself.
I'm an IT consultant, not a microbiologist, and there may be mistakes in my post. If you follow the advice given in my post, you do so at your own risk. If you need to reach a microbiologist, see /r/microbiology.
Submitted July 17, 2017 at 03:17PM by tealhill http://ift.tt/2vuWamw
