Medical gloves engage in germ warfare – 05/04/04

"Although they look, feel and even smell like ordinary medical gloves, a new design that could be on the U.S. market by the end of the year emits a gas that’s safe to humans but deadly to everything from HIV to E. coli. All the glove needs to start working is a little ambient light."

It kills everything they’ve tested on it…

Sounds pretty scary at first, but the chemical is the gaseous form of chlorine dioxide, which we already get a lot of since it’s used to disinfect drinking water, meat, seafood, and produce packaging. It disrupts the flow of nutrients across the cell wall. It doesn’t so much "emit" gas as create a microenvironment. You can’t tell the diff from the look or feel – but I’ll bet they smell like a swimming pool when they get hot.

I hope my dentist doesn’t get too enthused about them. Or my Ob/GYN.

The story caught my eye, and the more I think about it, the funnier it is. Look at all this technological language to describe something women have been doing for years! Wear gloves, clean with bleach – bleach on gloves ok, kills things. Maybe we need a few more of these scientists cleaning the commode from time to time.

What what about those in "glove professions" that don’t wear white? I used to have this great pair of perfectly black jeans…