Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/10/02/the-science-of-vinegar-what-happens-to-bacteria-under-a-microscope.html
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“…reducing my exposure to harsh chemicals.”
By using a mixture of acetic acid and isopropyl alcohol. Ok, sure.
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What happens under a microscope stays under a microscope.
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Don’t forget that odious dihydrogen monoxide! But seriously, I understand the urge to avoid some of the harsher shit where we can, and I do support that. I suspect this works pretty well.
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Drifting mildly off topic, anyone have anything good for removing rust stains from a toilet bowl? I’ve been tempted to put on the heavy rubber gauntlets and break out the “hot” cleaner for a couple cleaning sessions, but as the wise ones say, “that stuff will eat the hell out of your drain pipes!” and I’m still sore from the ~21 K from the last drainline replacement. 
(The “hot” cleaner being a 10% HCI solution…)
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No irony spent extolling the virtues of vinegar as a bactericide while appreciating that the production of vinegar* requires a bacteria? [gormless emoji]
(as opposed to acetic acid, its chief component, which can be made without involving living things much at all) (pretty sure the bananas (just admire them!) in that image can be replaced with all manner of fruity sundries upon which a vast industry depends)
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Beat me to it. No less ‘harsh’ (whatever that’s supposed to mean) than a dilute ammonia solution or dilute bleach solution (don’t mix those two, kids!).
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Hm. You can drink vinegar (though it’ll dissolve your teeth), but I wouldn’t recommend drinking a similar amount of bleach or ammonia. Also, bleach products will ruin your clothes, and ammonia is very harsh on your nasal lining.
My son did his 5th grade science fair project about whether vinegar will kill germs in a household sponge as well as other disinfectants. It worked very well. Since then (~20 years ago), we keep a squirt bottle (like a diner ketchup dispenser) of white vinegar by the sink to clean countertops with and to disinfect the sponges and to wash produce. It’s cheap, works well, and is probably better for the environment than antibacterial cleansers. The only down side is that your house will smell of white vinegar, not the most pleasant smell.
Also – try soaking your smelly, stinky clothes in vinegar for several hours before washing. It’s a very effective odor neutralizer.
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I’ve never used it on a toilet, but there’s a product (in the US, anyway) called CLR and it has got rid of all the rust I’ve thrown at it. (CLR stands for Calcium, Lime, and Rust)
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So the thing with acetic acid is that its danger comes entirely from concentration. It’s not really toxic to us, just acidic. You can burn off your skin with a strong solution but once it’s dilute you can put it on your chips.
Isopropyl alcohol…well, yeah, I can’t vouch for that.
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The dose makes the poison - check.
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Well, yeah, but calling something a harsh chemical simply because it’s acidic still feels strange to me. Make sure you take it with enough water – or some alkali like sodium hydroxide, despite that also being dangerous on its own – and suddenly the dose you can have goes way up. Is ascorbic acid a harsh chemical? It’s a vitamin, and if you don’t eat food containing it you get scurvy. 
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I’ve been using a vinegar solution for weed killing and have been happy with the results-vs-effort/cost so far. No it doesn’t kill the roots but my observation is burn a plant’s photosynthesis parts enough times and it eventually decides it’s not worth the trouble to grow.
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Indeed.
The LD50 of isopropyl alcohol is 5000 mg/kg (oral, rat). Just as a comparison point, the corresponding one for a common fingernail polish remover–acetone–is 5800 mg/kg. Extrapolating to humans is always tricky, but this does mean that for rats, at least, isopropyl alcohol is more poisonous than fingernail polish remover.
But please, tell me more about mixing a food product with a poison and spraying it around the kitchen to avoid “harsh chemicals”.
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The strength of vinegar makes a big difference. This video used undiluted 8% vinegar. Most vinegar in the US is already at 5% and adding water weakens the antimicrobial effect.
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Using antimicrobial cleaners is pretty much unessecary in a home. Most bacteria die when surfaces are dry, and most bacteria in your home comes from your own body and are part of your natural microbial fauna, like skin bacteria. For cleaning soap and dishwashing liquid is enough.
Vinegar is good for soaking smelly clothes though. And removing lime scale.
I was planning on using that next, as the last time I broke out the hot cleaner, it only made a small dent on the build up. Figured I’d get some community opinions before tracking down a bottle of the stuff.
… and cleaning pennies, but that’s a grade school level experiment that is still kind of cool.
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