According to the NY Times, several laboratories are working on a new soap-free technology, which will bathe your hand in room-temperature plasma gas powerful enough to kill industrial grade bacteria, or even athlete’s foot.
Dr. Gregor Morfill, who created several prototypes at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, believes the world is ready for such technology. Hospital workers, who must wash their hands dozens of times a day, often need a minute or more to do the process right, by scrubbing with soap and water. But new devices could clean even hard-to-reach areas under fingernails, killing off lingering bacteria, viruses, and fungi in as little as four seconds, as opposed to the time-intensive scrubbing process they endure today. Instead of scrubbing, the workers would put their hands into a small box that bathes them with plasma — the same sort of luminous gas found in neon signs, fluorescent tubes and TV displays — then 4 seconds later they’re clean.
Prototypes exist today that are both portable and wall-mounted, and they can cost as little as $100 to build. And it won’t stop at just hand sanitizers: eventually you may see plasma gas incorporated into air-conditioning systems and burn treatments.
WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO SKIP THE SOAP AND WATER SCRUBBING YOU’VE USED ALL YOUR LIFE, FOR A 4 SECOND ZAP OF PLASMA CLEANING?
LOL funny story. But I doubt I will be givig up on soap and water.