Does sunlight have a natural sanitizing effect?

The only information I've been able to find on the subject are little snippets like:

Quote :

"Sunlight has a natural sanitizing effect"

or

Quote :

"Direct sunlight helps to kill germs but may also fade colors."

, but nothing factual.

A little help?

8/5/2008 11:33:27 AM

lol @ santitzing

8/5/2008 11:34:52 AM

funny from someone whose name is mildew

8/5/2008 11:36:23 AM

he's afraid you're gonna kill him..

8/5/2008 11:37:05 AM

wtf are you trying to sanitize?

a usual romp through the washer will get most stuff out

8/5/2008 11:39:04 AM

lol



this is the internet

if i say it

it's TRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUE

8/5/2008 11:59:08 AM

I'd love to romp through the washer

8/5/2008 12:05:47 PM

Quote :

" a usual romp through the washer will get most stuff out"

the OP is probably talking about hand washing and thus line drying...soooo.

My mom dried all of our clothes on the clothesline...they get pretty stiff and can sometimes get an outdoorsy smell to them so when you're ready to bring them in, stick them in the dryer for a few mins to fluff them and put in a dryer sheet to help soften them and eliminate outdoor odors.

8/5/2008 12:05:49 PM

^that's what my mom still does.


That's what I do as well, especially jeans and towels

8/5/2008 12:10:38 PM

^ you handwash jeans and towels??

8/5/2008 12:15:25 PM

i line dry my towels because a full load does not completely dry in the dryers at my apt complex

8/5/2008 12:17:05 PM

i hang some stuff after a romp through the washer

but i dont hand wash shit, that business is for the birds

8/5/2008 12:18:31 PM

Why are you needing to sanitize your wash?

Quote :

"My mom dried all of our clothes on the clothesline...they get pretty stiff and can sometimes get an outdoorsy smell to them so when you're ready to bring them in, stick them in the dryer for a few mins to fluff them and put in a dryer sheet to help soften them and eliminate outdoor odors. "

Wtf
The outdoorsy smell is the best damn thing about drying clothes outside!

8/5/2008 12:23:15 PM

i don't like line dried jeans because they get all stiff..

i don't line dry anything currently because i live in an apartment complex and it's tacky to have shit hanging off the balcony

8/5/2008 12:24:00 PM

eh, some people don't like it. i dont mind it, but you know.

and yeah, i handwash most of my knit shirts and bathing suits/bras...and i hang dry everything except t-shirts, underwear, socks, & workout clothes. Jeans shrinking is NOT fun.

8/5/2008 12:25:10 PM

I'm not handwashing anything, that died with disco.

I'm trying to figure out if sunlight actually has a sanitizing effect on clothes. Critical reading skills people.

8/5/2008 12:27:42 PM

lol idk what your definition of tacky is blah, but my clothes line was there when i got there and i was like fuck it i'm gonna use it too...neighbors above me have one too and a few others around my apt have them

8/5/2008 12:27:52 PM

Quote :

"^ you handwash jeans and towels??"

no silly, i line dry and then fluff in the dryer so they aren't stiff

8/5/2008 12:31:14 PM

uv light can be used to sterilize


so it's probably not too far off to think that sunlight may at least sanitize your laundry, but then, they are also outdoors and exposed to who knows what in the air

8/5/2008 12:39:37 PM

why line dry if you're going to put them in the dryer anyway?

8/5/2008 1:05:49 PM

...do some de-wrinkling, remove pet hair, make them a little less stiff, lessen the outdoorsy smell, finish drying if they didn't dry completely


...Just a few examples.

8/5/2008 1:12:33 PM

yeah, plus it really cuts down on dryer time/energy. A warm afternoon for jeans and towels to sit out and dry and then 10 minutes in the dryer to fluff is a lot better than running (x number) of dryer cycles all day to get everything completely dry

8/5/2008 1:21:59 PM

yeah i use mine cause my shit faces south so i get like 10 hours of sun a day

8/5/2008 1:28:04 PM

shit i only wish my pants would shrink i'm going to have to pay $texas to get everything altered... (the downside of losing 4inches on my waist)

8/5/2008 1:36:08 PM

^lol, yeah thats why i've been drying my dress pants lately...jeans i can keep up with a belt.

8/5/2008 5:47:49 PM

we had to line dry during the power outages after hurricanes when i was a kid.

the clothes always got really stiff. my boxers were so stiff that i chafed

8/5/2008 6:07:49 PM

Quote :

"so it's probably not too far off to think that sunlight may at least sanitize your laundry, but then, they are also outdoors and exposed to who knows what in the air"

Yeah, i think it kind of cancels out. I would think the UV light for the short duration of drying (relatively) would not be enough to kill the excess of germs caused by dirty flies and various other bits of biological matter that floats in the air.

8/5/2008 7:06:12 PM

lol manorexics and damn anorexics in this thread...

8/5/2008 7:18:24 PM

^?

8/5/2008 8:42:53 PM

Pyrimidine dimers

8/6/2008 5:11:22 PM

Yes, sunlight does kill many germs. Best way to do it so it put clothes in tumble dryer for about 10 minutes until they are damp (to remove wrinkles) and then line dry.

Best way to kill bed mites naturally is to leave mattress in strong direct sunlight for several hours.

8/6/2008 5:38:01 PM

^^ nice!

Quote :

"uv light can be used to sterilize"

yes

8/6/2008 5:47:02 PM

I line dry everything. Grew up that way as well. I dig me some stiff towels

[Edited on August 7, 2008 at 8:46 AM. Reason : .]

8/7/2008 8:42:10 AM

lol @ santitzing

8/8/2008 12:05:09 PM

I've heard people say this. It's widely believe in Japan.




...

and complete bull shit.

8/8/2008 4:03:29 PM

^ that's why i posted it. i overheard some asian people claiming it.

[Edited on August 8, 2008 at 4:07 PM. Reason : i was hoping for some snopes.com action.]

8/8/2008 4:06:50 PM

^^ ummm... it is not bullshit. sunlight (the UV part of it) does kill moulds, bacteria, bed mites, etc. of course, most of them will be dead anyway after the washing if you washed on a hot cycle, but that's besides the point.

8/8/2008 7:09:33 PM

^^^ No, its not complete bs. ^ is right.

For example, If your a dude you probably don't know what Im talking about. However, if you get your nails done you've probably seen those machines they put dirty tools in. You'll notice them because its bright as hell when they open the tray. Its a machine that gives off UV light. High exposure to UV generally fucks with the DNA so cells go to shit so cell function has goes to shit and the organism dies because it can't function properly, in effect sanitizing the tools.

Also, people get skin cancer from overexposure to sunlight. Why? Because UV light damages DNA, and if your DNA doesn't work right then cells arn't going to work right and things die when stuff doesnt work right. UV light is a part of sunlight and UV can alter cells to the point where they die. So yeah, sunlight could and probably would kill some bacteria. Now, would the uv light present in sunlight be enough to "sanitize" something, Im sure someone knows, but it sure as hell isn't me.

8/9/2008 12:45:51 AM

the effect is pretty minimal....

the biggest sanitizing effect is coming from the detergent (and stuff with it) and water...

8/11/2008 11:37:23 AM

^ true.

It's perfectly correct to say that UV is damaging to cells as a blanket statement, but it probably has an even greater effect by just depriving the environment of moisture, which bacteria do need. That would be the only effect I could think of that would compare to the bacteria killing process of washing itself.

And add on the question: how often do we really get sick from our clothes? The exercise of hanging out the stuff is probably more beneficial to your health than any bacteria protection that you (don't) get. We want clean, straight clothes because it's pleasant. I don't want to discourage the act of hanging up clothes - I think it's great. I'm just pointing out that the bacteria argument is a false pretense.

8/11/2008 1:45:07 PM

on my way home from work today i saw some clothes laying across the bushes in front of the apartments on kent. :-D

8/12/2008 5:56:51 PM

are you guys really so germ paranoid that you think you'll get sick from clothes???

8/12/2008 6:17:07 PM

^ i hope not. i dunno who started talking about it. i just overheard some asians talking about it and was wondering what the deal was.

google was not helpful in this instance.

8/12/2008 8:41:49 PM