Thread by @ObiWanKenoBit

COPPER KILLS CORONAVIRUS

That’s it. That’s the tweet (that starts the thread).

1/Influenza, SARS, MERS and now COVID 19 cause life threatening illnesses resulting in death and permanent injury. Human-human transmission is easy and can sweep through population centers rapidly. We’re seeing this now.

2/A single sneeze can contaminate an area up to 12 feet away. One small droplet is an infectious dose. Viruses can persist on surfaces for days and the mildly ill or asymptomatic seed their home, work and all the places in between. We touch our faces up to 15X/hr.

3/In the last 20 years we have seen a new wave of viral infections that pose a significant threat to modern civilization. Up to 200M people per year are infected. We’re familiar with most of these including the coronavirus family.

4/SARS and MERS are coronaviruses. And we learned these viruses are quickly transmitted and spread in crowded public areas, mass gatherings (concerts/games) and in hospitals. It takes just a few shared particles to begin a local infection cycle.

5/Our toolset against these viruses is limited. But we have access to a largely ignored, inexpensive and mass deployable barrier: Copper.

6/Copper has inherent properties that kills microbes. Ancient Greeks and Egyptians discovered this and used copper pots to purify water and heal wounds with copper filings.

7/It kills common fungi and bacteria such as Staph. Aureus. Copper exposure starts a chain reaction of events that ultimately leads to the pathogen’s metabolic demise. In fact studies have shown it can reduce surface microbial loads by up to 90%.

8/Viruses like coronavirus and influenza are sensitive to copper. Exposing coronavirus to a high percent copper surface leads to membrane damage, superoxide induced insult and genome fragmentation. This is not a temporary injury. It’s a viral kill.

9/A few studies have shown dramatic reduction in surface viral loads when stainless surfaces have been replaced or covered by high concentration copper material. One such study used HuCoV-229E which shares important characteristics with MERS-coronavirus (which is linked to bats).

10/They found:

“Coronavirus persists in an infectious state on common surface materials for several days.”

“Rapid inactivation of human coronavirus occurs on brass and copper nickel surfaces at room temperature (21°C)”

11/In this chart we see high conc. copper (Cu) surfaces quickly kill coronaviruses (blue, red, green, copper lines). Low Cu has a mild effect (purple). Nickel (orange) and stainless steel (black) viral loads change little over the observed period.

12/Copper surfaces inactivate droplets in less than 1 hour. There is a 10 min. inactivation lag followed by very rapid loss of infectivity - probably the time it takes for the copper ions to breach the virus wall.

13/Viruses stick to surfaces we touch everyday. Door handles, phones, tables, chairs, etc. More than 50% of all of our household surfaces are contaminated. Replacing some of these with copper surfaces will reduce infectivity and likely shorten community viral infection cycles.

14/Stainless steel has become ubiquitous. Look around you. Handrails, countertops, handles, surgical instruments and more. It’s strong, cheap and hard to corrode. But it can harbor viruses for days.

15/This doesn’t obviate the need to wash hands nor ignore common sense precautions as our environment is continuously contaminated by asymptomatic viral carriers. But reducing the overall viral load on these “sticky” surfaces may prevent or mute another outbreak.

16/Where does one start? Hospitals and communal areas such as schools, theaters and other similar venues. Just a few strategically placed copper surfaces may be enough to make a dramatic impact in local viral load.

17/One more thing. Copper impregnated masks. Filter and kill the pathogens coming in and going out.

18/Sources:

Inactivation of Influenza A Virus on Copper versus Stainless Steel Surfaces (Noyce, 2007)

Human Coronavirus 229E Remains Infectious on Common Touch Surface Materials (Warnes, 2015)

A Novel Anti-Influenza Copper Oxide Containing Respiratory Face Mask (Borrow, 2010)

Fin/Add any relevant copper history, research, initiatives or real world experience to this thread.

Proposed short-mid term antiviral copper "toolset":

Cover surfaces with untreated copper shielding tape.
Carry several small 100% copper discs.
Change door knobs & handles to copper/high copper brass.
Copper pot for water treatment.

(ltd research on tape/disc effectiveness)

"LuminOre CopperTouch Antimicrobial Surfaces. Seamlessly applied to virtually any surface. Makes coppers natural antimicrobial properties available on items too heavy if made of solid metal at a fraction of the wt & the cost."

luminorect.com/worlds-first-a…