Have you ever been in a room when someone removes their shoes? Many people have no problems with foot odor. However, some people can turn a room into a hazardous smell zone within minutes of shoe removal. Microbes do a number of wonderful things for us. Unfortunately, one down side of this microbe human relationship is that microbes STINK!
The microorganisms living on our skin break down various compounds for food. When they do that the breakdown products not only produce food for the microorganism but also cause a terrible odor. To stop the odor you have to eliminate large numbers of the organisms from the skin. Washing our skin is one way to lower the number of microbes.
Unfortunately, wearing clothing also helps the microorganisms increase in numbers on our skin. The clothing keeps in the moisture we give off. That is why it is a good idea to encourage people with smelly feet to wear socks that adsorb moisture and to get them to buy shoes that breath. Lowering the moisture content in those shoes and wearing some good charcoal soles (charcoal is good at absorbing the odor not the moisture) in the shoes will lower the amount of foot odor.
Another solution for this smelly problem may soon be available on our department store shelves. A company called HaloSource in Seattle, Washington (United States) has developed a process which binds N-halamine compounds onto cotton, cotton blend fabrics, and other cellulose based substances. These N-halamine compounds contain chlorine atoms. Chlorine is a very effective microbe killer. The N-halamine on the clothing would release chlorine from the clothing and kill the microbes on our skin. Experiments with N-halamine treated clothing demonstrated it to be a very effective microbe killer. Fewer microbes means fewer smells.
Chlorine is used everyday to reduce the number of microbes. Chlorine is placed in swimming pools to lower the microorganisms in the water. Fewer microbes means the water is clearer and less likely to transmit diseases from one swimmer to another. Chlorine is also the active ingredient in bleach. Bleach not only whitens our white cloths but kills microbes on our cloths.
One friend of mine is a bleach nut. He bleaches everything. Got some mold on your wall. Bleach it. Bleach will kill that mold and mildew however it does irritate our skin as well. That may be one problem with this new clothing treatment. The company has had human volunteers wear N-halamine treated clothing with no ill effects so far. Further testing is needed to ensure the product is safe.
Another problem with this N-halamine treatment is that the chlorine
Go To Page: 1 2
