[Efficient hygiene precautions in the household today]

The results of epidemiological investigations justifies the assumption that increasing health defects, especially enteritis infectiosa, are caused inter alia by inadequate hygienic conditions in households. The number of such diseases ranges between 100,000 and more than 1,000,000 cases per year in the FRG. Responsible for this development is a lack of information about the behaviour of microorganisms in the environment and its pathways of distribution. In addition risks are growing with the recommendation of cleansing methods, which had been adequate for the kitchen techniques in former centuries, but must fall under the conditions of the modern supply, processing and conservation. The described investigations are directed at the determination of the distribution of germs by working in normal household kitchens and at the effectiveness of surface-decontamination-cleansers (so-called FD-preparations). Test principle was the production of a complete dinner by each of 79 housewives with use of minced meat, which was contaminated with micrococcus luteus. After final cleaning of the kitchen we determined the degree of contamination of surfaces, machines and of the components of the meal with use of rodacplates, swabs and quantitative cultures respectively. The experiments are completed by interviews with the housewives. The results let conclude that the use of household cleansers with germicidal properties even in the hand of housewives will reduce the distribution of unwanted microorganisms in the kitchens. In this respect surfaces, on which components of the meal are prepared, and the machines, like cutting machines, waring blenders a.o., are of utmost importance. Disinfections of other parts of the flats including toilets are unnecessary (exception: severe infectious diseases). Therefore the use of FD-preparations outside of the kitchens is not required, but acceptable (it is not necessary to use a cleanser in the kitchen, another one in the toilet and a third one for the bath tube etc.). We do not recommend adapting cleaning and disinfective methods of the hospitals to the normal households. Instead of medical disinfections one should use detergents with nontoxic germicidal additives (e.g. H2O2) in this area, which do not require changing the traditional cleaning techniques. They also should guarantee that cleanliness, absence of odor and minimization of germs are achieved. In addition normal kitchen soaps should be replaced by HD-preparations.