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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCopper Destroys Viruses and Bacteria. Why Isn't It Everywhere?
In 1852, physician Victor Burq visited a copper smelter in Paris's 3rd arrondissement, where they used heat and chemicals to extract the reddish-brown metal. It was a dirty and dangerous job. Burq found the facility to be "in poor condition," along with the housing and the hygiene of the smelters. Normally, their mortality rates were "pitiful," he observed.
Yet, the 200 employees who worked there had all been spared from cholera outbreaks that hit the city in 1832, 1849, and 1852. When Burq learned that 400 to 500 copper workers on the same street had also mysteriously dodged cholera, he concluded that something about their professionsand copperhad made them immune to the highly infectious disease. He launched a detailed investigation into other people who worked with copper, in Paris and cities around the world.
In the 1854 to 1855 cholera epidemic, Burq could not find any deaths of jewellers, goldsmiths, or boilermakersall those who worked with copper. In people in the army, he found that musicians who played brass instruments (brass is partly copper) were also protected.
In the 1865 Paris epidemic, 6,176 people died of cholera, out of a population of 1,677,000 peoplethats 3.7 people out of every 1,000. But of the 30,000 who worked in different copper industries, only 45 diedan average of around 0.5 per 1,000.
Snip
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xgqkyw/copper-destroys-viruses-and-bacteria-why-isnt-it-everywhere
(A good read)
Aristus
(66,397 posts)Or, more accurate to say: it's everywhere and nowhere.
Pound for pound, it's not as valuable as gold, but it has hundreds more industrial uses, so ready supplies get snapped up quickly by the power and electronics industries.
secondwind
(16,903 posts)cilla4progress
(24,738 posts)I was thinking last night about Marquez's great book, Love in the Time of Cholera. Can't even recall if it was about a pandemic! Going to see if I can dig it out!
bamagal62
(3,264 posts)to strip/steal homes of the copper while it's being built so they can sell it.
OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)on the side of the road out of my subdivision. Is suspect it's tubing of some kind as it looks from the road to be about an inch thick. The spool is bigger than my car and on the side in huge letters they have spray painted "NOT COPPER!"
It's been there unmolested for weeks so I guess it worked.
dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)captain queeg
(10,209 posts)Copper is a commodity, it goes up and down significantly. Chile is by far the biggest producer. Where we have stainless steel in our hospitals, Chile uses copper just for the reason mentioned. I saw something recently about how long the virus lasted on different surfaces. If I remember right it was less than an hour for copper which is really good. But its just not that common because its so expensive relative to many other materials and most of it goes into electrical uses.
OhZone
(3,212 posts)supplements would be helpful.
I bet they'd be poisonous in large doses, but I have seen them on the shelves of the Vitamin Store.
EndlessWire
(6,537 posts)supplements last week. They can really hurt you if you take too much. Very discouraging.
There doesn't seem to be an easy answer.
What was it that the Chinese government was spraying on their streets recently?
NNadir
(33,528 posts)...that you can't get a degree in journalism the days if you have passed a college level science course.
dalton99a
(81,526 posts)DFW
(54,412 posts)There used to be a few hundred copper mines in the region.
Brother Buzz
(36,444 posts)Native Americans were working the copper back when the Egyptians were building the pyramids, and a lot of the wackos will suggest they harvested most of the reserves centuries before 'discovery'.
Hell, with their fertile imaginations, the conspiracy theorists will even tell you the copper was somehow shipped to the Egypt and employed in the pyramids to make power. That is, if you believe what you hear on 'Coast to Coast" radio.
DFW
(54,412 posts)Never heard of them. I guess we are just living in third world cultural isolation over here.
A visiting friend from Lansing once brought me a big piece of native copper from the upper peninsula. Almost looks like something Giacometti might have used as a trial run.
Brother Buzz
(36,444 posts)Crazy conspiracies of all stripes are entertained, but listening to it is one of my guilty pleasures; punching holes in their wacko theories keeps me on my toes.
DFW
(54,412 posts)Germany essentially has only one coastline, and that's in the north. There is Lake Konstanz in the south, but you can't compare the North Sea or the Baltic Sea with a lake, even a big lake.
I don't know if anything like that would even get a license to broadcast here. Anything that comes close to outlandish propaganda gets scrutinized by the government for Nazi (forbidden by law) style similarities, and gets banned at the slightest sign of similarity. That's why there's no Fox-Germany. They did try for a license many years ago here, but got turned down.
Mendocino
(7,495 posts)Pure enough to see malleable bands between conglomerate and crystalline structures.
DFW
(54,412 posts)Copper is fairly chemically active, so not too many places exist where it appears in near pure form. The UP is one of them.
The River
(2,615 posts)Lots of copper wristbands out there. Sold as an arthritis "cure".
Copper pipes in older houses, same for wiring. Lots of "Copper Fit"
athletic gear being sold. Head to toe.
So, suit up in copper gear, chew pennies and hide in a plumbing supply warehouse. That's my new plan. /s
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,356 posts)If you see a lumpy, streaky green car on the road, that'll be mine -- got some old 1/2 inch copper plumbing that needs a new use.
Hmm. When the feds come knockin', I'll just tell 'em, "That's not a mooshine still; that's my coronavirus decontamination facility!"
crickets
(25,981 posts)roamer65
(36,745 posts)Direct banks to retire paper $1 notes and use only the coins.
Small gesture but it would help eliminate one vector, ratty infected $1 notes.
Make a cupronickel $2 and $5 coin as well.
ansible
(1,718 posts)Just something to think about the next time you see one dumped on the side of the road. Microwaves sometimes have even more.
Mendocino
(7,495 posts)copper plated zinc blanks, about 97.5 zinc and 2.5 copper. There is little copper in pennies. I wouldn't recommend home smelting by anyone; lead, mercury, nickel, cadmium and others from copper can cause a host of problems.
Mariana
(14,858 posts)Mendocino
(7,495 posts)Old pennies turn green like the patina in The Statute of Liberty.
HarlanPepper
(2,042 posts)Amishman
(5,557 posts)StarryNite
(9,447 posts)Metallic Copper as an Antimicrobial Surface
"Bacteria, yeasts, and viruses are rapidly killed on metallic copper surfaces, and the term contact killing has been coined for this process. While the phenomenon was already known in ancient times, it is currently receiving renewed attention. This is due to the potential use of copper as an antibacterial material in health care settings. Contact killing was observed to take place at a rate of at least 7 to 8 logs per hour, and no live microorganisms were generally recovered from copper surfaces after prolonged incubation. The antimicrobial activity of copper and copper alloys is now well established, and copper has recently been registered at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the first solid antimicrobial material. In several clinical studies, copper has been evaluated for use on touch surfaces, such as door handles, bathroom fixtures, or bed rails, in attempts to curb nosocomial infections. In connection to these new applications of copper, it is important to understand the mechanism of contact killing since it may bear on central issues, such as the possibility of the emergence and spread of resistant organisms, cleaning procedures, and questions of material and object engineering. Recent work has shed light on mechanistic aspects of contact killing. These findings will be reviewed here and juxtaposed with the toxicity mechanisms of ionic copper. The merit of copper as a hygienic material in hospitals and related settings will also be discussed."
Much more of this scientific study at the link...
[link:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3067274/|
Brother Buzz
(36,444 posts)doc03
(35,349 posts)from the common cold, arthritis to erectile dysfunction. Its everywhere take some electrical wire and wrap it around your
arm or whatever is bothering you.
Sogo
(4,986 posts)zinc, copper, selenium (2-3 Brazil nuts), and vitamin C in the form of fresh squeezed OJ.
I ordered a supplement through Amazon of zinc and copper.
Ancient Ayurveda medicine recommends each morning drinking a cup of water that has sat in a copper cup overnight. I've started doing that after reading a study from 2015 that indicates coronavirus surviving the shortest time on copper surfaces. I have noticed already, inside of a week, a marked improvement in a skin rash I have on my face, which is probably viral....Will see if the supplements work as well; otherwise will go back to the copper cup, which is kind of a pain because it tarnishes after a couple of uses and needs to be de-tarnished (not difficult, but taking a pill is easier).....Am I lazy, or what?!
burrowowl
(17,641 posts)misanthrope
(7,418 posts)Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, neighbors on the periodic table. Brass contains the same properties -- the emission of ions which damage bacteria and viruses -- as copper. Brass doorknobs, push plates and light switch covers would be a great first step and less likely to be stolen.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)I don't remember which, but you can find that with a web search. The downside is that you may have to eat a lot of that food to get that specific benefit, but that could have side effects.
Response to LiberalArkie (Original post)
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LiberalArkie
(15,719 posts)and later.. Brass which is an alloy of copper and zinc. It was everywhere. Stainless cost more but maintenance did not have to clean stainless all the the time (or ever) for it to look nice.