MYTHS 14 NOVEMBER 2015 CLEANING HYGIENE TODAY FEATURE Old Wives’ Tale? Every household has its own traditions and beliefs, nuggets of knowledge that have been passed down from generation to generation. Most people outside the households will dismiss these ideas as unscientific or incorrect, especially when it comes to cleaning and hygiene. In this feature CHT investigates some of the most widespread old wives’ tales to see if they have any basis in reality To get rid of red wine stains, you should pour white wine over the top. Vinegar should be used to clean windows or other glass surfaces. Bicarbonate of soda can be used to fix anything from degreasing an oven to removing stains, via bringing peace to the Middle East and curing the common cold. Maybe. Everyone has heard these and lots of other top tips, over the next few pages CHT looks at the basis for these claims and even tests a few out so we can tell you which ones really work. WINE So let’s start with one of the most common tales, as soon as you spill red wine, follow with some white wine over the same spot and watch it magically disappear… for some reason the phrase throwing good money after bad leaps to mind here, but who knows maybe there is some substance to the claims. VINEGAR Cleaning windows or glass coffee tables with vinegar? Scrubbing with old newspapers? Instinct might suggest that you are going to end up with very streaky glass littered with vestiges of bad headlines, but again it would seem that there is far more fact than fiction here. Windows, at least on the outside, get covered in streaks because of the lime scale that is present in rain. As anyone who managed to stay awake during secondary school chemistry classes will tell you that lime scale is extremely alkaline, meaning it would turn litmus paper blue or green. Acids of course turned them red, and reacted with alkaline. Vinegar is of course very acidic. So vinegar and lime scale react together and turns into carbon dioxide and water, leaving your windows squeaky clean. Though the smell might not be the best. Naturally, the same principles apply anywhere lime scale builds up, so if you see someone disappear into a toilet clutching a bottle of vinegar then there may be a perfectly normal reason. POTATOES Admittedly one that CHT hadn’t heard before, but apparently it is common knowledge in certain circles that potatoes have magical powers and that all rust lives in mortal fear of the common spud. Rust parents tell their rust children about the potato that lives under the bed… Rust comes about when water reacts with iron. Potatoes meanwhile contain something called oxalic acid. Oxalic acid mixes with iron to form a compound known as ferric oxalate (I hope you’re making note of all these scientific names, there will be a test later). The good news is that ferric oxalate, unlike rust dissolves in water so it can just we wiped away. So next time your favourite iron pot/pan/ whatever shows signs of rust chop a potato and run the inside over the rust, then wipe it away. Frankly CHT wasn’t willing to test this one out, leaving a massive red stain in the middle of the office floor might have been taken the wrong way. Plus it would be a terrible waste of good wine. However there is actually a very good scientific basis for the idea of using wine to get out wine stains. Red wine gets its colour from pigments called anthocyanins, which dissolve in alcohol. This means that white wine will absorb the pigments and can then be soaked up. Even better than white wine however would be gin or vodka, which, because of the much higher alcohol percentage, will absorb more anthocyanins, and do so faster. Bicarbonate of soda can be used to fix anything, from bringing peace to the Middle East and curing the common cold.”
CHT November 2015
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