[Insider] While you may think that antiseptic wipes or sprays are necessary to kill germs, there's actually a metal that kills germs on contact ‐ no cleaning supplies necessary.Believe it or not, the use of copper for health purposes dates all the way back to Ancient Egypt, and scientists today are still learning about the amazing benefits of copper. Here's what you need to know.
Copper does kill germs
Copper has antimicrobial properties, meaning it can kill microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. However, the microorganism has to come in contact with the copper in order for it to be killed. This is referred to as "contact killing."
According to Edward Bilsky, Ph.D., Provost and Chief Academic Officer at Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, copper can kill germs in a few ways:
It disrupts bacterial cell membranes ‐ copper ions damage cell membranes or "envelopes" and can destroy the DNA or RNA of the microbe
It generates oxidative stress on bacterial cells and creates hydrogen peroxide that can kill the cell
It interferes with proteins that operate important functions that keep bacterial cells alive
The exact mechanism of how copper interferes with proteins in bacterial cells is not fully understood yet, but the current hypothesis is mis-metalation, thanks to the fact that copper is a stable metal.
"Mis-metalation is the ability of a metal to basically replace another metal," says Michael D. L. Johnson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Immunobiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson. "Copper can just replace some of the other metals that are present in some of these other proteins [in bacteria] and by doing so, it blocks the function of those proteins."
When you block a protein's function, it starts a bacteria-killing chain reaction. "By blocking the function of the protein, you block the function of the pathway. When you block the function of the pathway, you block the function of the organism, and then the organism is just dead in the water," says Johnson.
Copper can kill viruses and bacteria
Studies have shown that copper can kill many types of germs on contact. According to a 2015 study published in Health Environments Research and Design Journal, some of the common germs copper has been proven to kill are: