Antiseptics are chemicals that are considered safe for use on skin or tissues. Some examples include hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol. Antiseptics must also be effective against microbes and should be able to penetrate tissues without causing any damage.

Antiseptics

Degerming is the physical act of scrubbing or wiping living tissue with a light chemical such as soap. 

Degerming

There anre many ways to control microbial growth. The methods that are considered safe for skin include:
- antiseptics
- degerming


Austin Community College

In order to maintain a healthy environment, we needed to develop ways to control microbial growth and reduce the microbial count to safe levels for public health. "Safe levels" depends on the type of environment you are in. A medical setting will require much lower microbial counts than inside our homes, and therefore require higher levels of decontamination

Controlling Microbial Growth

OpenStax Concepts of Biology provides the necessary breadth and depth for core Biology concepts.

Link: https://openstax.org/details/books/concepts-biology/

OpenStax Biology 2nd Edition

Types of Microbial Control for Living Tissue

Fomites are inanimate surfaces that can harbor microbes. To control microbial growth on fomites, we can use the following
- -cidal agents
- sterilization
- disinfection
- sanitization
- -static agents

Types of Microbial Control for Fomites.

Methods for controlling microbial growth include
- temperature control
- moisture control
- pH control
- chemical control


Methods for Controlling Microbial Growth

static treatments do not actually kill infectious agents, they are often less toxic to humans and other animals, and may also better preserve the integrity of the item treated. Such treatments are typically sufficient to keep the microbial population of an item in check.

-Static

-cide (or -cidal). The prefix indicates the type of microbe or infectious agent killed by the treatment method: bactericides kill bacteria, viricides kill or inactivate viruses, and fungicides kill fungi. 

Learn Before

Related

Learn After