Drying out your cloth handkerchiefs well ensures viruses and bacteria cannot survive on them. — dpa
Cloth handkerchiefs are back as people seek more sustainable ways to handle sneezes, putting an end to the times they were seen as old-fashioned and unhygienic – though take care when you wash and store them.
Good reasons to use a cloth handkerchief rather than tissues include natural resources as making sanitary paper, including tissues, involves wood, energy and water, says the German Environment Agency.
Secondly, when you throw your disposable tissues into the rubbish, that is a lost opportunity for paper recycling, as your hanky won’t be used to make new paper products.
While natural resources are also needed to produce cloth handkerchiefs, which are typically made of cotton, they can be used many times over.
And you can always find a spot for them, even in a fully-packed washing machine.
But consider germs, say scientists.
The trouble is, often, a used cloth hanky may lie around for a while in your pocket or a laundry basket before making it into your next load of laundry.
Does that make them less hygienic than tissues?
It’s hard to say, given the lack of dedicated studies focused on hygiene comparisons says Markus Egert, professor of microbiology and hygiene at Furtwangen University in Germany.
In principle, “disposable products, while not necessarily more sustainable, are more hygienic,” he says.
That also applies to handkerchiefs.
If you have a sinus infection, “the concentration of infectious bacteria and viruses in your nasal discharge is definitely very high,” Prof Egert says.
Moisture in your mucus means they survive and stay infectious longer in your handkerchief – certainly several hours, and maybe days, he says.
Bear in mind it makes a difference whether you throw a used handkerchief away or keep carrying it around, as you would a cloth one.
You might touch it and then touch surfaces like door handles, which can potentially infect other people.
”If cloth handkerchiefs make sense at all, it’s when you have hay fever so aren’t spreading pathogens,” he says.
Tissues are better if you have a very bad cold, he says.
For greater sustainability, his tip is to use tissues made of recycled paper.
But if you still want to use a cloth handkerchief, try not to scrunch them up after using them but let them dry out, he says, even if that is not necessarily easy.
Also, wash your hands after touching a used cloth handkerchief.
Keep it somewhere separate when you carry it around, are two further tips to stop germs from spreading.
Wash them regularly too, of course.
If they have been used by a cold-sufferer, wash them at 60°C with a universal washing powder containing bleach, says Bernd Glassl of the German Cosmetic, Toiletry, Perfumery and Detergent Association (IKW).
He says the bleach can remove stains and also viruses and bacteria, particularly at higher temperatures.
So long as they’re washed at the recommended temperature with a detergent containing bleach, you don’t need to put your cloth hankies in a separate wash, he says.
Pop them in with other textiles such as your white bed linens.
A further tip when it comes to laundry day, “if damp, used cloth handkerchiefs are lying around in a laundry basket, they can naturally contaminate other textiles they come into contact with,” says Glassl.
Any pathogens might survive if you are doing a wash at a cooler temperature, such as 30°C.
To be on the safe side, keep used cloth handkerchiefs with other textiles you plan to wash at 60°C, and use a detergent containing bleach. – dpa