Bacteria, oh the horror! Sleep supplies and myths

I had a conversation with my sleep materials supplier. She noted that I hadn't been purchasing much the way of supplies.

I understand why the air filters might have to be changed, but I asked her what other supplies might need to be changed. She mentioned that the reservoir for the water should be changed routinely and the nasal apparatus. It was some frequency which I thought was rather high.

The water reservoir is filled with distilled water and looks fine. Even if it did need cleaning I think that peroxide for a few minutes would work or even just a mild soap solution.

The air line has a positive flow towards your face. Nothing from you is going upstream. The input is filtered air.

The mask also puzzled me.

The big sales point was that bacteria is on the face mask and the nasal pillows. No doubt this is true. However, I don't think this is some type of Lovecraftian horror and I wasn't motivated to purchase new stuff because of it. I did get a back up set which I am keeping in reserve for if my apparatus breaks.

For starters I clean the nasal pillows once a week with water and sometimes water and mild soap. I used cue tips on the inside.

However, as for bacteria. The human body naturally has a lot of bacteria and it turns out that we are largely symbiotic with most of them. That is we depend on the bacteria to live. This is reported in "Science" and "Scientific American."

The human skin has a lot of bacteria which is beneficial to us. For example, if you are an athlete and are washing a lot with soap and kill the bacteria on your feet you usually get athletes foot. One of the benefits of bacteria in the skin is that they eat fungi.

The bacteria from your skin isn't going to hurt you. Other bacteria which might try to live on your facial secretions on your mask can be avoided with cleaning. There is bacteria all over your living environment on all the surfaces.

I wouldn't reorder stuff because of bacteria. I would avoid re-ordering anything until it breaks.

Agree

Moderate amounts of dirt can help your immune system.
--as I was told by my aunt who had 5 sons all quite close together.

Just got back from an estate sale having made purchase of a major item.

Turns out a relatively young man (by my standards, anyway) died after a minor medical issue that got complicated after contracting MRSA.

Do what you want.

No one's going to get MRSA from a cpap mask! Look it up and see what it's really about.

Julie wrote:No one's going to get MRSA from a cpap mask!

Never said they would (or wouldn't, for that matter).

Just tossing in an observation so all the people who like to P&M will have something to P&M about.

Oh, to have a bucket to P in and a window to toss it out of.
Let passers-by moan all they like, especially with wet shoes.

Sludge wrote:

Julie wrote:No one's going to get MRSA from a cpap mask!

Never said they would (or wouldn't, for that matter).

Just tossing in an observation so all the people who like to P&M will have something to P&M about.

if that isn't a classic drive by stirring of the pot

A little journey "outside the box..."

About 30% of people have staph in their noses. Usually it lives deeper inside the nose than most nasal mask go, so it shouldn't normally be an issue.

Other than normal hygiene so far there is no compelling reason to clean your mask.

Over the weekend you are blessed with a visit from the most wonderful "germ factories" in the world - your grandchildren. After they leave you try to remember if they were in your bedroom playing or not and wonder if they might be tempted to "explore" your mask.

You decide that they are well mannered and most likely didn't mess with your mask. Still no compelling reason to clean your mask.

A few days later you notice you have a runny nose. You dismiss it as your allergies flaring up and since you are in the "habit" of not cleaning your mask you just mask up.

In the course of dealing with your runny nose you end up rubbing it a bit raw in a couple of places. If you are using a nasal mask and sleeping on your side or face you now have created an opportunity for the mucous from deeper inside your nose to dribble down into your mask. With some skin rubbed raw you have created an opportunity for any staph that may be in your nose entry into your blood stream.

Now let's expand this a little. Let's say you use a full face mask. Now it is possible to dribble some snot inside the mask during the night but what happens if you actually sneeze?

I can assure you that if I can dream this up mother nature has already figured out a way to make it happen.

Once again the best approach to equipment cleaning is to clean according to your immune system. If your immune system is working well, do whatever you want to do. On the other hand if your immune system is compromised (as in having a runny nose or catching a cold) then it may be better to clean frequently...

sleepy1235 wrote:I had a conversation with my sleep materials supplier. She noted that I hadn't been purchasing much the way of supplies.

I understand why the air filters might have to be changed, but I asked her what other supplies might need to be changed. She mentioned that the reservoir for the water should be changed routinely and the nasal apparatus. It was some frequency which I thought was rather high.

The water reservoir is filled with distilled water and looks fine. Even if it did need cleaning I think that peroxide for a few minutes would work or even just a mild soap solution.

The air line has a positive flow towards your face. Nothing from you is going upstream. The input is filtered air.

The mask also puzzled me.

The big sales point was that bacteria is on the face mask and the nasal pillows. No doubt this is true. However, I don't think this is some type of Lovecraftian horror and I wasn't motivated to purchase new stuff because of it. I did get a back up set which I am keeping in reserve for if my apparatus breaks.

For starters I clean the nasal pillows once a week with water and sometimes water and mild soap. I used cue tips on the inside.

However, as for bacteria. The human body naturally has a lot of bacteria and it turns out that we are largely symbiotic with most of them. That is we depend on the bacteria to live. This is reported in "Science" and "Scientific American."

The human skin has a lot of bacteria which is beneficial to us. For example, if you are an athlete and are washing a lot with soap and kill the bacteria on your feet you usually get athletes foot. One of the benefits of bacteria in the skin is that they eat fungi.

The bacteria from your skin isn't going to hurt you. Other bacteria which might try to live on your facial secretions on your mask can be avoided with cleaning. There is bacteria all over your living environment on all the surfaces.

I wouldn't reorder stuff because of bacteria. I would avoid re-ordering anything until it breaks.

DMEPs make money by selling suppliers. Some insurers are getting wise, and placing restrictions such as:

1. Limiting supplies.

2. Having the consumer explain why a replacement is needed. For example, the insured must state that their hose or mask is broken and/or cannot be cleaned, it has leaks, etc. Most have stopped "automatic renewals".

3. Proving compliance, such as found in card data, medical progress notes, etc.

A little journey "outside the box..."

My very healthy husband got a Staph infection of some sort at 47 due to a cut on the back of his hand that turned into an obvious infection. I told him to go to the doctors one night. I was out of town that night and it unfortunately got worse later that night. Had I been there or known that it had I would have taken him in right away but he let it go figuring he was fine until morning.

When I got to the hospital at 6pm the next day they had his arm tied up over his head and were pumping him full of all different types of antibiotics and told me we had about an 8 hour wait to see if they were going to take otherwise he was likely going to lose his hand up over his wrist.

Just from a very simple cut that could happen to anyone. They were concerned that the infection was working its way down into the muscles of his hand........he was so out of it at that point i am not even sure he knew i was there but i stayed the night in the hospital with them, much to my surprise they let me and by morning it broke and he was going to be ok and not lose his hand/wrist and lower arm.

I can't even being to describe the shock I experienced thinking any of this could possibly happen to him. If we had lived in squalor, or even had animals, anything that could make me understand how he of all people managed to get so ill from a simple cut, I certainly wasn't aware of it.
He fully recovered but I will always watch any cut he gets with more scrutiny then anyone else.

Do I believe the Posters DME and the bacteria story?

No, but thats not to say I would lazy about cleansing habits but I believe they were using fear to make more money and that alone is despicable act.
But don't ever make the mistake and think any of you could not get such an infection. I understand they are becoming more and more common..........

If you were sharing CPAP equipment with someone else, the situation would be a lot worse. As it is, any bacteria in your CPAP equipment either came from you or from the air you're breathing all the time in your house anyway.

That doesn't mean bacteria isn't a problem, but it's not as bad as the FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) crowd want you to think.

I suggest everyone get at least one spare hose, water tank, mask, etc. Then you can experiment with cleaning and sanitation processes.

Cpap.com sells Control III disinfectant which is supposed to kill germs on CPAP. Rather than throwing older equipment away, you could "renew" it with this.

There are links to ResMed disinfection procedures in my signature line.

I have taken a large pot of water, boiled it, turned off the heat and then dropped certain CPAP parts into the water and left it to cool slowly. Some people actually boil some parts. Use at your own risk, but if you're ready to throw the part in question out anyway, why not.

BTW, even full boiling water will NOT kill every type of germ, but it kills a lot of them, especially if you leave it in it for a long time.

I have found the newer ResMed S9 "standard" water tanks will be damaged by boiling water. Also, some "short" hoses for CPAP masks and regular hoses may be damaged. The ResMed procedure for hoses lists 75C water for 30 minutes.

I have used the "just boiled water" process on the following without problems. I've only done it once on each part, not every week or every month.

ResMed S9 "cleanable" or "dishwashable" tanks. (The newer "non-dishwashable" tank was damaged.)
Swift FX mask parts, including the short tube, but not the cloth/foam headgear strap.
Respironics PRS1, M series, and Legacy water tanks,
Respironics ComfortGel and ComfortGel Blue masks without headgear.
Oracle Oral mask without headgear AND without the short tube.
Breeze mask without foam or cloth parts.
A couple of others removing the foam and cloth parts.

archangle wrote: I have found the newer ResMed S9 "standard" water tanks will be damaged by boiling water. Also, some "short" hoses for CPAP masks and regular hoses may be damaged. The ResMed procedure for hoses lists 175C water for 30 minutes.

ResMed S9 "cleanable" or "dishwashable" tanks. (The newer "non-dishwashable" tank was damaged.)

did you mean 175f? because the only place you're going to get 175c water is in an autoclave.

by 'non-dishwashable' do you mean the original tanks that don't have the snaps on the sides and don't come apart easily? the snap apart ones are newer.

palerider wrote:

archangle wrote: did you mean 175f? because the only place you're going to get 175c water is in an autoclave.

by 'non-dishwashable' do you mean the original tanks that don't have the snaps on the sides and don't come apart easily? the snap apart ones are newer.

Thanks. It's "75C" water.

ResMed has what it calls a "H5i cleanable water tub." Often sold as a "dishwashable" tub, and usually referred to that way here.

There is also a "standard" S9 tank. I think most of the world gets the "dishwashable" tank, but many people here in the US gets the "standard" tank.

The older "standard" tank was not intended to be opened, but you could actually open it with some effort. Newer "standard" tanks do open, but aren't intended to be dishwashed or "heat sanitized." The newer "standard" tanks appear to be a different plastic. I did the "boil dunk" on a newer model tank it it warped. I suspect the older standard water tank would stand up to the boiling, but I don't recall whether I ever did that.

The most obvious way to distinguish the two tanks is that the dishwashable tank has a black gasket and an intermediate removable plastic baffle between the lid and bottom. The standard tank has a blue or yellow gasket and no removable baffle piece.

As I said, don't boil it if you don't have a spare in case it gets damaged.

archangle wrote: There is also a "standard" S9 tank. I think most of the world gets the "dishwashable" tank, but many people here in the US gets the "standard" tank.

The older "standard" tank was not intended to be opened, but you could actually open it with some effort..

ah, I hadn't realized there were now *three* verisons... *lol* thanks for the info .