OT-Humidifier Disinfectant risks

I came across this article about an outbreak in Korea.


.http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es300567j

There used to be warnings about humidifiers in the newspapers every fall in Canada. We use them everywhere to attempt to offset the effects of heating which create air drier then the Gobi desert. One is always walking a fine line between stuff growing in them and using toxic chemicals to keep them from growing and descaling them.
Here we have one in the furnace and one of the jobs of the technician in the spring is to clean it and prepare it for next winter. Because it is in the furnace it gets completed dried out frequently to prevent bacteria growth but the mineral scaling is still gross. We also have cute little fountains all over the house that I fill up with at least 2 cups of water per day and clean out frequently with vinegar - because the cat drinks from them - yes, he has his own bowl but he never uses it.

Ultrasonic or unheated "spray" humidifiers spray droplets of water (aerosolizing), which is the optimal way to spread many types of germs, such as Legionnaire's disease.

They also use unfiltered air, and are rarely dumped out, cleaned, and refilled.

In theory, CPAP humidifiers don't make droplets and "aerosolize" the water, although many people report that they may actually do this to some extent.

I still recommend keeping the tank clean, using distilled water, and/or dumping the water frequently.

BlackSpinner wrote:...because the cat drinks from them - yes, he has his own bowl but he never uses it.

Now why would he want to drink from a boring bowl when he can drink from cute little fountains!