Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

I really wouldn't bother about this. As pointed out back in #13, you catch viruses from infected people, or from objects that infected people have recently touched or sneezed on. You don't catch viruses from electronic components that have been posted across the world.

Some people really do need to get a grip. My local paper is quoting a vox pop from a resident of Brize Norton village, who is vowing to quarantine herself and her family for the next two months because the UK evacuation 747 has landed at BZ. This is hardly the zombie apocalypse.

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

Putting the hearse before the Cart-erton, perhaps ;D

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

Low level exposure is usually a good thing, it builds the immune response before there are too many bugs to make you ill, repeated very low level even better. A big dose, such as being next to a sneezing sufferer or shaking their hand (before or after symptoms) is another thing.

Ever noticed your doctor never (well hardly ever) shakes your hand? And they are usually "on duty" despite seeing many contagious people every day.

Hygiene is important but if taken to silly levels as it is today does lead to trouble, just look at the increasing number of allergic people about,. Take the caveman, not a lot of washing but infrequent contact with distant cave people, that is how our immune system evolved. Not being smelly is a rather recent thing (last 100 years maybe) I wonder what that may do in the future? (I do wash and like not to be smelly by the way).

so will I, none at all (now when will that thing from China arrive).

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

I suppose soaking them in neat bleach overnight might do the trick but as Alan says I think we worry about these incidents too much. John.

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

MM - Very true.
But (looking for a news item on the source of the virus . Something I'd only caught a portion of on BBC ) I came across this article ,which may /may not have some bearing on any decision on disinfecting.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-51176409

Can the coronavirus be transferred through items bought from Wuhan and posted to UK? - Stefan

There is no evidence this is a risk. Some diseases - including the coronavirus that causes Sars - can spread through surfaces contaminated by people coughing or sneezing on them.

It has not been shown this new coronavirus can do that. Even if it could, there would still be questions about whether international shipping would be a major problem.

Cold viruses tend to survive less than 24 hours outside the human body although norovirus (a severe stomach bug) can last months outside the body.

The most reassuring fact so far is that cases seem to require close contact with another person - say, a family member or healthcare worker - in order to spread

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

That should make them all white.

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

I was exposed to Typhoid this morning. Not worried though as it was a holiday booster to ensure I don't get the real thing. The extreme level of cleanliness these days does seem to have created higher levels of illness paradoxically. As said, common flu is your immediate concern, not the new version.

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

Well one day passed since I licked that Aliexpress order. Still good!

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

I've got some parts on the way from aliexpress, I aren't worried in the slightest. The NHS website has info on viruses.

If you're concerned then I'd keep the parts out of your mouth and nose, don't rub them against bare eyeballs or mucous membranes and wash your hands after you've handled them, whatever they are.

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

Oh! Please! I asked for that one! J.

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

;D Good one!

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

Sensible IMHO, probably needless but still sensible for "just in case"

The outer packaging might be a greater risk, having been handled by many people along the supply chain, than the actual contents that were handled by only one or two people in the warehouse.

A good analogy in my view is crossing a lightly used rural road without looking. So doing is probably safe, there is unlikely to be a vehicle approaching, and even if a vehicle does approach, the driver can probably stop in time, or swerve round you.
Despite the low risk, it is generally accepted that one should look both ways before crossing even lightly used roads.

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

A quick spray with a mould removing cleaner will kill any surface bugs if you want to be ultra careful. These are really just bleach sprays. The Astonish one costs £1 from the usual places, but all the brands are pretty much the same. Don't forget to wash your hands afterwards.

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

Thinking back to my agricultural-technology BSc, the one thing we were always taught was that "sunlight is a great disinfectant".

Yes! it's the UV component in sunlight whose incident photons really mess-up the ability-to-replicate of bacteria and viruses.

If you're worried about Chinese consignments, leave them out on your doorstep during the day so Sol's UV-rays can do their bug-killing thing.
In the meantime, get out in the sunlight so your skin can synthesize a good dose of Vitamin-D (and so protect you from osteoporosis, that big fall-and-unresolved-hip-fracture-killer of older-people).

My Biostatistics Masters-degree (still extant but unsubmitted after 40 years) notes that - as a proportion of the population in the infected area - the reported fatalities from this latest virus are really rather low. I'm not fretting about it.

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

It is unlikely to survive long outside the human body. Viruses need to be in a cell at the right temperature, within a narrow range specific to them.

The biggest threat mode is aerosol from human saliva and touching surfaces in public transport. Airports have tens and hundreds of thousands of people passing through them in one day, and the London Underground has 5 million people passing through it.

If someone sneezed on your packaging it would be there for a while but would soon die, likely as Paul says, in transit.

Handle, wash your hands, and throw away the packaging.

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

I must admit that I started getting worried on the day Wuhan was locked down. I don't remember the last 'flu season in the UK where a whole city was locked down because of it :(

Last week I tried to make a (computer program) model of the spread of the virus based on WHO data and the timeline data released about the first victims. The results showed that things could get very scary very soon and my colleagues at work thought I must have got it wrong.

But here we are a week or so later and the model produced by 'The Lancet' a couple of days ago agrees closely with mine. Same infection rate, same number of infections, same increasing rate of deaths each day. Sadly their longer term projection appears even worse than mine.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/l...260-9/fulltext

As for packages delivered from China, I would agree that they are unlikely to be infectious but no harm in taking a few precautions :)

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

Quick thought on what has been mentioned as one possible source- snakes. Folks that keep snakes ( Pythons etc) recommend that young children are kept away from these as the body can carry a viral agent ( can't quite remember what it is).

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

Pet snakes and terrapins are known to harbour Salmonella bacteria, which could infect humans. Not sure if viruses would be high up the list though.

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

Rather than commenting on some of the surprising (for a technical bunch of folk) opinions voiced in this thread I thought I would heartily recommend that you all listen to the excellent analysis of the threat as presented on the superb Radio Four programme 'More or Less' broadcast early last Friday evening.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000drn4

A large dose of perspective don't you think?

Cheers,
Steve.

Re: Disinfecting components from China.
 

...I should add the piece starts around 30 seconds in so you don't have to wade through the whole episode to find it.

Enjoy;)