What Are the Differences Between Sanitation & Disinfection for Sterility?

Sanitation covers a large scope of public health, including the transport of water and waste products. But disinfecting, especially for sterilization, is used in specific circumstances, such as hospital operating rooms and laboratories. In both cases the purpose is to protect a population of people from viruses and bacteria living on the surface of equipment or in contaminated water.

Sanitation

• Sanitation refers to the removal of waste products and unclean water from populated areas, as defined by the University of Cambridge's online dictionary. But Webster's Online Dictionary gives the word a more expansive definition of "the state of being clean and conducive to health." Meaning any type of disinfecting and cleaning that happens for the public good can be labeled as sanitation.

Disinfecting

• Disinfecting reduces the number of microorganisms in an area, but does not kill them all. Household cleaning products are good examples of disinfectants that clean an area, but are not intended to sterilize it. However, disinfectants used in the medical field are manufactured with harsher chemicals that kill more microorganisms than a household cleaning product, and some of these products are able to sterilize medical equipment.

Sterilization

• Sterilizing a surface, or an item, kills all of the microorganisms present. There are no levels of sterilization, something is either sterile, or it is not. If one microorganism is left alive, then it is not sterile. Things are sterilized by exposing them to very high heat or using strong chemicals. Once the item is sterilized it is not touched by bare hands or exposed to any other human contamination.

Disinfectants Used to Sterilize

• The most effective sterilizing chemicals are alkylating agents. These change the pH of an environment by raising the alkalinity to a level that makes it impossible for microorganisms to survive. But chemical sterilization can be more complicated, so it is not used as often. It is employed when it is not possible to expose a piece of equipment to very high heat, such as plastics. For example, the chemical glutaraldehyde is capable of sterilizing, but the equipment must be exposed to the chemical for hours before every microbe is dead.