Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

This handwash kills 99.9% of bacteria

Scroll to see replies

They only say 99.9% instead of 100% for legal reasons.

Legal reasons.

You shouldn't use them too much though, over using them can cause resistance, similar to antibiotic medicines. Alcohol gel is good enough.

Original post by Spaz Man

They can't prove it and therefore are open to legal attacks. The full explanation was on last week's episode of QI I think.

Oh if only that QI "wrong answer" noise would go off right about now.

It has NOTHING to do with legal attacks or being sued for being wrong.

They can't say 100% because they can't be sure it kills 100%. There is still a chance after the tests that there are tiny microbes that can't be seen by the equipment they are using.

Reply 21

Pandabär

Original post by l.west191

...which is exactly what they were all alluding to.

legal reasons=they can't prove 100% effectiveness=why not?=can't see 100% of bacteria=would be misleading to claim they could= could be sued if they did claim it.

Reply 22

username945961

Just watched QI on dave and the question came up...it's because the technology does not exist to PROVE that 100% of germs are killed.

Reply 23

bellazz

this claim is used by the companies to abstain from getting sued for what they claim their product can do. mean if they claim 100% results, then a customer can sue them in the court for even a single bacteria..

this is purely my version. i dont claim it to be the general point of view or widely accepted!