Stainless Steel odour-removal bar

[DaveC426913]

A soap bar made of stainless steel. You wash your hands with it under running water.

1] Do they have a scientific basis?
2] Do they work?

http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/rub-away-odor-bar

 

[turbo]

Can I sell you a rock that would work just as well? I have lots of rocks.

 

[DaveC426913]

Can I sell you a rock that would work just as well? I have lots of rocks.

OK, so one vote for 'no' then?

 

[turbo]

OK, so one vote for 'no' then?

I'm not voting "no" but I have an equally-viable alternative. Shipping charges will be added to each order.

 

[jsea-7]

Yes.
1. I haven't looked up the scientific side of the product.
2. But I do know that it does help clense the skin from odors.

How do I know this? I own one :) and it helps relieve my hands from remnants of food that usually would harm my hands after or while I am preparing it.

P.S. If your wondering about how food harms my hands, well I have severe eczema on my hands which can be irritated by certain foods.

 

[f95toli]

As far as I know they do work.
My guess is that the metal surface simply works as a catalyst and breaks up "smelly" molecules (such as sulfur compounds). Metal catalysts are often used for this purpose so it is at least a plausible explanation.
Note, however, that ANY piece of stainless steel (with the usual elements: Fe, Cr etc) should work equally well. Although washing your hand with a fork might be a bit awkward.

 

[DaveC426913]

...ANY piece of stainless steel ... should work equally well.

Yeah, I think we can all agree with this.

 

[GeorginaS]

That's pretty much what Wikipedia says (and I realize we don't recognise them as an authority around here, but there doesn't appear to be anything even remotely like an authority that knows anything about this -- that's talking on the Interweb, anyway) that the soap shape is pure aesthetic. It also says there are no "plausible...experiments using controls" to reference. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stainless_steel_soap

I suppose that next time I or anyone else here slices an onion or chops some garlic tries rubbing a stainless steel spoon on their hands while running them under cold water and see. And/or maybe try running one hand under cold water and the other cold water and a spoon and see if the odour is gone from either?

 

[turbo]

I suppose that next time I or anyone else here slices an onion or chops some garlic tries rubbing a stainless steel spoon on their hands while running them under cold water and see. And/or maybe try running one hand under cold water and the other cold water and a spoon and see if the odour is gone from either?

Good post! Any abrasive (even mild) hand rubbing under running water ought to reduce odors from food-preparation, which is why I offered to send Dave a rock (shipping extra) instead of a relatively chemically-neutral SS hunk of metal.

 

[Moonbear]

Note, however, that ANY piece of stainless steel (with the usual elements: Fe, Cr etc) should work equally well.

So I could just rub my hands on the stainless steel sink? I think I'll have to give it a try.

Though, honestly, I don't think I'd be able to tell. I never had any kitchen odors cling to my hands that I couldn't rinse off with plain water in the first place (or at least, none strong enough that my sense of smell could notice them). Perhaps I should give this a try after working in the anatomy labs with odors that even penetrate gloves. Somehow I doubt it's going to be up to that challenge.

 

[rolerbe]

Yes, Moonbear, you can just rub your hands on the kitchen sink.

Experiment:
1. finely chop some garlic. Make sure to get some on your hands.
2. Smell hands. Confirm garlic.
3. Wash hands with regular soap. Make sure not to rub the stainless steel.
4. Repeat step 2.
5. Rub hands on stainless steel. Then repeat step 3 and 4 -- garlic gone!

 

[GeorginaS]

Experiment:
1. finely chop some garlic. Make sure to get some on your hands.
2. Smell hands. Confirm garlic.
3. Wash hands with regular soap. Make sure not to rub the stainless steel.
4. Repeat step 2.
5. Rub hands on stainless steel. Then repeat step 3 and 4 -- garlic gone!

Hrm, okay, I'm going to question one of the steps of your proposed experiment. Why the hand washing with soap prior to using the steel on the offending, odoured hands? The instructions for the steel bar shaped like soap are "run under cold water while rubbing with bar". One would think, then, that the measure is the bar plus water or water alone. Would not the introduction of soap change the parametres of what we're trying to figure out and possibly tamper with the results?

And, further, what if the repetition of Step 2 didn't render the result of confirming garlic odour? What if the soap I used neutralised that odour?

 

[DaveC426913]

Yes, Moonbear, you can just rub your hands on the kitchen sink.

Experiment:
1. finely chop some garlic. Make sure to get some on your hands.
2. Smell hands. Confirm garlic.
3. Wash hands with regular soap. Make sure not to rub the stainless steel.
4. Repeat step 2.
5. Rub hands on stainless steel. Then repeat step 3 and 4 -- garlic gone!

You'd definitely need the experiment to be more elaborate than this.
1] Smell is too subjective and subtle and too prone to suggestion to test yourself.
2] Step 3 in your process will corrupt the results of Step 5.

So:
1] You'd need an independent sniffer, testing blind.
2] You'd need multiple subjects, enough to ensure you can get a first-time-around test for both soap and SS, one each.
3] You'd need a control, who does neither.

So: 6 tests:
Subject 1: soap, test, SS, test
Subject 2: SS, test, soap, test
Subject 3: nothing, test, nothing, test

Simply randomize which subject gets sniffed at each stage, record the results.

 

[rolerbe]

The handwashing was intended to demonstrate that the effect was the SS, not just soap and water. Garlic is a strong enough smell to be confirmative for this test.

"I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which
when looked at in just the right way, did not become still more complicated."
- Poul Anderson

 

[GeorginaS]

So:
1] You'd need an independent sniffer, testing blind.
2] You'd need multiple subjects, enough to ensure you can get a first-time-around test for both soap and SS, one each.
3] You'd need a control, who does neither.

So: 6 tests:
Subject 1: soap, test, SS, test
Subject 2: SS, test, soap, test
Subject 3: nothing, test, nothing, test

Simply randomize which subject gets sniffed at each stage, record the results.

Well if you're going to get all that fussy about it, then we ought to properly document the whole thing, and make sure we can duplicate our results, and then we can submit it to Wikipedia so they'll finally have an information source for this.

But, no, really. Why the soap? Why are we dragging soap into this? Is the product claim that it's superior to soap? Or simply that the hunk of stainless steel removes odours from skin? If the hunk of metal isn't comparing itself to anything, then why should we?

Also, why would we have someone do nothing? I understand the need for a control, but would not water on its own be that control, given that that's the only other component that the stainless steel bar admits to requiring? We know that if you rub an onion on your hand and do nothing that your hand will smell of onion. (I'm assuming we know that. We know that, yes?)

But, yes, yes, yes, we must try. I'll have to remind myself to purchase an onion tomorrow and line up my geriatric neighbours as test subjects. Okay, maybe not tomorrow. I'm going to see a children's theatre group production of Willy Wonka. So, okay, Thursday, then.

 

[DaveC426913]

Well if you're going to get all that fussy about it, then we ought to properly document the whole thing, and make sure we can duplicate our results, and then we can submit it to Wikipedia so they'll finally have an information source for this.

I listed what I thought were the minimum requirements to get a good result.

But, no, really. Why the soap? Why are we dragging soap into this? Is the product claim that it's superior to soap? Or simply that the hunk of stainless steel removes odours from skin? If the hunk of metal isn't comparing itself to anything, then why should we?

Good point. But it is not the product making any claims. It is me asking whether it works. I would consider it relevant to know that soap can remove a particular odour.

What if soap does not remove the odour? Then our results are incomplete. Who is to say anything can remove the odour? The soap serves as a way to "bracket" reasonably-expected results.

Also, why would we have someone do nothing? I understand the need for a control, but would not water on its own be that control, given that that's the only other component that the stainless steel bar admits to requiring? We know that if you rub an onion on your hand and do nothing that your hand will smell of onion. (I'm assuming we know that. We know that, yes?)

Doing nothing ensures the nose works at all. (For example, if the sniffer got this wrong, then we'd have to toss out the results and get a new sniffer.)

But you're right, you would have to do more than nothing, you'd have to get the hands wet, otherwise the sniffer would be able to identify that as the control (unless they were blindfolded...)

 

[rolerbe]

I smell a paper..."Odor ablative effects of metal cleansing agents in patients with Garlicus Oderificus"

To soap or not to soap: That is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
new methods against outrageous 'standards' of the past,
or to take hands and just evaluate them against nothing,...

I take back the need to repeat step 3 in my step 5 writeup. This is irrelevant.

 

[ericgrau]

Baking soda is already excellent at removing odors and cleaning. Unless you have a particular scientific interest in stainless steel just use that.

 

[russ_watters]

How does the stainless steel bar clean in between your fingers?

 

[GeorginaS]

How does the stainless steel bar clean in between your fingers?

Turn it on its side? From what I gather from the pictures of it, it's shaped like a bar of soap. Now, how do you manage to get a stainless steel sink between your fingers?

 

[rolerbe]

Well, if we're off of spoofing, and back to serious, I will assert that SS works. You don't need a bar, you just need your SS kitchen sink. I love garlic and hand mince it often. Just rub your hands on the sink and the odor is gone. I'm not sure how the coverage (between fingers, etc.) really works as I'm not too persnickity in the rubbing. Couple of rubs, it just works, not a big deal.

 

[DaveC426913]

Well, if we're off of spoofing, and back to serious, I will assert that SS works. You don't need a bar, you just need your SS kitchen sink. I love garlic and hand mince it often. Just rub your hands on the sink and the odor is gone. I'm not sure how the coverage (between fingers, etc.) really works as I'm not too persnickity in the rubbing. Couple of rubs, it just works, not a big deal.

Well, there's certainly some anecdotal evidence. I was looking for something more reliable.

 

[Moonbear]

The handwashing was intended to demonstrate that the effect was the SS, not just soap and water. Garlic is a strong enough smell to be confirmative for this test.

Except that I eat garlic all the time, and have never had any problem of it not just washing off with a quick rinse of my hands under water, not necessarily even using soap or detergent. And, in your proposed experiment, even if a first handwashing were not sufficient to rid the scent, what if a second handwashing was, irrespective of any supplement to running water?

 

[DaveC426913]

Except that I eat garlic all the time, and have never had any problem of it not just washing off with a quick rinse of my hands under water, not necessarily even using soap or detergent. And, in your proposed experiment, even if a first handwashing were not sufficient to rid the scent, what if a second handwashing was, irrespective of any supplement to running water?

OK, so that would result in a indeterminate conclusion. You'd have to refine the experiment to isolate the contributing factors. If handwashing changes nothing then it's not a contributing factor; if it does change something, it's a factor that needs to be isolated.

 

[GeorginaS]

Okay, so I couldn't find a realistic way to convince my 86 year-old neighbour to come over to my kitchen and smell my hands while I cooked this evening. It seemed an odd request to make. However, as I was chopping both an onion and some garlic, I thought I'd take the opportunity to try some of this out. (Sorry Dave that I didn't get anything more substantive than this.)

Anyway, it occurred to me that I've always washed my hands with soap and water after chopping onions and/or garlic based on the assumption that my hands required all of that floral fragrancing to rid me of the odour. I hadn't really contemplated it before (and also because I was interested in cleaning my hands not simply making odours go away).

The first assumption that onion and garlic odours somehow cling to one's hands appears to be faulty. After dicing the onion (a red onion) I smelled both of my hands. Yes, they smelled of onion. I did as Moonbear suggested and ran cool water over my left hand. I left my right hand out of the water to give a comparison. Without soap or anything other than cool water, the onion smell was no longer detectable by my nose. I smelled my right hand and, sure enough, it still smelled of onion. Smell the left again, no onion odour.

Then, just for sport, I ran my left hand under the cool water again. There wasn't a perceptible odour change. I rubbed the palm and fingers of my left hand on the interior side of my kitchen sink and smelled again. And this was the interesting part. My hand somehow smelled "fresher" if that makes any sense. There was no onion smell left after plain cool water (again, as far as my nose was able to detect) but after I rubbed it on the stainless steel, -- I can't describe it, maybe it's what wet, clean stainless steel smells like -- there was a freshness to my hand. My right hand continued to smell like onion.

So I ran my right hand under warmer water to see if the temperature was an issue, and seemingly not. Plain warm water rinse and the odour was no longer detectable by me. What was different was when I rubbed my right hand on the sink after running warm water on my hand, and the "fresh" effect wasn't present. There was still no detectable difference, though, between plain water removing scent and water combined with stainless steel.

I chopped some garlic and repeated the whole process. Again, I didn't even introduce soap and the odour was gone as far as my nose could detect. Again, I got the "fresh" (almost like the smell of cool air when you step outdoors from an over-warm indoors -- that kind of "fresh" scent -- more of a sensation rather than an odour) smell with cool water and stainless steel and no noticeable change with warm water and warm water combined with the stainless steel.

And then, I finally washed my hands with soap because there are oils in the garlic that made my hands sticky and that didn't come off with plain water and/or stainless steel.

That's my report. Not very scientific, I know, and entirely anecdotal. Had I had a video camera at hand, I could have taped it, but didn't, so, I don't know. Maybe someone else can try and see how their results meet up with or don't meet up with mine.

 

[DaveC426913]

I had a tough time following that so I charted it.

Is it right?

Left			Right

Onion

Applied Onion		Applied Onion
Applied cool water	(Control)
No odor			Onion odor

Applied cool water	(Control)
“No change” in odor
Applied SS
Fresher smell
Applied cool water	(Control)
Still no onion odor	Onion odor
Fresher smell
			Applied warm water
			No odor
			Applied SS
			No fresh smell



Garlic

(L? R?)

Applied Garlic		
Applied cool water
No garlic odor
Fresh odor
Applied warm water
No garlic odor
No fresh odor

 

[GeorginaS]

I had a tough time following that so I charted it.

Is it right?

Very close. I made the changes to make it clearer. Sorry about that.

Left			Right

Onion

Applied Onion		Applied Onion
Applied cool water	(Control)
No odor			Onion odor

Applied cool water	(Control)
“No change” in odor
Applied SS
Fresher smell

			Applied warm water
			No odor
			Applied SS
			No odor and No fresh smell 



Garlic

Applied Garlic		Applied Garlic
Applied cool water	(Control)
No odor			Garlic odor

Applied cool water	(Control)
“No change” in odor
Applied SS
Fresher smell

			Applied warm water
			No odor
			Applied SS
			No odor and No fresh smell

 

[rolerbe]

You have a defective right hand. It should be replaced, immediately.

I ran an experiment last night with onion. I have never had any particular problem with onion odor before, just with garlic which seems to cling (on me) even through soap washing (but not SS).

Chopped onion.
confirmed onion odor
rinsed with water -- much less onion odor, but still present
washed with soap -- negligible to no onion odor remaining.

Conclusion: Onion does not present the same lingering odor problem as garlic (from prior life trials)

Not as good as keeping a control like Georgina, so just anecdotal results.

Perhaps like Georgina's right hand, time for the odors to 'sink in' is involved?

 

[DaveC426913]

Chopped onion.
confirmed onion odor
rinsed with water -- much less onion odor, but still present
washed with soap -- negligible to no onion odor remaining.

Not as good as keeping a control like Georgina, so just anecdotal results.

Yes. That and the fact that your sniffer has no control either. Because of the way you did the experiment, it is quite possible that your sniffer just got "tired" of smelling onion.

 

[MotoH]

I will be taking this on as a side project as Christmas break is coming up and I will need something to do! (plus lots of family to do the tests on!)