Peter wrote:
tube which goes up somebody’s nose
Are we talking about the same tube? The ones I have go a meagre cm inside someone’s nose:
Peter wrote:
One can probably argue both ways whether cannulas should be re-used for the same person
I think one can argue about reusing for different persons. Heck, when I went to iceland with my brother, we didn’t clean the cannulas between flights and didn’t mark them.
I generally don’t have problems sharing a glass / cutlery / straw / water bottle with someone I know. I can’t recall someone I know also refusing to use mine, so I think most of the people feel that way. When I go out with colleagues for instance, it’s fairly normal to try each other’s cocktails. My impression is that someone not comfortable with that would strike as a bit odd.
I grew up in the countryside on the other hand, and I only started hearing about germs etc when I moved to the big city (London). I don’t think I’d ever had seen a bottle of hand sanitiser (e.g. Purell) – outside of a medical facility – before I was 26 
. That probably helped getting some resistance
When my sister had her first kid, I went to visit to the hospital (day after birth), and she and her husband (surgeon) told me not to wash my hands to touch the baby, so he’d start building some defences. Spoiler alert, he’s alive and well 
Sodium hypochlorite – after all it is the recommended means of disinfecting medical respiratory equipment.
It is effectively bleach – but the kitchen stuff contains various other additives to make it sticky, and often an unpleasant smell.
You can buy the granules for next to nothing as hot tub or pool shock treatment and dissolve to make a 10% solution. It is a strong oxidant and there is plenty of evidence that it is effective against all bacteria, viruses and even prions – more effective against prions than autoclaving. Leave it to soak, and I doubt anything is going to survive.
I absolutely agree you can kill any “bugs”; the challenge is getting the stuff out of the inside of the cannula afterwards.
Let’s say you used IPA or some similar “alcohol”. Even the tiniest bit of it, left behind, is going to make the user really ill when they take the first breath. Any form of chlorine would be even better as I know only too well from exposure to the stuff, in the “much safer” tablet form which nevertheless needs disposable gloves and best to do any handling outdoors in free air.
I believe @kwlf may know more about disinfection issues.
Alcohol evaporates really well. Big drops can be pushed by blowing (or compressed air if the idea of putting your mouth there doesn’t appeal to you) on the inlet side of the cannula. Whatever thin coating is left will quickly evaporate and then you can blow the vapours again with the same technique
Wash well in tap water?
The preferred treatment for root extraction is to flush well with bleach!
It is also the preferred disinfectant for cpr manikins.
There some reading here about certain drawbacks of alcohol especially regarding anything associated with the airways.
https://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/guidelines/disinfection/disinfection-methods/chemical.html
Sodium hypochlorite is actually well tolerated by the body in low concentrations and can and is used in drinking water as a means of controlling purity.
Yes it is used in swimming pools too, but a lot of bugs can and do exist in swimming pools despite its use.
Hence I think alcohol, and carefully blowing it out, is better for cannula cleaning.
Even better is sell a fresh cannula to the passenger for €30
Peter wrote:
Yes it is used in swimming pools too, but a lot of bugs can and do exist in swimming pools despite its use.
I am not sure that is really relevant, as the aim in a pool is to maintain the level at between 1 and 3 ppm, and often, the level will be found to be lower.
Alcohol at less that 50% is very ineffective as well.
As I said earlier, I think there is a reasonable amount of research to suggest alcohol is less effective, but I dont suppose it matters, any reasonable disinfection will probably suffice, or, as you say, just provide a new one.
Even better is sell a fresh cannula to the passenger for €30
Or give them the option for a used one and see which one they prefer!
