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Things I Won't Work With: Peroxide Peroxides

Everyone knows hydrogen peroxide, HOOH. And if you know it, you also know that it's well-behaved in dilute solution, and progressively less so as it gets concentrated. The 30% solution will go to work immediately bleaching you out if you are so careless as to spill some on you, and the 70% solution, which I haven't seen in years, provides an occasion to break out the chain-mail gloves. Chemists who've been around that one know that I'm not using a figure of speech - the lab down the hall from me that used to use the stuff had a pair of spiffy woven-metal gloves for just that purpose.

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 Everyone puts hydrogen peroxide on their wounds. They really shouldn't.

Unfortunately, this deeply held belief extends across multiple cultures and generations. More often than not, patients will say “My mom (or grandma) told me to clean it out good with hydrogen peroxide.” I was also alarmed recently to see multiple TikTok videos of people excited about seeing a “fizz reaction” on their skin after dousing their wounds with hydrogen peroxide. The underlying inaccurate consensus seems to be that the level of fizz generated equates to how well the wound is cleaned.

Articles of Interest

Hydrogen peroxide and its hidden power

At a first glance this beneficial role of hydrogen peroxide in living organisms appears to be in contradiction with the antioxidant theories. One could even say, the antioxidant hype and business.

Hydrogen Peroxide, Bringer of Life?

This familiar household item may be more important than we thought.

How often should hydrogen peroxide be used to treat wounds?

Hydrogen peroxide should never be used to treat wounds as it does more harm than good. In fact, no antiseptic should be used to treat wounds. While highly reactive chemical agents such as hydrogen peroxide do indeed kill some bacteria, they do more damage to healthy cells that are attempting to heal the wound. This fact has been known to mainstream science for almost 100 years. During World War I...

Hydrogen Peroxide-based Disinfectants May Pollute Indoor Air and Pose Health Risks, According to Research. Here’s What You Need to Know

The research team found that mopping a floor with commercially available hydrogen peroxide-based disinfectant raised the level of airborne hydrogen peroxide to more than 600 parts per billion — about 60% of the maximum level permitted for exposure over eight hours and 600 times the level naturally occurring in the air.

Hydrogen Peroxide: A Potential Wound Therapeutic Target?

Although the present clinical use of H2O2 is still limited to the elimination of microbial contamination and sometimes hemostasis, better understanding towards the sterilization ability and cell behavior regulatory function of H2O2 within wounds will enhance the potential to exogenously augment and manipulate healing.

No, You Should Not Inhale Hydrogen Peroxide in an Attempt to Treat COVID-19

The risks of improperly using hydrogen peroxide go beyond irritating a wound, though, especially if it gets into your airways. “Inhalation of household strength hydrogen peroxide (3%) can cause respiratory irritation,” according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (It can also irritate the skin and eyes, according to the ATSDR.) And inhaling stronger industrial-grade solutions, above a 10% concentration, “may result in severe pulmonary irritation," the ATSDR warns.

Should Hydrogen Peroxide be Used to Clean Wounds?

Yeah, you assume it's bubbling and it's just killing everything in there and getting rid of all those germs in your wound. Well, the problem with hydrogen peroxide, it may be killing the germs, but it's also killing the healthy tissue in there too. So that's the biggest challenge with it is we think that we are sterilizing the wound and getting rid of all the bad stuff, but we're also then killing the good tissue in there as well, and that can then cause a larger wound than we would have had otherwise. And quite honestly, that whole process of sterilizing it and killing everything off isn't really necessary. You don't need that.

Should You Use Hydrogen Peroxide on Wounds?

Although it has long been a household staple, modern wound care has moved away from the use of hydrogen peroxide as a wound cleanser. Its effectiveness at destroying cells is not specific to bacteria alone and can be harmful to healthy tissue and normal cells. This effect on healthy tissues can delay wound healing. While research is ongoing on the use of hydrogen peroxide on immune-regulating function in chronic wound healing, most wound care clinicians have moved away from the use of hydrogen peroxide on wounds as a conventional treatment method. This includes avoiding use of it in the home setting.

The Claim: Hydrogen Peroxide Is a Good Treatment for Small Wounds

It is a staple in medicine cabinets everywhere, a first-line treatment for the small cuts and scrapes that a hazardous world can inflict upon our skin. But does hydrogen peroxide really make a difference? According to most studies of its effectiveness, not really. Parents and school nurses might insist otherwise, but researchers have found that hydrogen peroxide has little ability to reduce bacteria in wounds and can actually inflame healthy skin cells that surround a cut or a scrape, increasing the amount of time wounds take to heal.

Why Does Hydrogen Peroxide Fizz On Cuts?

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), a compound made up of two hydrogen atoms and two oxygen atoms, begins to breaks apart as soon as it contacts blood, creating that stinging sizzle. This is because blood and most living cells contain the enzyme catalase, which attacks hydrogen peroxide and converts it into water (H2O) and oxygen (O2).