# Disinfecting a cooking pot **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 20, 2008, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disinfecting-a-cooking-pot/473610 "2008-11-20T04:48:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Qwisp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qwisp/32/397_2.png) [@Qwisp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwisp)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disinfecting-a-cooking-pot/473610/41 "2008-11-25T11:36:39Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > Have none of you ever given a child a pot to throw up in? Get over it! No, we use a small plastic garbage can. I would never use one of my cooking pots. That’s grosser that a bathroom drip. Psychologically if I had to use a pot for any drip I would probably toss it. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disinfecting-a-cooking-pot/473610/42 "2008-12-14T04:18:27Z")
> [@Sparky812](#): > > Sodium Hypochrolite (bleach) is a salt. I meant normal Table salt NaCl, NOT bleach. A salty solution made by adding table salt to water acts differently from a bleach solution which is very aggressive with the free Chlorine. Frankly, I’m surprised how often and easily people here recommend bleach - we’ve stopped using it willy-nilly in Germany in the last decades because chlorine is so aggressive and dangerous and mostly not necessary. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disinfecting-a-cooking-pot/473610/43 "2008-12-14T14:05:48Z")
> [@Yeah](#): > > What dangerous living organisms are you worried about? Please name a living organism that could plausibly drip from your ceiling and cause you harm if you ingested it? > . Plus, isn’t urine (worst case scenario for the OP) normally sterile anyway? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disinfecting-a-cooking-pot/473610/44 "2008-12-14T14:10:23Z")
Rinse it out with tap water. Leave it to dry for a month. Look at it, nothing will be growing, if anything is just throw it out. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disinfecting-a-cooking-pot/473610/45 "2008-12-14T14:38:47Z")
1. One of my shirt-tail relatives was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines during WWII. She and some of the other prisoners survived because their cell was under the officers restroom and they drank the urine that leaked from the pipes. 2. My little nephew once got into some plant food. We’re not sure if he drank it, so we called a pharmacy. IIRC he said the active ingredient was urea and shouldn’t hurt it. “If it comes out of your body, you generally should be able to put it into your body” was his reasoning. 3. When you flush your toilet, doesn’t it go to a treatment facility and [lots of magical things happen here] ultimately return to your tap? All that said…ew. Do we know that this didn’t drip from lead pipes, through asbestos, from lead-based paint on the ceiling, etc.? The urine might not be the complete issue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disinfecting-a-cooking-pot/473610.md?page=2)