# Household cleaners **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 6, 2002, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/household-cleaners/107565 "2002-05-06T17:07:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anvil\_Miner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@Anvil\_Miner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anvil_Miner)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/household-cleaners/107565/1 "2002-05-06T17:07:35Z")
I’m curious. After doing some household cleaning this weekend, I noticed that the can of household cleaner I was using claimed to kill “99%” of bacteria. What happened to the other 1%? Are they immune? Please enlighten. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/household-cleaners/107565/2 "2002-05-06T17:58:25Z")
My guess is that the 1% is resistant w/a combo of the legal dept knowing that 100% is hard to gurantee… …and by using anti bact sprays, we keep leaving behind the most spray resistant bacteria…sort of like a condensed version of evolution, put into warp drive by human intervention. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/household-cleaners/107565/3 "2002-05-06T18:04:39Z")
Did you get into all the cracks and crevices? Also that 1% could be the **CYA clause** so you can’t sue them for false advertisement. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Anvil\_Miner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@Anvil\_Miner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anvil_Miner)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/household-cleaners/107565/4 "2002-05-06T18:30:03Z")
yeah, the most common sense answer would be the law aspect of it. It’s just funny that no one ever claims 100%. It’s always "99.99999%!