Superbug invasion? Call the cop(per)!

It's said that the ancient Egyptians used copper to sterilise wounds and even disinfect water. 

Now, more than 4,000 years later, modern researchers are verifying what the Egyptians knew.

They found that copper surfaces could kill bacteria on contact just after a minute's exposure. 
So efficient is the red metal at eradicating microbes, even the dreaded MRSA superbug - the bane of hospitals worldwide - is no match for copper's lethal punch.

For this reason alone, it's been suggested that hospitals could use copper as a tool to reduce hospital-acquired infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria. And because the effect doesn't wear off, it's relatively inexpensive to implement across vast areas of hospitals.

Copper appears to be safe on humans because experiments demonstrate that it kills bacteria not by damaging its DNA. (Note that only dry copper surfaces possess anti-bacterial properties, not wet ones.)

I wonder if we'd observe the same effects by rubbing our hands on copper surfaces. Would any traces of copper rub off and kill bacteria on the hands? If it did, we could all wear copper bracelets and give it a good rub to clean our hands instead of having to wash with soap and water.  


Sources: http://www.antimicrobialcopper.com/uk/scientific-proof/scientific-references.aspx