This white stuff that we put on our hands to help us climbing better suggested by researchers, are able to reduce the coronavirus.
In a study led by a team of doctors at De Montfort University in Leicester, England, It's found that magnesium carbonate (chalk) used in their study can significantly reduced the amount of a model coronavirus on a plastic surface by around 99%. This could suggest that chalk in climbing may lower the risk of infection and spreading COVID19 plastic surfaces (like climbing holds), according to the researchers.
In the study, researchers used human coronavirus OC43. They analyzed the presence of the virus for one hour on plastic that was dusted with chalk and comparing results against a plastic without chalk.
“The results indicated that the amount of infectious virus was reduced by around 99 percent immediately upon contact with the chalky surfaces.”
By Association of British Climbing Walls press release. As some infection rates have started to increase this fall season. Most major counties have entered a higher tier zone for unsafe reopening. Thus, some climbing gyms are unsafe to reopen again by county law. With this new study, we hope to see an exclusion that climbing gyms are a safe exception.