The Britannia Mine Museum is launching a new educational temporary exhibit this summer exploring the antimicrobial properties of copper and how it has been used in the battle against superbugs and other diseases throughout history.
“Copper: Bug Buster” launches Saturday, July 18th (until Sunday, September 13th) inside the Museum’s Machine Shop and delves into copper’s bug busting capabilities and the role it played in medicine as an antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal metal.
According to the musesum, fFor over three thousand years, civilizations around the world have used copper and its minerals in health remedies. The exhibit also asks the question whether copper can be used to help in the battle against COVID-19.
“We pride ourselves in providing visitors with insightful educational experiences and we felt it was important for this year’s temporary exhibit to reflect on the current COVID-19 pandemic given how much it has impacted our lives,” says Kirstin Clausen, Executive Director of the Britannia Mine Museum.
“Our Museum’s curator and her team assembled some fascinating facts and science about the antimicrobial properties of copper, and how the metal has played a role in medicine throughout history. We felt it was fitting, since the Britannia Mine was a copper mine.”
Here are some interesting facts about copper that the exhibit will explore:
In ancient Egypt, green mineral malachite (copper carbonate) was ground up and used as an eye makeup, and supposedly also prevented eye infections.
Another treatment speaks of soldiers in battle having wounds sterilized with malachite.
The Incas disinfected wounds with gauze soaked in copper sulphate solution.
The Aztecs gargled with a copper solution to treat sore throats.
In ancient Greece, they recorded the first use of copper bracelets for arthritis.
In ancient Rome, Pliny the Elder’s works recorded around one hundred and fifty copper-based remedies, and skin conditions and tonsillitis were said to be treated.
Copper has also been proven to kill Ebola, MRSA, E. coli and norovirus. A recent study found that SARS-CoV-2 – the virus causing COVID-19 – lasted only four hours on a copper surface compared with 48 hours on stainless steel or 72 hours on plastic.
