A little behind in reading this thread, but wanted to put in my 2c worth:

> Does this squeeze bulb not come off the rest of the pump?  If it does, why
is it not cleanable?  ... but still am wondering personally why this is
such a big danger...why  it's impossible to clean it properly!

As I understand it, the reason is that the bulb is made of a type of rubber
that can only be sterilized by gas-autoclave (unless the company has changed
this, and that may be possible. But I think it is still the same rubber used
all these years). Although soap and hot water can render rubber "clean" from
some bacteria, even boiling it will not kill all bacteria or viruses, and
these temperatures are not effective against any bacterial spores. The
closest type of sterilization that a home kitchen could possibly use is the
pressure-cooker, which is effective, for example, against botulism spores
(hence the need to pressure-cook certain low-acid - ie. pH neutral or
alkaline - home-canned foods). However the combination of high heat and
pressure over time (and I don't know the length of time necessary to
sterilize rubber under pressure) would cause the material in the bulb to
disintegrate. This is why hospitals use gas-autoclave to sterilize reusable
rubber products. The hospital could gas-autoclave these pumps but I doubt
they'd find that a productive use of their autoclaves.

The end thing to take away from this, is that the "bicycle horn" pump is
only an extremely short-term option (were one to seriously consider it for
any expression at all) which would remain clean until the rubber cannot be
adequately cleaned - probably within a day or 2 at most.

Not to mention the underlying tissue trauma that can occur with these
pumps...I'd teach a mother to hand-express instead - no sterilization
needed!

Katharine West, MPH, MSN, RN
Master Food Preserver, UC Cooperative Extension
Sherman Oaks, CA

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