From the Medical Adviser:

As always the disclaimer – this is general advice provided by a knowledgeable professional derived from accredited resources for your personal consideration. If you have questions on specific health concerns seek a qualified health professional in your area.  An Internet search for a KAP – Kink Aware Professional may help you locate a sympathetic provider.  Typically a urologist or gynecologist, Nurse Midwife have heard it all and may have some suggestions if their are no identifiable KAPs in your area.

Some additional points for you to consider on toy cleaning for non-porous items:
Porous items like leather, wood, ropes are not likely to be effectively cleaned to assure no diseases can be transferred if exposed to blood.

Definitions:

Normal Flora: an organism that is normally in our body but does not cause a disease state. Our intestines carry a lot of bacteria that assist us in breaking down our food and absorbing nutrients. If that bacteria ends up someplace else – like the bladder or vagina it will create a disease state in the body.

Organic material (crud): In the context of this podcast organic material on toys is usually pussy juice, cum,  poop,  or the occasional spot of blood. Organic material can dry and will allow the pathogens to be safely protected from most any cleaning or sterilization technique unless washed off with plain old soap, hot water, and elbow grease.

Organic Material toys:items made of leather, wood, natural fibers with pores. Leather, wood, ropes are not likely to be effectively cleaned to assure no pathogens can be transferred if exposed to blood or cum.  For instance vampire glove – once bled upon should become the property of the bleeder for use exclusively on that individual. Wooden dildos the same.. Equipment that has splinters should be carefully resurfaced while wearing a mask and sealed.

Pathogen: a virus or bacteria likely to cause a disease process in the human body. As above if a normal flora ends up in the wrong place it is considered a pathogen and likely will cause a disease state.

Prevention:
While not as much fun, and seldom occurs in the heat of the moment, using a condom on a toy always decreases the amount of cleanup and limits the possibility of permanent contamination.

Cleaning / Sterilizing:

Clean means that the physical crud is off the item and most of the pathogenic viruses and germs are gone. Like our eating utensils, counter tops and most toys This is more than enough for most of what we do in our everyday lives.

This is usually accomplished with plain old soap in warm to hot water applied with plenty of elbow grease.
Don’t bother using the fancy antibacterial stuff  for everyday use — it is one of those, unfortunately very successful, marketing ploys aimed at soccer moms — it is raising the level of germ resistance and assisting in creating super bugs that will kill us all if we are not careful.

For sex toys or anything that has the potential to trade known pathogens wash as above and use the isopropyly alcohol as mentioned in the show. This is very likely to prevent yeast transfer, most STD’s, or Bacterial Vaginosis BV- the fishy crotch smell everyone jokes about, and will assist in decreasing the chances of a more transmitting most severe pathogens.

For high risk trade off  borrowing toys between folks who have known issues (hepatitis C, HIV, and similar serious diseases — of course this is a no no but sometimes people are people —- the item should be cleaned to a higher level by using all the above and adding a more sure fire germ and virus killing process based on dilute bleach & vinegar. If you fear your toys may be borrowed without your knowledge, clean them like this and lock them up so they cannot be borrowed by a desperate roommate.

Sterilization should be done in an autoclave or some high level nasty chemical for stainless steel items like urethral sounds. This works only on heat resistant items like stainless steel or specially compounded heat resistant materials meaning most toys will melt or severely degrade. If you have a toy that is severely contaminated TRASH it.

I hope this helps you play safe and sane.

Resources for your own investigations:

CDC  – the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The best resource for public health issues. Explore all teh site when you have time. You will be surprised what you can learn.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/spb/mnpages/vhfmanual/section5.htm

Sterilization – an article provided by Wikipedia that is a nice comprehensive review
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterilization_%28microbiology%29

Vinegar/bleach solution -this site is on the benefits of cider vinegar – I really don’t know the full expertise but it is consistant with what I know to be verifiable
http://www.apple-cider-vinegar-benefits.com/vinegar-as-a-disinfectant.html