How do disinfectants kill viruses?

We use bleach, pasteurization, and UV radiation to purify water and food, without really understanding how they work. A laboratory has discovered the effect these common disinfectants have on viruses. Boiling water, chlorinating a swimming pool, bleaching your bathroom - everyone's familiar with common disinfection methods. Even though they're effective and used widely, we still don't completely understand how these proven methods kill viruses. Tamar Kohn, head of EPFL's Environmental Chemistry Laboratory, and her team have shown that disinfectants don't all work in the same way. She published an article in Environmental Science and Technology. "A virus is a genome and some proteins.