Disinfectant-Linked Hazards on the Rise

Is the recent spate of harmful speculations diluting the usefulness of disinfectants? Or is disinfectants doing more harm than good?

Disinfectants have grown into a product-market made for the Covid crisis. It’s at the top of most grocery lists, as we’ve been stock piling on sanitizers, disinfectant sprays, or bleaching powder.

Chances are that every high touch zone in your home or office is being incessantly applied with disinfectants.

But is this unabated use of disinfectants creating a false sense of protection and are we ignoring an underlying threat with the improper use of disinfectants?

The clamour of disinfectants is its integral property to neutralize germs hidden in surfaces. It’s more than just plain-old cleaning, the key lies in the application of the disinfectant on the surface.

But when does too much disinfectant become too harmful.

The hazardous proposition of fogging your living environment can leave a trail of residual chemical substances that can cause respiratory ailments like asthma, or other effects that include gastrointestinal effects, irritation to eyes and skin.

While it is recommended to use eco-friendly products, often the chemical or alcohol concentration may not be suitable to kill a stubborn surface-dweller like Covid-19.

Rubbing and spraying alcohol has been deemed as a CDC approved disinfectant against COVID-19. On the downside, a recent viral video shows us the inflammable effects of fogging your vehicles with alcohol based sanitizers.

Often in perilous situations, stupidity abounds.

While the American Poison Control Center has repeatedly highlighted that the strong chemical exposure of household cleaning products and disinfectants are a common causes of poisoning in both children and adults.

The hue and cry from major figures and social media activity to ingest or inject disinfectants has disinfectant manufacturers running a muck… distributing disclaimers that proclaim that no disinfectant products should be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route).

Unfortunately, reports show that there has been a 20% spike of cases due to such poisoning emergencies.

Until a cure or vaccine is discovered, disinfectants are one amongst the few weapons in our armoury to fight this pandemic. So the next time you feel like generously unleashing disinfectants, take the necessary precautions to limit its application according to accredited safe practices and policies.