What’s the Impact on Us of All the Cleaning and Disinfecting We’ve Been Doing?

Since the pandemic began, we’ve been cleaning and disinfecting everything around us like our lives depended on it. And that’s what we thought and what we still think, but is this scientifically valid. 

That’s a question that’s been running through my mind. The other question that follows on to this is, what is all this chemical disinfecting doing to our bodies?

It turns out the original research on the COVID-19 virus on surfaces used very large volumes of the virus and the researchers found that the virus stayed alive for days. 

Newer research published in Lancet Infectious Diseases found that when the authors of this study tried to mimic the actual conditions in which a surface might be contaminated by a patient in a hospital, they found that no viable Coronavirus was detected on the surfaces. That’s none - nada!

So, this raises the next question, is cleaning and disinfecting as much as we have been doing having any negative impacts on us and our kids? And the answer from the research being done appears to be yes.

• There has been a sharp increase in the number of calls to poison control centers.

• Using disinfectants 4 to 7 days a week has been associated with an increase in asthma.

• Increased use of bleach and hydrogen peroxide has altered the gut microbiota of infants at 3-4 months of age, which increased the likelihood of the child being overweight at age 1 and beyond.

• Persistent use of these chemicals has been associated with wheezing in pre-school age children.

• There is a substance called quaternary ammonium compounds, or quats, that are commonly found in the disinfectants, hand sanitizers, and sanitizing wipes being used by households and businesses to protect against the COVID-19 virus. Quats have been linked with fertility problems as well as having other endocrine disrupting effects. The EPA lists them as being in 235 cleaning products.

So, what can you use as an alternative to products that seem to be harmful? Of course, just using soap and water is sufficient to protect against the coronavirus. Other safer active ingredients you can look at using on surfaces include caprylic acid, citric acid, lactic acid, and silver.

There is also a product that will give you a strong response that can destroy surface bacteria and viruses without using powerful toxic chemicals. A U.S. company called Sudoc, LLC has developed a catalyst that has been shown to supercharge hydrogen peroxide which allows it to outperform toxic chemicals currently used in cleaning products. 

Another option to check out is called BetterAir that was invented in Israel. It releases a very fine mist containing beneficial probiotics into the air. The probiotics land on surfaces and destroys any negative bacteria or viruses on the surfaces. It has been approved for use against COVID-19. You can check it out at https://betterairenvironments.com/. 

So…while we may not have to do anywhere as much disinfecting as we’ve been doing, there are ways we can still disinfect and stay safe from not only COVID-19 but the harmful impacts of the chemical cleaners and disinfectants.

(Reported anh-usa.org)