Things I should know when deciding on a disinfectant….

Who would have thought this time last year some of us would be thinking about what types of disinfectants we will need to have our employee’s return back to work?  Yeah, me neither.

In this post COVID world we are re-entering into, if this hasn’t been a topic of discussion it soon will be.  I would like to discuss a few terms that should be in the conversations that you will be having. As you will soon find out, not all disinfectants offer the same results regardless of their claims.  What the question will come down to is am I making the right decision based on knowledge or am I just going to use what I am being led to believe is working?  

Let’s discuss what we are being told.  

“Kills 99.9%” sounds amazing right?  A bunch of off the shelve products that you can get from your local home improvement retailers make this statement.  What if I told you when you sneezed that it could produce 10,000,000 (10 million) particles/microbes and a kill rate of 99.9% would mean 10,000 of those particles would not be affected after you disinfected that area with that product?  Doesn’t sound very good any more, does it?  Unfortunately for all of us, this is a scientific fact.

In the picture below based on a 99.9% kill rate, this would be measured as a log reduction of 3 on a scale of 1 to 7.

Let’s discuss what you need to know.

1.      “Log Reduction” is a mathematical term used to show the relative number of live        microbes eliminated from a surface by disinfection or cleaning.  

2.     “Biofilm” is a thin, slimy film of bacteria that adheres to a surface

3.     “Toxicity” the quality of being toxic or poisonous.

Why are these important while deciding?  

In the chart above, you can see how the log reduction table of 1 – 7 = kill rates.  This is usually represented by a statement of % (ie..99.9%) on the product you are dispensing.  A side note of concern would be to address statements of how long your product is effective for. Remember this is completely subjective to your environments.  Most of these tests are performed in a petri dish in a lab, not out in public where you might have high traffic areas with a lot of touch points.   These touch points are getting biofilms re-introduced continuously and should be an area of concern for contamination. 

Let's break it down. Biofilms in this case are the saliva and mucus/snot that we sneeze into the air, our hands, and for some of us without a cloth of some kind in our hands into the sleeve of our shirts.  Without washing our hands, we then make contact with all the doors, lights, and other "touch points" within our environment.  The virus is well protected in those pockets of mucus.  In order to effect the actual virus you will need to have a disinfectant that has detergents proven to break through these biofilms.

To make this happen, quite a few of the off the shelve products are using ingredients like alcohol or acid based materials. These items are listed as a "3" or greater on the “Health” chart of a possible "4" using the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) and or HMIS (Hazardous Materials Identification System) charts.  This is considered extremely toxic both personally as well as environmentally.  It is important to refer to the SDS sheets for PPE requirements as well as disposal on each of these product being used. 

To get through this process you should include some sort of threat/risk assessment.  Based on some of the items I discussed above you should be able to come up with a good game plan to determine how often you should be re-applying product to your application.  Please reach out to me @ [email protected] if I can be of any assistance in pointing you or your company in the right way.  R.S. Hughes has many options to assist our customers and get their businesses back up and running safely.