How the drive to clean and disinfect during COVID could be damaging our health. Action Alert!
The incessant cleaning and disinfecting that has become the norm in many homes and businesses during the pandemic may not only be unnecessary, but dangerous. Chemicals found in cleaning products can adversely affect human health, including acute damage and chronic effects. We must demand that these chemicals be pulled from the market so they can be studied properly for safety.
Many feel the need to clean surfaces often to prevent virus transmission, but experts are now saying that the risk of getting infected from touching a surface contaminated by the virus is low. Surfaces in hospitals near COVID patients have been tested, and no infectious virus can be identified.
This contradicts earlier findings that the virus could live on surfaces for days. American homes and businesses have used cleaners and disinfectants extensively to kill any virus that could be on surfaces; in some restaurants, disinfectants are used after each sitting. In other instances, disinfectants are distributed through the air with fogging devices in poorly ventilated spaces—particularly high-rise offices that often recirculate air. Experts note that the risks of aerosolizing many disinfectants have not been studied.
This means we are being exposed to these chemicals at an unprecedented rate, and we’re already seeing the consequences: March 2020 saw a sharp increase in the number of calls to poison control centers regarding accidental exposure to cleaners and disinfectants compared to March 2019. Many of the calls concerned children under the age of five.
Particularly dangerous is the mixing of cleaning products. Mixing bleach with acids like vinegar (or even just hot water) produces chlorine gas; mixing bleach with ammonia produces chloramine gases. Exposure to these gases causes all kinds of acute health problems.
The frequency of use is also an issue that can lead to health problems:
- One study found that frequent use (4-7 days per week) of disinfectants was associated with increased risk of asthma.
- Increased use of bleach and hydrogen peroxide was found to alter the gut microbiota of infants at 3-4 months of age, increasing the likelihood of being overweight at age 1 and beyond.
- Frequent use of chemical household products has been associated with persistent wheezing in pre-school age children.
We reported recently on the dangers of quats, which are becoming ubiquitous and have been linked with fertility problems as well as other endocrine disrupting effects. On the list of the EPA’s approved disinfectants there are 235 quat products.
You may think that, if a cleaning product is available to consumers, it has been reviewed for safety, but that is not the case. The EPA reviews the efficacy of cleaning products to kill microorganisms, but does not evaluate the possible health risks for users of the product.
Soap and water is sufficient to protect against the coronavirus. Other safer active ingredients include caprylic acid, citric acid, lactic acid, and silver.
Are there ways of getting strong oxidative processes 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 to be able to outperform toxic chemicals currently used in cleaning products. This catalyst is inspired by biomimicry of the way our liver and cellular enzymes use hydrogen peroxide to kill microbes and detoxify chemicals. We will let readers know when this product is available.
As we noted previously, the EPA needs to act now by pulling quats and other dangerous chemicals from the market. At the very least, the EPA should remove quats from the list of approved disinfectants the agency recommends for COVID-19, which currently includes 235 quat products.
As we’ve been writing over the past few months, this isn’t the only example of simple and safe solutions to protect us against COVID being largely ignored. The FDA and the FTC are actively working to keep information from the public about how natural medicine can help protect us from COVID-19 infection. This is costing us lives and has to stop.
Action Alert! Write to the EPA, telling them to pull quats from the market immediately given the increased use and the documented dangers of these chemicals. Please send your message immediately. By sending this message, you will also be supporting our petition to ungag doctors so that they can share with patients the benefits of supplements and natural prevention and treatments for COVID, including safer disinfection.
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