Monona,
I definitely agree on this. Thus far I've come across 4 questions on this subject, all commercial products not on EPA List N. One was a valid disinfectant but just didn't qualify for List N due to having ~10x lower concentrations of quat
ammonia than approved compounds. The other 3 were must more suspect, all appealing to chemphobia as the primary part of their marketing ("our product doesn't have chemicals!"). One appeared to be a typical startup just overhyping their untested product. One
appeared to actively prey upon pandemic fears: there were a large number of articles about it, but all in highly questionable media outlets, and all appearing in chronological clusters around pandemic events (e.g. Ebola 2014, Zika 2016, ebola hitting the news
again in 2019 due to aid worker deaths, and now COVID). The last claimed EPA registration and even had a link on their site, but the link led to ~60 pages copied and pasted from the CFR and a short scanned addendum of an email from the company asking to register
with the EPA, and the EPA replying that their product did not qualify for registration (this is just one of the issues I found with this one).
Thus far the criteria I've been looking for (and not seeing) with non-List N proposed sterilants is this:
- Clear, complete SDS
- Reliable data (preferably from a third party tester) showing that it would likely qualify for List N if registered. That is:
- Effective against a harder-to-kill pathogen than COVID, or
- Effective against pathogens similar to COVID
In short, I think we approach any claims of a disinfectant's efficacy now the same we would ordinarily: the parties marketing it have to prove it works.
Sincerely,
Jack Reidy (he/him)
Research Safety Specialist
Environmental Health & Safety
Stanford University
484 Oak Road, Stanford, CA, 94305
Tel: (650) 497-7614
From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
On Behalf Of Monona Rossol
Sent: Monday, May 4, 2020 9:21 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines (10 articles)
OK, friends, we need to figure out what is going on here, because there are now a flock of "DIY disinffectant" solutions just like there are DIY masks. The sprayers
mostly are ionizers which use electrical current to create some ozone in the water and call it "ionized water." While bleach is approved, these homemade salt, vinegar, and ionized water combinations are not. Will this stuff deliver the lipoid damaging punch
needed for this virus?
Monona Rossol
WACO FIREFIGHTERS PRODUCING DISINFECTANT SOLUTION TO PROTECT FIRST RESPONDERS FROM COVID-19
Tags: us_TX, industrial, discovery, environmental, bleach
A mixture of salt and water with a splash of vinegar and a jolt of electrochemical activation is supplying Waco firefighters with a safe but powerful disinfectant
as they work to keep their equipment and quarters free of COVID-19.
Crews at Waco Fire Station No. 11, where the department's hazardous materials unit is housed, have also developed a new spray system for the disinfectant using their
air tanks and other common firehouse equipment. Their formula for homemade hypochlorous acid paired with the spray system lets them kill viruses, bacteria and fungus on gear, trucks and high-use firehouse areas in 60 seconds without the need to wipe everything
down afterward.
"For lack of a better term, we are the science nerds at Station 11, you know the hazmat crew. Because there is a lot of chemistry that goes into working hazmat calls,
we knew we could do something during this time," said Waco fire Lt. Philip Burnett, who works at Station No. 11. "The mixture is basically water, salt and we have to put vinegar in it to lower the pH level to make it neutral, then basically Ôcook' it by putting
electricity to it to make the acid with a kill-rate higher than bleach."
American Chemical Society
Division of Chemical Health and Safety
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