Help with choosing the right disinfectants

MALAYSIA’S National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) and the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued new guidelines to assist consumers in choosing safe and effective disinfectant products to combat Covid-19.

The EPA has established an accelerated evaluation process for Covid-19 disinfectants seeking to be included on its List N, and it has kept the list updated, enabling the timely identification of new disinfection products.

Likewise, the NPRA has launched a separate Surface Disinfectant category to provide Malaysians with convenient access to the most up-to-date information on such disinfectants. The category is separated into three sections: usage site, contact time and active component. The NPRA may also consider expediting the evaluation of novel active chemicals or new applications for existing registered active compounds for fogging and electrostatic sprayers.

How should we choose a suitable disinfectant to eradicate viruses? Every EPA-registered disinfectant in the United States includes a “kill claim” on the package’s labelling or container’s surface that outlines which pathogens it is meant to kill. As a result, selecting the proper disinfectant is critical. To safeguard human health, a disinfectant known to eradicate pathogens and microorganisms thought to be on a contact surface must be applied.

Purchasers should understand the basics of disinfectant labelling, including active components, inert compounds, warning remarks and effectiveness. There are hundreds of professional-grade disinfectants and sanitisers available on the market from a variety of brands. Selecting the appropriate product for your scenario may be difficult. In the trade environment, working with reliable and experienced janitorial suppliers is critical in such circumstances.

To ensure that disinfectants are used safely and effectively, the recommended dilution and contact time have to be maintained and the surface should be visibly moist throughout the contact time duration. For instance, the disinfectant must remain on, for example, a table for around 60 seconds without drying for effective disinfection. This indicates the worker should spray a few tables with disinfectant before returning to the first one to clean it. The disinfectant must be reapplied if it dries in less than 60 seconds.

Consumers could be misled by users’ testimonials or reviews when it comes to picking the right disinfectant. A quick check on the mobile application of List N Tool: Covid-19 Disinfectants at cfpub.epa.gov/wizards/disinfectants might help you find products that might be more affordable and efficacious and have a better safety profile for long-term exposure.

When choosing disinfectants and sanitisers, in particular, this tool may be quite valuable because it gives fact-based recommendations that can help buyers make the correct choice.

CHOOI WEN HAN & DR LONG CHIAU MING

Kuala Lumpur