Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 24, 2020 (ZIZ News): Proper sanitization plays a crucial role in the fight against the spread of COVID-19, it has been one of the more common methods recommended by the government to curb the spread of the virus.
At Thursday’s NEOC Daily COVID-19 Briefing, Director of the St. Kitts-Nevis Bureau of Standards, Stuart LaPlace outlined a number of sanitization methods and standards for the home.
He advised that the best method to sanitize the hands is with soap and water because it is more effective compared to alcohol (hand sanitizers) but alcohol is a better method to use while on the go.
As it relates to the home the Bureau of Standards Director recommended using bleach as the sanitization method.
He continued by explaining the safest ways to use bleach.
“If you are sanitizing let’s say a counter top, instead of using the bleach directly from the container cause even though it comes from the factory diluted….its still very strong for the hands so you can make your own household wipes for instance, if you have a gallon bottle of water you can use a third cup of bleach to sanitize safely, less stress on your hands and if you’re using a five liter bottle then you can take it up to a half cup of Clorox (bleach) and you can use that continuously. It’s very effective against the SARS covid too and it helps to eliminate the buildup.”
LaPlace strongly advised against using more than one chemical at a time noting that doing this can release compounds dangerous to one’s health.
“Now if you’re using Clorox (bleach) in the home, you shouldn’t be using alcohol at the same time simply because there will be a build up over time and you could be releasing some compounds that could be detrimental to your health, for instance when Clorox which contains hypochlorite, when that combines with alcohol it produces chloroform, hydrochloric acid and acetone which means everybody knows chloroform from the days gone where it was used as a sedative to sort of put you to sleep and if you have that build up in your house over time….even in small concentration they could build up over time.”
In terms of the standards set by the International Standards Organization (ISO), LaPlace said the ISO have made 28 standards available for use which consist of apparatus and equipment that should be used to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Interested individuals can check the Bureau of Standards website at www.sknbs.org for this information.
He encouraged local manufactures of hand sanitizers to observe the labelling regulations in an effort to have contact tracing in the event something goes wrong during the manufacturing process.