Disinfectant Recommendations

October 9, 2021 10:15 PM

Now that we are almost two years into the pandemic, what have you found to be your most reliable disinfectants for skin, fabric, phones, etc? What is your disinfecting routine if you have one? Note: by reliable I don't mean measurably effective, just what you feel gives you the most peace of mind after you use it.

I am particularly interested in hearing how people clean their phones without damaging the touch screen, and what might be a good routine for cleaning my steering wheel and drivers seat either daily or weekly.

posted by Hermione Granger to Health & Fitness (14 answers total)

The major change to my routines as a result of the pandemic is greater awareness of how well and how often I wash my hands: I try to do a solid 20 seconds or so with soap and water whenever I have the opportunity (arriving at home, at work, or pretty much anywhere else with a public sink, before eating or preparing food, after using the bathroom, etc.).

I don't disinfect surfaces or use hand sanitizer otherwise, as it doesn't seem like there's much evidence this is a major source of transmission, and I figure regular handwashing is a worthwhile habit to maintain, pandemic or not. I think this article from Nature is a good roundup of what we know (and don't) about surface transmission's role in the pandemic. It's from late January, but I think this is still valid information even in the face of the delta variant.

I'm vaccinated, immunocompetent, and in fairly good health, for what it's worth. I'd probably be more concerned with surface disinfection if I wasn't (due to coronavirus and other risks, like influenza).
posted by pullayup at 10:55 PM on October 9, 2021 [7 favorites]

Soap is absolutely the best - normal soap, not with antibiotic chemicals or anything like that. It doesn't soak in to your bloodstream, it is tried and true over literally thousands of years, and it not only washes off germs (like we always knew) but it also kills many (such as covid) by disrupting their lipid envelope.

Otherwise, if I need to disinfect my phone or something, I use basic rubbing alcohol to wipe it down. I try to do it now and again, especially if I've been around or handling it near feces (pet ownership yay) or raw meat.

For most surfaces in the house, there's very little evidence that routine disinfection of surfaces actually helps most people avoid disease, and pretty good evidence that sterile environments reduce our exposure to the benign microbiome that trains our immune system. So, I wash those, but don't generally disinfect unless there's been some unusual event or someone in the house is sick. If a household member were severely immunocompromised, I would check with their doctor first but in that case I'd use Lysol wipes or something for sterilizing high-touch surfaces. Though you've got to make sure you read the instructions on those, lots of them aren't supposed to be used on food prep surfaces without thorough rinsing/re-washing after.
posted by Lady Li at 11:32 PM on October 9, 2021 [4 favorites]

Mine is 70% isopropyl alcohol. It’s my sanitizer of choice and I have spray bottles of it the house and car.
posted by quince at 12:21 AM on October 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

My phone is in a waterproof case... which I then wash with (Dr. Bronner's) soap.
posted by oceano at 12:42 AM on October 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

No disinfectant I’m afraid - I just use a damp cloth with soapy water, normally the soap is washing up liquid or all purpose cleaner. I’d not hesitate to use either on my phone or car steering wheel.
posted by koahiatamadl at 1:21 AM on October 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Are any of you running into issues with your phone screens losing some of their sensitivity? I regularly have to kind of scrub mine down with a towel after applying any running alcohol because a film develops and causes my screen to ignore my taps.
posted by Hermione Granger at 1:39 AM on October 10, 2021

For what it’s worth, I had to go to the Apple Store for on-site support during one of the peak death surge bumps earlier this year and they were using some sort of alcohol wipe on phones being passed back and forth. Didn’t notice any film left behind.
posted by blue suede stockings at 1:42 AM on October 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

No films with the damp cloth. I may wipe down a 2nd time after rinsing the cloth in running water if I felt the cloth was too soapy.
posted by koahiatamadl at 2:03 AM on October 10, 2021

My parents gave me a UV box and despite this article I throw my phone in it fairly regularly.
posted by warriorqueen at 4:11 AM on October 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

I use plain alcohol (isopropyl, usually in the form of those tiny alcohol pads you see in hospitals). The way alcohol works as a disinfectant is via evaporation, so you should not dry it after applying the alcohol. This is also the reason that there really shouldn't be any film or residue... it all evaporates.
posted by i_am_a_fiesta at 4:12 AM on October 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

Early in the pandemic I read that soap disrupts the lipid layer in the Covid virus and essentially causes it to fall apart, so I have relied on soap and water, and washing my hands for 20 seconds.

I did buy bleach for cleaning my bathroom, but those surfaces were the only ones I was really concerned about.
posted by maggiemaggie at 5:09 AM on October 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

For non skin contact use, a quaternary ammonium blend in a ready-to-use (RTU) spray bottle has replaced chlorine bleach almost entirely for us. It's essentially the same as used by hospital IPAC staff. The type I use (Saniblend) may only be available in Canada. You don't want the industrial/medical ones that you have to mix, as quaternary ammonium is effective at around 0.1% and handling concentrate is nasty.

I'm using various castile soaps to stop my hands from cracking, and with Toronto's hard water, soap scum builds up. Thankfully quaternary ammonium sorts it right out.
posted by scruss at 8:55 AM on October 10, 2021

I wear side shields on my glasses at work. When I get in my car to go home, I remove the shields and set them on the console and spray them with my favorite hand sanitizer, Trader Joe's citrus one. I don't know if this is actually scientifically necessary or sound, but I like the routine.
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:53 AM on October 10, 2021

I like using Odoban as a disinfectant/all-purpose cleaner.
posted by joeyjoejoejr at 2:49 PM on October 10, 2021