COVID-19 and the Use of Disinfectants – Second Look

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Michigan State University. College of Human Medicine
• Description:
  Concern about the adverse effects of disinfectants in causing allergic rhinitis and asthma or aggravating symptoms in individuals who already have allergic rhinitis or asthma preceded the COVID-19 pandemic. The initial recommendations from CDC in response to the COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the "frequent disinfection of surfaces and objects touched by multiple people is important." The increased use of disinfectants was presumably responsible for the increased calls about adverse health effects from disinfectants to the Michigan Poison Center11 as well as to poison centers across the country. In a previous analysis, we looked at calls on adverse health effects from disinfectants to the Michigan Poison Center from January 1, 2020 to April 30, 2020 compared to the same four month period in 2019. The total number of calls about disinfectants increased by 42.8%, while the number of calls in which the caller had ≥1 symptom increased by 57.3%. The number of calls about disinfectants showed a statistically significant doubling on March 13, 2020, two days after the first COVID-19 cases were reported in Michigan (Figure 1). We have now extended the analysis of calls about adverse health effects from disinfectants to the Michigan Poison Center through December 31, 2021 (Figure 2). We found no further statistically significant increase in calls but rather the number of calls decreased with three statistically significant breaks when the number of calls decreased on May 6, 2020, July 1, 2020, and October 21, 2022. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Asthma, Occupational Communicable Diseases Disinfectants Occupational Health Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety
• Keywords:
  Coronavirus COVID-19 Occupational Asthma Poison Control Respiratory Diseases Surveillance
• Publisher:
  Michigan State University-College of Human Medicine
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Newsletter
• Place as Subject:
  Michigan ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-4
• Volume:
  33
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20066666
• Citation:
  Project S.E.N.S.O.R. News 2022 Mar; 33(2):1-4
• Contact Point Address:
  MSU-CHM, West Fee Hall, 909 Fee Road, Room 117, East Lansing, MI 48824-1316
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2022
• Performing Organization:
  Michigan State University
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Project S.E.N.S.O.R. News
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:cf16654a3cea40c6596ed6cd5d6c5be367dc7633e57d9f5c69259c00b0d3e2e380227c060971d5e859bc1df1b88a575badc85ddd721e28fc451e5f2ee5d59ed9
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/230948/cdc_230948_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 479.71 KB ]