Will it
be safe to use the Disinfection Chamber to the general public?
As we
are aware at this pandemic situation as
a Nation many individuals, and institutes
develop various systems to fight against COVID19 spread. One of the famous
systems is being considered as the Disinfection Chamber/ Disinfection
Booth/Disinfection Tunnel.
The key
issue of this design is effeteness in serving the purpose. There is No scientific evidence for the efficiency of
disinfection in human bodies using spraying disinfection reagents in an
enclosed chamber. The general practice for the disinfecting surfaces is to dip
or fully cover the surface by regents for 20-30 seconds. This complete coverage
of the skin surface is highly questionable in this design. Alcohol( IPA/ Ethanol)
wipes also works on the same mechanism which covers the entire surface. However
with the suggested design the actual contact time of the microdroplets and
coverage of the entire surface is not clearly studied and proven to be at
the standard levels. Hands and facial areas are identified as critical to
spread this virus. Having gone Hence, going through this chamber and ignoring
the complete disinfection of hands (soap-washing/hand-sanitizer) will provide a
false sense of security. (1)
We need
to ensure that we do not have any intention to underestimate the ideas and
efforts of young inventors. This is purely a technical approach in the grounds
of engineering, microbiological and health aspects of the above design.
This
type of system sprays Alcohol( IPA/ Ethanol) , Sodium Hypo Chloride ( NaOCl/
HOCl) . Ozonated Water, Hand wash Liquid, during the spraying mist is created
inside the booth for 10-60 sec of times. There is no evidence to support that
spraying of surfaces or large-scale misting of areas, indoor or outdoor with
disinfecting agents, kills the virus. Spraying or misting may even cause harm as, it can cause pathogens to be
dispersed further, cause skin irritation or inhalation of chemicals and
subsequent development of respiratory side effects and may lead to
environmental pollution.
If we
consider the Alcohol/ IPA is being used as the spraying liquid, inhaling large
amounts of isopropyl alcohol can cause nausea, vomiting, irritation of the nose
and mucous membranes, throat irritations, and even difficulty with breathing as
coughing can occur making it difficult to catch breath. IPA poisoning occurs
when the liver is no longer able to manage the concentration of IPA in the
body. Average Human body can handle only a small amounts of isopropyl alcohol at a time.
In fact, kidneys removes approximately 20 to 50 percent of IPA from the body.
The rest is broken down into acetone by enzymes known as alcohol
dehydrogenases. This acetone is filtered out of our body through the lungs or
kidneys. Isopropyl alcohol is highly flammable, and can easily ignite. Vapors
may form explosive mixtures with air. Isopropyl alcohol should be kept away
from heat, sparks, flames and other sources of ignition. So, people need to be
careful in using IPA. Everyone thinks IPA is a good sanitizer, but people
hardly know about the repercussions of irresponsible usage. Ozone has the same repercussions if you use
irresponsibly.
If
Sodium Hypochlorite is being used in this chamber, Hypochlorite's potential to
cause toxicity is related to its oxidizing capacity and the pH of the solution.
Toxicity arises from its corrosive activity upon contact with mucous membranes
and skin. Features following ingestion: While small accidental ingestions are
very unlikely to cause clinically significant toxicity, large ingestions may
cause corrosive gastrointestinal injury and systemic effects, including
metabolic acidosis, hypernatremia, and hyperchloremia.
Features following skin exposure: Prolonged or
extensive exposure may cause skin irritation and damage to the skin or dermal
hypersensitivity. Such exposures can result in either immediate or delayed-type
skin reactions. High concentration solutions have caused severe chemical skin
burns. Features following inhalation: Although there are only limited data,
inhalation of hypochlorite alone is likely to lead to no more than mild
irritation of the upper airways. If NaOCl contact with the eyes will sting and
burn. The natural moisture in eyes
combines with liquid bleach to form an acid.
Some argue these disinfection chambers contain chemicals in a
concentration which is nontoxic to humans. However these disinfecting chemicals
when being used in human friendly concentration is not at all effective for
disinfection purposes, in other words it will not destroy harmful bacteria and
viruses.
With this there is another argument “if not complete
disinfection at least partial disinfection is worth”. But this argument comes
from people who has no idea about how microorganism’s metabolism works.
Whenever a microorganism exposed to non-lethal dosage of microbicidal agents,
let it be disinfections, antibiotics etc, it will develop resistant against
these agents, making it hard to kill even with the lethal dosage. Also as we
all know this SARS-COV2 virus mutate in rapid rate, exposing it to a non-lethal
dosage of disinfections will enhance it’s mutation rates, leading to more new
strains of the virus.
Also again there is ozone disinfection chambers coming
forward, having an ozone concentration within the OSHAS guide lines, making it
human friendly. This has two adverse
effects one being non-lethal dosage leading to new mutations and resistant
strains. The other one being weakening the respiratory system of human beings,
as ozone in a lower concentration also can slightly damage the epithelial cells
of the respiratory system of human beings. For fighting COVID 19, the most
essential part for a human being is a strong respiratory system.
Even on
Operational guidelines on preparedness and response for covid-19 outbreak for work
settings, Interim guidance published on April 17th 2020 By Directorate
of Environmental Health, Occupational Health and Food Safety Clearly state on
page no 8 as “Disinfection Chambers are not recommended.” Even though this
system is not recommended we can see that many public places, Factories,
Supermarket chains and public Transport are installing this system to disinfect
the person.
So by
Considering the ineffectiveness of this system and side effects created by the
chemicals used in this, Government should take necessary action to ban this
system at General Public.