To Disinfect or Not? History, Implications, and Nontoxic Options
Written by Janey Bibolet Ward; Edited by Nicki Steinberger, Ph.D.
EDITOR’S SUMMARY: Where do you draw the line for the acceptance or rejection of man-made chemicals on your skin, or inside closed spaces mingling with the air you breathe? Society implores you to listen to your doctor’s advice, watch the mainstream news, and follow the government’s suggestions and guidelines. It’s then up to you to decipher the information and choose what’s in your best interest. This can feel unnerving to navigate; particularly when pressured by the unrelenting opinions of those around you. As always, we encourage you to trust yourself, and stand tall behind your decisions.
Throughout history, the practice of maintaining personal and communal health has changed based on the norms of the era for hygiene, and how people first lived as nomads, in communities, and now in large cities.ᅠ
As part of the human race, you’ve learned to trust and engage with others by smiling, touching, laughing, working together, growing, cooking, and sharing food. This is how communities have sustained for thousands of years. Access to clean water, fresh air, safe food, and sanitary practices are essential to your survival.
The causes of illnesses or diseases, and their treatments have been debated since the ancients began transcribing early medical texts. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurvedic tradition, dating back thousands of years, humans were regarded as energetic beings, a microcosm, interconnected to all of the elements of the earth.
“Dis-ease” (distance from ease) was noted to be caused by imbalances related to the environment. Health was said to be achieved by existing in balance. The mind-body connection is essential and includes getting to the “root cause” of imbalance, rather than simply applying bandages.
In one of the earliest recorded texts from ancient Greece, Meno, student of Aristotle, wrote of Hippocrates' belief that disease was caused by indigestible foods in the diet that harmed the body.
In 1937, Gattefosse’s Aromatherapy published a book in France retelling the story of bands of thieves and grave robbers during the centuries of the great plagues. Legends from the middle ages chronicle the spice traders that traveled the ancient routes known as the Silk Road between India, China, and eventually into Europe.
From the Black Plague in the 1500s until the late 1700s, tales of bandits armed with a mixture of solid vinegar and herbs, allowed them to move through the sick and dead as they attacked and pillaged without becoming ill. As the bandits were caught, they were forced to give up their secret remedies in exchange for leniency.
The most recent recorded history of the recipe was from a group caught in Marseille, France in 1772. The following notice instructed citizens to concoct the remedy for protection. This hung in the Museum of Paris until 1937:
“Take three pints of strong white wine vinegar, add a handful of each of wormwood, meadowsweet, wild marjoram and sage, fifty cloves, two ounces of campanula roots, two ounces of angelic, rosemary and horehound and three large measures of camphor. Place the mixture in a container for fifteen days, strain, and express the bottle. Use by rubbing it on the hands, ears, and temples from time to time when approaching a plague victim.”
Variations of this recipe are cited in contemporary herbal lore and medicine. Rosemary Gladstar’s recipe for “Fire Cider” is the standard elixir taken orally and used by many to support immune defenses. Several clinical studies demonstrate the antimicrobial activity of potent essential oils and plant compounds, against the proliferation of potentially harmful imbalances of bacteria, fungi, and yeast.
The practice of fumigation, burning vinegar to purify the air, and strewing of herbs was prescribed to ward off disease and pestilence well into the middle ages and Renaissance periods. In the 18th century, noxious compounds made from mercury (quicksilver), sulfur, and arsenic were used as medicine to treat illnesses.
They were not yet known to be highly toxic agents, and patients often died. The strong effects were thought to be proof the medicine was working to remove the illness. Wrap your mind around that concept.
Here Come the “Critters”
In the 1900s, Louis Pasteur, Joseph Lister, and Robert Koch were credited with the discovery of germ theory—alongside a rival Pierre Béchamp. Microorganisms, invisible to the naked eye, affected metabolic processes as in fermentation, and microbes could invade the sterile body to cause disease.
This led to advancements in sterilization for medical procedures to prevent infection from invasive practices or surgeries, and to promote healing from devastating injuries such as compound fractures.
The Industrial Revolution and the growth of cities presented a slew of problems with overcrowding, poor sanitation, raw sewage, and animal waste in the streets. Innovations in civil engineering, wastewater treatment, and a clean drinking water supply provided people with much safer living conditions and far less spread of illness and disease as cities modernized.
The use of chemical disinfectants in households increased, and became a common go-to in the mid-20th century. Prior to that, many people relied on natural products, such as vinegar, baking soda, and soap, to clean and disinfect their homes. However, with advances in chemistry and the development of powerful new disinfectants, more and more people began to use variations of chemical products in their homes.
One of the key factors that contributed to the rise of chemical disinfectants was the growing fear about infectious diseases, and the need for effective methods to control their spread. During the early 20th century, there were several major disease outbreaks, including the 1918 flu pandemic, and the polio epidemic of the 1950s, that highlighted the urgency to disinfect surfaces and control the spread of germs.
At the same time, chemical fertilizers and pesticides were widely accepted as innovations in agriculture and pest control, and were not known to be carcinogenic and neurotoxic poisons capable of causing neurological disease.
In the 1940s and 1950s, the use of harsh cleaning chemicals became widespread in households. Television advertising helped to popularize the use of products containing bleach, of which dioxins—a serious, environmental pollutant—were a by-product. Commercials blasted images of sparkling clean homes, and emphasized the importance of disinfecting surfaces to prevent the outbreak of disease.
Disinfectants are pesticides, and must be registered and regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is prohibited for children under the age of 18 to handle pesticides, including disinfectants. There is growing awareness about the potential health and environmental risks associated with their use; therefore, more people are exploring natural and nontoxic cleaning options.
Know the Health Risks
Children are particularly at risk when you consider they spend approximately one third of their time at school, a place where there is often high use of chemical disinfectants.
Non Toxic Schools is a San Francisco Bay Area-based nonprofit organization who’ve made it their mission to “lower the toxic burden” for children, and make schools a safer place to learn. Based on their research on the dangers of kids’ exposure to toxins, including disinfectants, they sound the alarm on the serious health risks involved, and seek to create solutions:
“Children are even more at risk of being harmed by disinfectants because their smaller bodies are still developing and they take in more toxins through the nose mouth and skin than adults relative to body size, and young children tend to interact more with the environment- being on the floor, putting things in their mouth. School employees who use sanitizers and disinfectants regularly are also at greater risk of developing adverse health effects.
Likely due to a lack of awareness around the hazards of disinfectants, and safer choices, the most common ones being used in schools (and in homes) are also the most toxic. Easy to find disinfectants most likely contain quaternary ammonium chloride compounds “quats” or sodium hypochlorite “bleach”- both are corrosive (not simply an irritant, they cause permanent eye and skin damage), cause and aggravate asthma (asthmagens), and are severely toxic to the environment. They are known to cause reproductive health issues and birth defects and cancer.”
The use of harsh toxic chemical disinfectants can lead to the development of resistance by microbes, viruses, and bacteria. Repeated exposure to these chemicals can cause the microbes to adapt and develop antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which is a leading global health challenge.
In Science, “Disinfection spreads antimicrobial resistance”:
“For example, antiseptic ingredients quaternary [quats] ammonium compounds triclosan, chlorhexidine, and ethanol; chlorine-based disinfectants; and disinfection by-products can promote the spread of AMR through mutation or horizontal gene transfer.”
AMR is a growing concern in the healthcare, livestock, and agricultural industries from years of antibiotic misuse and industrial chemical disinfectants. Formerly life-saving drugs no longer work to defeat the microbes they were designed to control. Health risks from chemical exposure in the built environment including homes, workplaces, and institutional settings is of great concern to researchers.
A brand new study, shared by Green Science Policy Institute in May 2023, titled “Scientists raise concerns about popular COVID disinfectants” can help you identify hazardous QACs, aka “quats” noted above. The article clearly states that reducing the use of these disinfectants will not spread COVID-19, but rather, will create safer, cleaner environments in your home and work place.
“One of the most common QACs is benzalkonium chloride, but others can be identified on ingredient labels with names that end in "ammonium chloride" or similar. However, disclosure and regulation of QACs varies widely. For example pesticide labels are required to list QACs but paint labels are not. Most QACs are not regulated at all, nor are they comprehensively screened for health hazards.
The scientists recommend eliminating uses of QACs that are either unnecessary or where their effectiveness has not been demonstrated. For example, disinfection with QACs often has no benefit over cleaning with plain soap and water. Other recommendations include requiring full disclosure of QACs in all products and closely monitoring their levels in people and the environment.”
In 2007, environmental scientist Rolf Halden, co-founder of the Center for Water and Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, warned that these quats, specifically triclosan, were detected in over 60% of rivers and waterways, agricultural land fertilized with wastewater sewage sludge, human breast milk and blood plasma, and may be an endocrine disruptor based on animal studies.
In the Covid-19 era, the fear of germs and deadly microbes reached a level of hysteria. Societies around the world are still recovering from the despair created from the isolation, and fear of an invisible enemy we collectively experienced over the last few years. Contagion theory has been prevalent in Western allopathic medicine, and continues to guide infectious disease principles today.
Institutions have been encouraged to increase the use of strong disinfectants, and antimicrobial hand sanitizers were recommended in addition to hand washing. The guidance changed when it was announced that surfaces could not be contaminated, and in April 2021 the EPA issued more stringent guidelines on the use of these chemical agents.
Additional chlorination and wastewater treatment with chemicals further contributed to this environmental and public health threat by releasing harmful loads into our environment and water systems.
Health risks increased when chemicals were used in confined spaces with poor ventilation. Chemical compounds including bleach and other toxic ingredients have been linked to adverse reactions such as rashes, asthma, and reproductive harm/infertility from multiple exposures.
Workers who provide cleaning services are frequently and repeatedly exposed to harmful chemicals for long periods of time as a matter of employment, and to support their livelihood.
If chemicals are to be used at all, it is important to use them only when absolutely necessary, and to follow proper guidelines for application, such as using the right concentration, and allowing sufficient contact time for the chemicals to be effective.
In order for these products to work as intended, applications must sit on the surface for at least 20 minutes. Note: These products do not clean, but rather, kill microorganisms. Failure to follow these instructions can increase the likelihood of harmful exposure and adverse health outcomes for you and/or the person(s) applying them.
Ultraviolet radiation (UV-C light) sanitizer devices have been gaining popularity for use at home. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns that direct exposure to skin or eyes is not advisable from UV-C devices, and to limit their duration and exposure. These devices can also release ozone during use, and toxic mercury when disposed of, creating hazardous waste.
From Popular Mechanics, “The Best UV Sanitizers to Keep Phones, Surfaces, and Rooms Clean”:
“While UV lights are known to be effective at killing germs, they come with some risks you should know about. The FDA warns, for example, that direct UVC exposure to skin and eyes can cause burn-like skin reactions and eye injuries—so don’t look into or expose yourself to the light!
Some UVC sanitizers also contain or generate noxious compounds like ozone and mercury, so if the sanitizer breaks it should be immediately disposed of. Ozone, while harmful, is used in the sanitation process of some UV lamps, so operation of these products should always be carried out remotely in another room.”
Recommendations With Your Health and Safety in Mind
Simple, natural cleaners and disinfectants; some dating back to homesteads of the early 1900s, are worth considering as alternatives to harsh industrial chemicals. They are also less expensive, and do not pose health risks to humans or the environment:
Vinegar: Surface cleaner: countertops, floors, windows, removing stains and deodorizing
Baking Soda: Scrub and deodorize surfaces: sinks, tubs, toilets, and natural carpet deodorizer
Castile Soap: Made from vegetable oils that are gentle and effective for floors, dishes, and laundry
Hypochlorous Acid (HOCI): A weak acid made from the formation of dissolved chlorine in water. Zero toxic fragrances; great for hand and surface sanitizer, and disinfectant.
Hydrogen Peroxide: Natural disinfectant to clean and sanitize surfaces, including kitchen and bathroom, stain remover, and laundry whitener
Lemon Juice: Natural degreaser, and used to clean and shine surfaces, including stainless steel appliances and kitchen counters, stain remover and laundry freshener
Essential Oils: Tea tree, lavender, and lemon oil can be added to homemade cleaning solutions to enhance their cleaning power and provide a fresh, natural scent
Steam Cleaning: Eco-friendly effective way to kill 99.99% of germs and bacteria by using super-strength heat instead of dangerous chemicals.
Above all, remember cleaning is queen! Hot soapy water continues to be the best way to clean your hands and the surfaces around you. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides guidance stating that soap and water are 99% effective for cleaning and sanitation. Save the disinfecting for specific risk situations, e.g., cleaning up bodily fluids, or a kitchen counter drenched with factory farmed raw meat.
The human body is a complex web of microorganisms often referred to as the microbiome, that naturally hosts a spectrum of different viruses called the virome. We continue to learn about the complex interplay between the various life forces that keep the body healthy, and conversely, create a diseased state.
Research into the microbiota shows that your body requires a diversity of bacteria and viral matter to be able to synthesize nutrients, process environmental toxins, and maintain homeostasis, or a generally well state of being.
It’s important to stay open-minded to leading-edge scientific research that does not simply regurgitate old paradigms based on attachment to “group think.” In a similar vein, finding sources you can rely on, that are not driven by profits, but rather, the well-being of your health, is paramount as you receive guidance in making important decisions.
If you choose to purchase a disinfectant or cleaning product from your local store shelf or online shopping platform, look closely at the label and read the ingredients with the eyes of an investigator. Research what you don’t know, and do not blindly believe marketing campaigns.
It goes without saying, but needs to be said time and time again—trust your intuition. Gut instinct has a way of getting overlooked, and sideswiped as a result of bombardment from influential, corporate greed. Your body has a miraculous ability to heal on its own; often without any interference at all.
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Originally published by A Voice For Choice Advocacy on May 11, 2023.
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