Today, it’s more important than ever to keep your environment clean, especially as we all cope with the state of a post-pandemic world. COVID-19 has taught us the benefits of keeping our home and workplace as clean as possible as a hedge against infection, and it’s a lesson we need to keep in mind to help preserve the health and wellness of all of us going forward.
It’s obvious that it’s beneficial to keep the hard surfaces and objects around your home or place of work clean. Yet in many cases “clean” doesn’t always mean sanitized or disinfected. In fact, there are some types of pathogens that can survive in an exposed environment for longer than you would expect, even after being treated with a regular cleaning agent. This is why you need to ensure you disinfect as well as clean.
Viruses, Bacteria, and Pathogens, Oh My!
There are two very good reasons why you need both a powerful cleanser and disinfectant when it comes to taking care of environmental pathogens. The first is that there are a number of bacterial strains that are extremely hardy when it comes to surviving in the open world on surfaces. These “Gram-positive” bacteria have thick cell walls that act as strong protection against the elements for these bacteria, and this means they can survive for hours or even days on a disinfected surface.
Second, and this is perhaps even more important, is that viruses like the novel coronavirus can also survive on hard surfaces as well. While these viruses might not survive nearly as long as a Gram-positive, they can survive long enough to infect you or the people around you without ensuring these surfaces are disinfected and sanitized. With the COVID-19 pandemic showing us how much impact a viral infection can have on our global civilization, taking steps to control the spread of the coronavirus (and other viruses that are even harder to kill) makes disinfecting your environment even more crucial for the safety of everyone.
Safe in More Ways Than One
Safety is always a number-one concern with cleaners and disinfectants. That’s because there’s more than one kind of safe, after all: safe from pathogens, and also safe to use. If something’s strong enough to kill viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens, it’s often also strong enough to be toxic if ingested, inhaled, or otherwise comes into contact with people. This can certainly pose a problem in high-traffic areas or in environments where you have elderly, children or pets.
It’s not impossible to find strong disinfectants that are safe to use, however. Quarternary ammonia-based cleaners such as Emergicide offer capable cleaning and sanitizing power, with the ability to kill the most dangerous viruses and Gram-positive bacteria while also being completely safe for humans and animals when dry. There’s a reason these cleaners are used in environments like hospitals and veterinary offices!
The Final Word on Cleaning and Disinfecting
There’s no reason why your home or place of business can’t be as clean and sanitized as a high-risk, high-traffic environment like a hospital, doctor’s office, or animal care center. Make sure you use a cleanser that has strong, powerful, and safe disinfecting action and you can rest easy that your environment is safe — because there’s no such thing as being too careful in a post-COVID world.