The two major ways to protect yourself during the COVID-19 pandemic—washing your hands regularly (or sanitising them when you’re not near soap and water) and cleaning commonly-touched surfaces—seem pretty self-explanatory. That is, until you’re trying to decide which types of products to use.
While sanitisers and disinfectants are commonly referred to interchangeably, the two types of products are actually different, and should be used in different situations. Here’s what you need to know about sanitisers and disinfectants—including when, where, and how to use them.
What’s the difference between sanitizers and disinfectants?
Cleaning, sanitising, and disinfecting all have different definitions:
• Cleaning removes germs, dirt, and other impurities from surfaces, but doesn’t necessarily kill them.
• Sanitising lowers the number of germs on surfaces or objects—either by killing them or removing them—to a safe level, according to public health standards or requirements.
• Disinfecting kills germs on surfaces or objects.
In short it’s helpful to think of the relationship between cleaning, sanitising, and disinfecting as a spectrum, with cleaning at one end and disinfecting at the other. Disinfecting kills the majority of viruses and bacteria, whilst sanitising doesn’t kill everything.
If you want to get really technical, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines sanitisers as chemical products that can kill at least 99.9 percent of germs on hard surfaces (that percentage should go up to 99.99 percent of germs on surfaces used for food service). Disinfectants are, again, stronger, killing 99.999 percent of germs on hard, non-porous surfaces or objects.
The difference really boils down to the fact that sanitising solutions aren’t as strong as disinfecting solutions. But some products can be both sanitisers and disinfectants. Case in point is concentrated bleach: It can be a disinfectant, but if it’s very diluted, it might be a sanitiser (meaning, again, that it kills less bacteria and viruses).
So, when should you sanitise and when should you disinfect?
There are certain procedures for cleaning groceries, surfaces in your home such as doorknobs, and your hands, and it’s crucial to get them right. Let’s start with groceries: You don’t need to wipe them down with Clorox wipes (or any other disinfectants) or a sanitizer. All you have to do is clean them (using water, but no soap) when you bring them in your home.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, you want to save disinfectants for bigger messes or highly-touched areas of your home, like doorknobs, toilet handles, and even sinks. Countertops, however, is where things get tricky—if you’re using any surfaces for food preparation, it’s best to sanitise those, so any chemical residue isn’t as powerful and potentially harmful.
As for your own hands, it may be tempting to wipe them off with a disinfecting wipe once you use it on other surfaces, but you really shouldn’t: That can be very dangerous for your skin as experts have seen adverse effects of people using disinfectants on their own bodies.
Ultimately, you can go by this simple rule: Wipe off surfaces, [but] wash your hands. That’s because “good” bacteria live on your skin, so when you apply something that kills basically all the bacteria on your hands, you’re killing off some that are actually helpful and natural. There’s a reason we don’t apply something that kills every organism on the skin (hence hand sanitiser, which should contain 60 percent alcohol). However, it’s important to remember that hand sanitiser is fine if you’re out in public, but it’s always better to wash hands with soap and water (for at least 20 seconds) if that’s an option.
While COVID-19 has definitely triggered a huge uptick in people buying and using more sanitising and disinfecting products, this is not at all a bad thing: it’s good practice for everybody right now if they are looking to keep their home safe. Just remember to use them correctly and responsibly.