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A new study by researchers at Brigham Young University finds that alcohol-free hand sanitizer is just as effective at disinfecting surfaces from the Covid-19 virus as alcohol-based products.
The BYU scientists who conducted the study suspected that the CDC’s preference for alcohol disinfectant stemmed from still limited research into what actually works to disinfect SARS-CoV-2.
To explore other options, they treated samples of the novel coronavirus with benzalkonium chloride, which is commonly used in alcohol-free hand sanitizers, and several other quaternary ammonium compounds that are regularly found in disinfectants.
In most test cases, the compounds cleared at least 99.9% of the virus within 15 seconds.
“Our results indicate that alcohol-free hand sanitizer works just as well, so we could, perhaps even should, use it to control Covid,” said study lead author Benjamin Ogilvie.
Alcohol-free hand sanitizers, which are also effective against common cold and flu viruses, have a number of advantages over their alcohol-based counterparts, Ogilvie explained.
“Benzalkonium chloride can be used in much lower concentrations and does not cause the familiar” stinging “sensation you might experience using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. It can make life easier for people who have to sanitize their hands a lot, such as healthcare workers, and perhaps even increase compliance with sanitation guidelines, “he said.
Faced with the shortage, “having more options for disinfecting hospitals and public places is crucial,” added Ph.D. student Antonio Solis Leal, who led the study’s experiments.
Switching to an alcohol-free hand sanitizer is also logistically simple.
“People were already using it before 2020,” said BYU professor and co-author Brad Berges.
“It appears that during this pandemic, non-alcohol-based hand sanitizers were thrown into oblivion because the government was saying, ‘we don’t know they work’, due to the novelty of the virus and the unique laboratory conditions required. to run tests on it, ”Berges added.
Since benzalkonium chloride typically works well against lipid-surrounded viruses, such as Covid, the researchers believed it would be a good way to disinfect the coronavirus.
To test their hypothesis, they put the Covid samples in test tubes and then mixed into several compounds, including. Two percent benzalkonium chloride solution and three commercially available disinfectants containing quaternary ammonium compounds, as well as loads of soil and hard water.
Working quickly to simulate real-world conditions, as the hand sanitizer must disinfect quickly to be effective, they neutralized the disinfectant compounds, extracted the virus from the tubes, and placed the viral particles on the living cells. The virus failed to invade and kill the cells, indicating it had been deactivated by the compounds.
“A couple of others have looked into using these compounds against Covid,” Berges said, “but we’re the first to actually look at it in a practical time frame, using four different options, with the realistic circumstance of having dirt on our hands. before using it. “
The team believes their findings “could actually provide a change in government guidance on hand sanitizer,” Berges said.
Ogilvie hopes that reintroducing alcohol-free disinfectants to the market will alleviate the shortage and reduce the chances of people encountering some potentially “inaccurate” alcoholic disinfectants that have popped up in response to demand.
“Hand sanitizer can play a particularly important role in controlling Covid. This is information that could affect millions of people, “he said.
(This story was published by a branch agency with no text changes.)
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