Outdoor disinfectant sprays for the prevention of COVID-19: Are they safe for the environment?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144289Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Indoor and outdoor use of disinfectants increased after global pandemic COVID-19.

  • Surface runoff accelerates the chance of mixing the disinfectants with waterbodies.

  • Biocidal activity of disinfectants not only kill fish lice but also aquatic organisms

  • The ecologically important role of sensitive organisms may be a risk of disinfectants.

  • There is an urgent need for testing the primary productivity of waterbodies.

Abstract

Due to the wide range of viability on inanimate surfaces and fomite transmission of SARS-CoV-2, hydrogen peroxide (0.5%, HP) and hypochlorite-based (0.1%, HC) disinfectants (common biocides) are proposed by World Health Organization to mitigate the spread of this virus in healthcare settings. They can be adopted and applied to outdoor environments. However, many studies have shown that these two disinfectants are toxic to fishes and aquatic non-target organisms (primary producers and macroinvertebrates). The global market of these disinfectants will increase in coming years due to COVID-19. Therefore, it is urgent to highlight the toxicities of these disinfectants. The main findings of this article allow the community to develop a new strategy to protect the environment against the hazardous effects of disinfectants. Therefore, we use the “toxicity calculated ratio (TC ratio)” that refers to the fold increase or decrease in the toxicities reported in the literature (NOEC, LOEC, LC50 and EC50) relative to the WHO-recommended dose of HP and HC. The calculated TC ratios are valuable for policy makers to formulate the regulations to prevent disinfectant exposure in the environment. Our results were collected via PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis) guidelines and showed that the TC ratios are from the single digits to several thousand-fold lower than the HP and HC recommended dose, which means these disinfectants are potentially dangerous to non-target organisms. The results also showed that HP and HC are toxic to the growth and reproduction of non-target organisms. Therefore, we recommend policymakers formulate protocols for critical assessment and monitoring of the environment—especially on non-target organisms in water bodies located in and around disinfectant-exposed areas to safeguard the environment in the future.

Keywords

COVID-19
Disinfectants
Toxicity
Environment
Non-target organisms

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