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Posted By Paul Leadbetter
Good morning, everyone
As the chlorine content of household bleach cannot be guaranteed, is sodium dichloroisocyanurate still recommended for cleaning up body fluids? If so, what strength solution is required to ensure effective disinfection?
Thanks in anticipation
Paul
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Posted By Diane Warne
Paul,
We recommend any chlorine-releasing agent that provides 10,000ppm available chlorine. We do allow the use of household bleach, diluted to give at least 10,000ppm, as long as the stock bottle is reasonably fresh. We advise housekeepers to keep only small stocks of bleach, purchase it from a commercial cleaning supplies company rather than use domestic bleach, and chuck out any old stocks. Since 10,000ppm chlorine is well above the concentration that will inactivate viruse and kill bacteria, it shouldn't matter if the bleach is a little bit low in chlorine. NaDCC is fine but is only used in lab environments here.
regards
Diane Warne
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Posted By Jim Walker
When chosing substances for biocidal effects be careful you don't add another hazard.
If the substance will kill bugs it usually has some nasty effect on human tissue too.
I use stuff called Virkon which is as about idiot proof as you can get. Contact me if you want details.
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Rank: Guest
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Posted By Ciaran McAleenan
Paul
You could consider using a fire retardant absorbant material that can then be brushed up and disposed of. Check local authority arrangements for disposal of the absorbant.
I can get you more details if you are interested.
Ciaran
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Posted By Diane Warne
Ciaran,
I would advise against use of an adsorbant for cleaning up blood and other high-risk body fluids, unless you have disinfected the spill with a suitable disinfectant first. That may be what you meant, but it wasn't quite clear.
Some granulated/powder disinfectants do absorb the fluid as well as disinfect it (e.g. Virkon powder as recommended by Jim, which you can buy in a squeeze-pack like a Harpic container.)
The reason we recommend a chlorine-releasing agent is that this is the agent of choice according to all the literature on inactivating blood-borne viruses. Bleach is also much cheaper than the powder/granule formulations and as long as appropriate safe working procedures are used (according to COSHH assessment) can be used safely.
Regards
Diane
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