Probably more a warning to venues with crowds or audiences but we now have a company pushing the concept of applying Hypochlorous Acid in a spray tunnel.

This "pennies" treatment is on the list of active ingredients approved by ECHA under the Biocidal Products Regulation BUT the decision adopted in June 2020 is for use in liquid form for direct application as a hand/foot/skin disnfectant.

https://echa.europa.eu/documents/10162/b141f948-19ba-835e-beca-9fa1ad2b5711

In other words using it as a "mist" directly on to the general public with the ability to be inhaled is NOT an exposure scenario that has been considered or evaluated.

Will make for an intersting COSHH assessment given the active is free chlorine.

According to todays press one of the nations beers (apologies Nicola its not Tennant's) is now sponsoring these tunnel things for pubs

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/pub-installs-antiviral-gateway-sanitises-24142702

You would have thought a large international beverage supplier would be aware of how to safely handle disinfectant products and not involve itself in a possible class action for exposing the public to.......

You would think that!

At least it doesn't even claim to be 100% effective according to the report.

The following is an extract from a SAGE document:

'Spray booth type devices for decontaminating people are not recommended. They are unlikely to be effective against the virus and have serious health impact and safety concerns. SARS-CoV-2 transmission is usually through a result of exhaled virus or via the hands, so even where a person who is infected with COVID-19 has passed through a whole-body disinfection system/device, as soon as they breathe, speak, cough or sneeze they can still spread the virus to others (high confidence).'

As an asthmatic whose main trigger is synthetic smells in cleaning products, I think if I saw one of these I would refuse to go in. The idea of me coughing and wheezing on the other side does not fill me with confidence that they actually stop the spread of germs.

It just beggars belief that anyone could think that exposing people to a mist of disinfectant is a good idea, or indeed that it would accomplish anything with respects to COVID. Echoes of Trump certainly.

Just consider for a moment what happens when someone walks through the booth. The disinfectant is absorbed into clothing where its effectiveness is momentary and pointless. It only contacts the person on exposed skin. Transmission is generally by the hands contacting the face. How much of the hands will actually received the disinfectant? Other parts of the skin, e.g. face are more sensitive to any foreign chemical but not a normal route of transmission. Once past the booth the person can easily emit the virus into the air by talking, sneezing etc. So what purpose, other than exposing the individual to an potentially harmful substance, has the booth served? 

The whole topic of disinfection as part of the SARS-CoV-2 management system is complex and needs to be properly thought through, something that those promoting the fogging booths appear not to have done.

I am not surprised that someone out there would try and sell this system, we after all in uncharted times and the owners of venues both large and small will look for any solution that may encourage customers to come in.  There were always be shady characters out to make the a fast buck.  Anyone want to try out my anti covid left handed widget spanner the perfect tool for opening snake oil cans!!!!

I know what Prof. Brian Cox wrote about common sense: ‘Common sense is completely worthless and irrelevant when contemplating reality.’ – from Human Universe. Also: ‘The really difficult thing is to learn not to trust what we might like to think of as common sense.’ – from Why does E=MC2?

This is particularly relevant for me when dealing with the interaction between skin and the working environment. What may appear logical often does not match what the science is telling us.

I'm surprised someone is not suggesting the human equivalent of a sheep dip. Oops, shouldn't give certain people out there ideas!