Could this be a simple, cheap solution to our Covid-19 nightmare?
It’s the spray that costs very little and kills all viruses instantly. So...
WHETHER they’re in China, Hong Kong or Japan, they’ve become a familiar sight: men with giant cylinders on their backs spraying everything around them.
Lampposts, train carriages, classrooms, railings, restaurants, bars, shops, airports, entrances to hospitals, schools, government buildings – they are all targets. And it seems to have paid off in the fight to tame Covid-19.
Or, at least, it’s played a vital role in curbing the spread of the virus and helping to unlock those countries from their respective coronavirus shutdowns.
What’s being sprayed is hypochlorous acid – known more widely as HOCl.
It’s 100 times more effective as a disinfectant than bleach, killing germs and viruses instantly. Yet it’s free of potentially harmful additives: non-toxic, cheap to produce, easy to use and completely safe for humans.
Whereas industrial and domestic bleaches are made with chemicals which have the potential to cause harm, particularly to the skin, eyes and lungs, and damage the materials to which they are applied, such as clothes, some people use HOCL as a mouthwash and it’s even been used to cleanse human skin of infections.
In South Korea, it’s proved such an effective weapon against Covid that a growing number of scientists, doctors and healthcare experts want to know why it is not being deployed more widely around the world.
If it does end up being used in Ireland and the UK, one suggestion is that theatre- or gig-goers could be sprayed with the disinfectant by walking through metal detector-style arches on their way into venues. Dr Joe Selkon, an eminent consultant microbiologist at the Oxford University John Radcliffe Hospital, who died in 2013, described HOCl as ‘the gold standard by which all antiviral, antibacterial agents must now be compared’.
It was in early March that HOCl was confirmed as being instrumental in containing the spread of Covid-19 in South Korea, when CNN reported that at the end of their shifts, frontline workers at drive-through coronavirus testing stations were ‘stepping fully clothed into a small portable booth called the “Clean Zone”, in which they were showered in hypochlorous acid disinfectant’.
This practice is known as ‘fogging’ or ‘misting’ and is something the HOCl Trust – a charity set up in 2016 to educate the public about the benefits of hypochlorous acid – believes could play a huge role in avoiding a second spike of the disease. Yet many people will never have heard of HOCl, never mind know what it does, even though the WHO says frontline staff should be using hypochlorous acid as a part of their ‘critical commodity-listed PPE for Covid-19, along with goggles, visors, alcohol-based hand rub, scrubs and heavy aprons’.
Typically, HOCl is a natural part of the human immune system. It is produced by our white blood cells and kills invasive organisms, such as viruses and bacteria.
HOCl is a weak acid that occurs naturally in our immune system.
White blood cells are the first to arrive on site when a pathogen – invading germ – is detected. They chase down and engulf the germ through a process called phagocytosis. Upon contact, the white blood cells release a burst of pathogen-killing chemicals, including their most powerful oxidising agent: HOCl.
There are two primary ways of making HOCl outside the body. First, through electrolysis, where an electric current is passed through a saline solution to produce HOCl.
The second – both easier and cheaper – is to make HOCl by dissolving in water a readily available man-made chemical compound called sodium dichloroisocyanurate, the main ingredient of chlorination tablets.
Some dental practices now use HOCl to ‘fog’ their surgeries between treating patients.
One hand-held fogging machine in use looks like a leaf-blower, but fogging tunnels have also become commonplace in the East. They look like airport scanners but have a pressure pad on the floor that triggers a fine mist of HOCl as people walk through.
A company called Trimite distributes sanitising fogging tunnels under the name of ShieldMe. They are made by a company called Naffco in Dubai, where they are seen at bus-stops, train stations, in airports and in the foyers of cinemas and foyers.
‘The potential of fogging with hypochlorous acid is huge,’ says David Roberts, chairman of Trimite. ‘We are currently in discussions with some premiership rugby and football clubs – and we think our three-man tunnels are the solution for bringing spectators back into stadiums. There will be some queuing but it will take no longer to walk through a fogging tunnel.’
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‘Gold standard’ in antiviral agents