US agency approves use of Lysol sprays vs COVID
COVID KILLER: The US Environmental Protection Agency has approved the use of two products – Lysol Disinfectant Spray and Lysol Disinfectant Max Cover Mist – against COVID-19 based on laboratory testing. While there are more than 420 products on the list of disinfectants that the EPA says are strong enough to ward off ‘harder-to-kill’ viruses than COVID, the two Lysol products are the first to have been tested directly against the virus and proved effective.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved the use of Lysol Disinfectant Spray against coronavirus disease 2019, based on laboratory testing that shows the products are effective against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The US EPA said in a statement that the agency had approved two products, Lysol Disinfectant Spray and Lysol Disinfectant Max Cover Mist, based on laboratory testing that showed the products were effective against COVID-19.
UK-based Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc., makers of the products, reported record sales growth in the first quarter and predicted a stronger-than-expected performance in 2020 as customers stocked up on Lysol disinfectants, Mucinex cough syrup and Dettol soap ahead of the coronavirus lockdowns.
“Lysol is currently testing the efficacy of other disinfectant products in the brand portfolio,” Ferran Rousaud, marketing director for Lysol, said in a statement.
Lysol’s parent company has warned people against using disinfectants to treat the new coronavirus, after US President Donald Trump suggested researchers try putting disinfectants into patients’ veins.
Meanwhile, in Japan, one of its biggest rail firms is betting on the anti-microbial properties of silver to keep passengers safe on the world’s busiest subway.
Tokyo’s labyrinthine rail network of about 900 stations and roughly 85 lines has seen passenger numbers approach pre-virus levels since the city’s de facto lockdown was lifted in late May.
This raises the risk of transmission via high-contact points such as hand straps, hand rails and seats, just as the city’s number of new cases of COVID-19 infection is rising again.
Tokyo Metro, the city’s main subway operator, has begun spraying its nearly 3,000 cars with a super-fine atomization of a silver-based compound, taking advantage of silver’s anti-antimicrobial properties to repel the virus from surfaces.
“Merely disinfecting the carriages only has a short-term effect, so we were looking for an anti-microbial application to reassure passengers that our trains are safe,” Masaru Sugiyama, Tokyo Metro’s section chief in charge of rolling stock, said at a demonstration yesterday.
After the end of daily operations, masked cleaners hauling motorised atomisers stride through carriages, spraying straps, poles, seats and windows with a mist of 10 micron droplets, roughly the size of a grain of pollen.