Although hand sanitizers and other antiviral cleaning products are disappearing from supermarket shelves, you may already have all the products you need to combat COVID-19, and they’re non-toxic and cheaper.

Much of the information here is taken from a recent article in Consumer Reports.

COVID-19 is enveloped in a coating that allows it to merge with our body cells and infect them.  If you can disrupt this coating, you can deactivate the virus.  Fortunately, this is pretty easy to do.

Soap and water do this job very well. The friction from scrubbing a surface with soap and water can break the virus’s protective coating. The operative word here is “scrub.”  Don’t just wipe the surface lightly; bear down as if you’re removing dirt or something sticky.  Leave the rag you’ve used in a bowl of soapy water for a while to destroy any remaining virus particles. 

(A note of interest, if the virus makes its way inside your body, vitamin D disrupts this same protective coating, so be sure to keep up your vitamin D supplements during the pandemic!) 

Bleach – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend making a solution of bleach with water by adding 1/3 cup of bleach (5 tablespoons) to a gallon of water, or 4 teaspoons of bleach to a quart of water to kill COVID-19.  However, using this solution to disinfect is a bit tricky. First, it will bleach any clothing it gets on.  Second, it is a highly corrosive substance and can hurt your hands (wear rubber gloves for protection) and, over time, the surfaces it cleans, especially metals.  See the Consumer Reports article for specifics on handling bleach. 

Isopropyl Alcohol – Any solution with 60% alcohol will effectively kill COVID-19 on hard surfaces. Clean surfaces first with water and detergent and then apply the undiluted alcohol solution and let it sit at least 30 seconds before wiping it off. Note that isopropyl alcohol can discolor some plastics.

Hydrogen Peroxide – Pour 3% hydrogen peroxide undiluted into a spray bottle; then spray it on the surface to be cleaned and let it sit for at least one minute. You don’t have to wipe it off because it decomposes into oxygen and water. Although hydrogen peroxide isn’t corrosive, it can, like bleach, discolor clothing. You’ve probably noticed the perfumey, chemical smell emitted by most cleaning and sanitizing products.  This smell indicates a host of chemicals that make people with chemical sensitivity very sick and aren’t good for the rest of us. At Beyond Health we have made it our business to find soaps, toothpastes and a deodorant that are free from harmful chemicals (not an easy task!).  

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