Tag: Disinfecting

The Safer Way to Clean and Disinfect Your Home

Posted on by Nina Hwang, MPH

Anxiety about the spread of the COVID-19 virus has led households to significantly increase their use of cleaning and disinfecting chemicals throughout the pandemic. Though well-intentioned, these habits can expose households to toxic chemicals, ultimately causing more harm than good.

Since the virus primarily spreads via person-to-person transmission, covering the surfaces in your home with chemicals won’t necessarily help prevent the spread of COVID; however, it could lead to significant health risks for your family. By learning how to choose safer products and understanding when disinfecting is appropriate, you can guard against viruses and other germs while also protecting your home’s indoor air quality and the health and safety of your family.

Cleaning Your House is Usually Enough

The science has long been clear that coronaviruses, including the COVID-19 virus, are relatively easy to kill on surfaces because they are surrounded by a protective lipid envelope that easily breaks apart with plain soap and water.

Now, we also know that the risk of surface-to-person transmission of COVID is extremely low. In fact, research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found there is less than  a 1 in 10,000 chance of being infected with COVID-19 from touching a contaminated surface.

When to Disinfect Your Home

While regular cleaning is typically effective at removing most virus particles on surfaces, targeted disinfection is sometimes appropriate — such as when someone confirmed or suspected to be infected with COVID has been in your house within the past 24 hours. Otherwise, cleaning regularly is sufficient, so you don’t have to worry about cleaning every time you touch a surface in your home.

Importantly, even when disinfecting is appropriate, you should always clean first. Cleaning removes dirt and grime that viruses can hide under.

Choosing Safer Cleaning Products and Disinfectants

Only a few hundred of the 80,000-plus chemicals registered for use in the U.S. have been evaluated for health and environmental effects — so the chemicals inside your cleaning products matter more than you might initially think.

Much like cleaning products, some disinfectants are safer for human and environmental health than others. Unfortunately, disinfectants often contain hazardous ingredients such as quaternary ammonium compounds, or quats, which are linked to asthma, cancer, and endocrine disruption. Repeated exposure to these harmful ingredients can increase the risk of serious respiratory disease, especially for vulnerable populations including children and those with asthma.

US EPA’s List N: Disinfectants for Coronavirus provides a list of products effective against the COVID-19 virus. However, this list does not identify which products use safer disinfecting ingredients. Green Seal recommends choosing approved disinfectants with the following, safer active ingredients:

  • hydrogen peroxide*
  • citric acid
  • lactic acid
  • ethyl alcohol (also called ethanol or just alcohol)
  • isopropyl alcohol
  • peroxyacetic acid*
  • hypochlorous acid

*Avoid products containing both hydrogen peroxide and peroxyacetic acid (also called peracetic acid) as that combination is an asthmagen.

While EPA does not allow third-party certifications for disinfecting solutions, Green Seal has curated EPA’s List N to help you identify safer ones.

Disinfectants with Safer Ingredients

How to Avoid Over-Disinfecting Your Home

The science surrounding the COVID-19 virus indicates that we ought to avoid a dangerous reliance on disinfectants. Fortunately, there are ways to minimize exposure to cleaning chemicals, regardless of the types of products at hand.

Follow the instructions on product labels

Product-specific information on the disinfectant’s label — such as the duration a surface needs to remain wet with disinfectant to kill specific pathogens — helps ensure safe and correct use. For instance, when it comes to contact times, it’s not always a quick spray and wipe; contact times can range from 30 seconds to 10 minutes.

Avoid accidental exposure

To minimize the quantity of chemicals that become airborne, choose a disinfectant wipe, or spray the product into a microfiber towel before wiping household surfaces. It’s also best to keep kids and pets in a different room while cleaning to further reduce exposure.

Improve ventilation

Open windows or run fans, when possible, to reduce the buildup of pollutants released during cleaning and disinfecting. Without proper ventilation, this chemical buildup can lead to poor indoor air quality.

Because of the nature of the COVID-19 virus, masking, vaccines and regular handwashing are the most effective precautions against its spread. However, cleaning and disinfecting are among several precautions that can help protect you. By choosing safer disinfectants for your home, following science-based guidance on disinfecting frequency, and taking precautions when cleaning, you can help protect yourself and your loved ones from both COVID-19 and negative health effects from exposure to harmful chemicals.

Innovations are Making Toxic Chemicals a Thing of the Past

Posted on by Patrick Lucci

This is a guest contribution by Patrick Lucci

Since 1847, when chlorine was first used as a disinfectant, there have been few alternatives to the effective but often dangerous substances known as chemical disinfectants. Today, there is a technology that combines salt, water, vinegar, and electricity to create an EPA-registered, general purpose, hospital-grade cleaner and disinfectant proven more effective than chlorine bleach.

Dubbed by The Los Angeles Times as “miracle liquid,” those of us in the world of advanced science call it electrolyzed water. It is effective, harmless to skin at both the dermal and subdermal levels, and easy and inexpensive to produce. Nobody is suggesting prolonged exposure, but if it gets in your eyes, no harm will come to them. In fact, products based on this same electrolyzed water are the basis of commercially available eyelid cleaning products. If ingested at small amounts, the most harmful effect is an imbalance of good and bad microbes in the intestine, which can cause discomfort for two or three days. The solution also can be generated on-site, eliminating delivery, storage, and disposal issues.

The Science Behind Electrolyzed Water

The process of making electrolyzed water is elegant in its simplicity. Tap water is placed into a flask containing an electrolytic cell composed of an anode that delivers a positive electrical charge and a cathode that delivers a negative electrical charge. Then, a carefully formulated solution of saline and vinegar is added to the water. When the device is operating, a measured amount of electricity passes through the anode and cathode. Negatively charged chloride ions are attracted to the anode and electrochemically convert into hypochlorous acid — a powerful and reliable disinfectant. The positively charged sodium ions are attracted to the cathode and convert into sodium hydroxide, a powerful grease cutter and cleaning compound.

This approach, based on simple but advanced electrochemical technology, is catching on in homes, schools, day cares, and professional cleaning companies throughout the U.S. and beyond. Commercial users of electrolyzed water note significant cost savings and fewer absences due to illness and injury from toxic chemicals exposure.

The Toxins Use Reduction Institute at the University of Massachusetts has standard, industry accepted protocols to measure the cleaning capability of a variety of chemicals used in homes and by professional cleaning organizations. It found that this technology can clean and disinfect on par with mainstream chemicals that are both toxic and more expensive than electrolyzed water.

While there has not been a major paradigm shift in cleaning and disinfecting chemistry since 1847, to quote a famous folk singer, “The times they are a changing.”

CDC Confirms: Less is More When it Comes to Disinfecting

Posted on by Doug Gatlin

Last Summer, I warned of a dangerous trend of over-disinfecting buildings to reassure people about safety amid the pandemic – with minimal effectiveness at reducing virus spread and significant risks to people’s health from toxic chemicals.  Now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated its guidance to confirm that regular cleaning is preferable to disinfecting most of the time.  

When is disinfecting appropriate? The CDC now says to disinfect when someone confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 has been in the building within the past 24 hours.  

This is the same guidance Green Seal provided last Summer in our Safer Guidelines for COVID-19 Disinfecting for Schools and Workplaces, a free public resource that is now being implemented in more than 1 billion square feet of building space, including by Green Seal-certified cleaning services.  


Why Disinfecting Can Harm Instead of Help

It has been clear for some time that dousing a space in hazardous disinfecting chemicals won’t do much to prevent the spread of COVID-19. There are two main reasons for this: COVID-19 is much more likely to spread through person-to-person and airborne transmission than it is through surface-to-person transmission, and coronaviruses are relatively easy to kill on surfaces with plain old soap and water (or regular cleaning solutions).

There is a natural instinct to turn to the harshest chemicals available to attack a nasty virus, but the CDC’s new guidance should reassure us all that we can follow the science to avoid a dangerous reliance on disinfection. Doing so will avoid health risks ranging from cancer to serious respiratory disease – an especially grave risk for vulnerable populations such as children and the 1 in 13 Americans with asthma.

Not All Disinfectants are Created Equal 

For the times when disinfecting is appropriate, some disinfecting products are safer than others. Green Seal has curated U.S. EPA’s List N: Disinfectants for Coronavirus to help you identify safer ones.

Unlike other active ingredients commonly found in disinfectants, the active ingredients we recommend are not linked to asthma, cancer, endocrine disruption, DNA damage or skin irritation. Find our list of recommended ingredients and products here. 

Why We’re Certifying Safer Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizers

Posted on by Taryn Tuss

Green Seal is now certifying hand sanitizers that meet the highest standard for safety and performance in the marketplace.

With the COVID-19 pandemic spurring many first-time producers to enter the market, the FDA has warned consumers to avoid hundreds of hand sanitizers because of high levels of hazardous ingredients including methanol (wood alcohol) and the contaminant 1-propanol.  Meanwhile, even when properly formulated, hand sanitizers can include hazardous ingredients linked to cancer, allergies, and skin and eye irritation – even if they have an ecolabel.  

With our new certification program, Green Seal is providing consumers, purchasers and facility managers a simple way to identify hand sanitizers that meet the highest standard for health, safety and performance.  

The Highest Standard of Clean

Formulating with healthier ingredients is vital for a product that people apply to their skin dozens of times a day. Our new certification standard, created with input from public health and industry experts, screens 100% of alcohol-based hand sanitizer product formulas for:

  • carcinogens
  • reproductive toxins
  • skin irritants
  • phthalates
  • parabens, and
  • contaminants

And as always, consumers can be confident that Green Seal-certified products meet uncompromising performance standards, do not pollute waterways, and use environmentally preferable packaging materials.

Verification By a Trusted Authority 

Our new hand sanitizer certification program is part of our commitment to leverage our expertise in healthy and sustainable cleaning and facility care to help protect people from both COVID-19 and negative health impacts from toxic chemicals. 

  • Green Seal’s Guidelines for Safer Cleaning and Disinfection for schools and workplaces have been adopted by commercial cleaning companies servicing more than 1 billion square feet of space.
  • We’ve partnered with SEIU 32BJ, the largest union of property service workers in the U.S., on COVID-19 training for its members.
  • More than 30,000 Green Seal certified products are used in offices, schools and homes each day, including cleaning products and hand soaps critical to de-contaminating buildings and protecting people.

Learn more about Green Seal certification for hand sanitizers here. 

A Trend in COVID-19 Cleaning Is Hazardous to Your Health

Posted on by Doug Gatlin

COVID-19 has precipitated a worrying cleaning trend that’s getting little airtime – excessive exposure to hazardous cleaning and disinfecting chemicals that itself can endanger health. To reassure people about the safety of indoor spaces during the pandemic, some workplaces are turning to unnecessary or even counterproductive cleaning and disinfection methods – a practice the Atlantic calls “hygiene theater.” 

The Best Disinfecting Tool is Accurate Information 

After physical distancing and mask-wearing, the best tool to combat COVID-19 is accurate information. We have good reason to believe that schools and workplaces don’t need to turn to hazardous methods to effectively clean and disinfect for COVID-19.  Consider that:

  • COVID-19 is most likely to spread through person-to-person and airborne transmission. In fact, no specific reports of transmission from surface-to-person had been recorded as of the July 9 publication of this World Health Organization report.
  • Coronaviruses, such as the COVID-19 virus, are relatively easy to kill on environmental surfaces.

While companies are increasingly asking for or advertising frequent disinfecting, as a general rule only high-touch surfaces (such as door handles and elevator buttons) should be frequently disinfected. Applying the product correctly is also important, as over-using a product will not be more effective at killing the COVID-19 virus and leads to waste and unnecessary chemical exposure.

Foggers Are Poor Choices For Schools and Offices

Application technologies like foggers are being heavily marketed as COVID-19 disinfecting solutions. These are a poor choice for school and office environments – they promote hazardous levels of chemical exposure without any benefit, as there is no evidence that they are more effective than traditional application methods. 

As some schools prepare to reopen, administrators should consider that disinfectants can include ingredients linked to asthma, cancer and endocrine disruption. Applying them in excess can create significant health risks for students and staff, including – ironically – serious respiratory disease.  

This is an especially grave risk for the 1 in 13 Americans with asthma – a group the CDC has identified as high-risk for COVID-19. Choosing safer proven-effective products, especially those that do not contain asthmagens or respiratory irritants, is critical for protecting high-risk groups. (Green Seal’s list of recommended safer COVID-19 disinfectants is here.)

Hazardous Chemicals May Do More Harm Than Good

Dousing a space in hazardous chemicals won’t necessarily better prevent the spread of COVID-19, but it will lead to significant health risks for those inside. The good news is that there are effective ways disinfect for COVID-19 while protecting health, safety and indoor air quality. 

Green Seal’s Safer COVID-19 Disinfecting Guidelines are a free resource for comprehensively protecting the health of building occupants and cleaning personnel during the pandemic.  And Green Seal’s public health lead Nina Hwang provides additional information on safe and effective disinfection here.

Interview from the Front Lines: Cleaning for COVID-19

Posted on by Green Seal

With cleaning workers on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis, Green Seal caught up with Michael Doherty, president of BMS Building Maintenance Service, to learn how the industry-leading green cleaning company is approaching the challenges of operating during a pandemic.   

Certified to Green Seal’s GS-42 commercial cleaning standard since 2014, BMS cleans more than 100 million square feet of space across New York, Chicago and the Mid-Atlantic, including iconic buildings like Chicago’s Merchandise Mart. 

GS: What are your clients asking you for right now, and how are you communicating to them about how you’re addressing the outbreak? 

MD: Now more than ever the importance of the work we do is top of mind for clients.  The biggest concern is how our staff is cleaning their spaces, and whether our procedures and the chemicals we use will disinfect for COVID-19.  In many cases, clients are asking us to increase the frequency of cleaning, particularly for high touch surfaces such as doorknobs, kitchen surfaces and appliances, and restroom fixtures.  Additionally, there’s a high demand for certain supplies such as hand sanitizer liquids and wipes.  We are providing these to clients, and continually working our supply chain to ensure we have stock.

We are communicating through a variety of methods, including mass communications, email, but most importantly, over the phone in real time.  As the situation is evolving so rapidly, voice communication is often the quickest means to get the work done.

GS: How have you had to adjust your operations or internal communications to deal with this crisis?

MD: As the COVID-19 situation began to unfold, BMS established an internal emergency communications team, consisting of company leadership and representatives from our operations, safety, and quality assurance departments.  The team members are in regular communication to evaluate factors affecting our ability to deliver service, and to make operational adjustment to meet new demands.

In many cases, roles and responsibilities have also shifted.  Team members are being pulled from their regular work to focus on critical COVID-related initiatives that wouldn’t normally fall in their scope of responsibility.  It’s an “all hands-on- deck” mentality.  I’m proud of how our team has risen to the occasion.

Our internal communications have also been affected by the fact that all “non-essential” staff is now working from home.  The company is holding more virtual meetings than ever and has established new tools for group communication such as mass-texting.

GS: Have you had to handle any supply chain issues and adjust your procurement? Have you had to quickly switch to different products and conduct new trainings?  

MD: We are working closely with our suppliers to stay abreast of changing supply conditions and supply chain shortages.  Products in highest demand include sanitizing wipes and liquids, disinfecting chemicals, and face masks.  

We are adding safety stock where possible for these critical products.  We are sourcing from multiple suppliers, not relying on one sole vendor or one brand manufacturer.  As worldwide demand for these items continues to grow, shipping times are often in flux, so we are closely tracking all orders.

GS: How are you protecting your frontline employees? 

MD: For our cleaning staff, we are taking proactive approaches to infection prevention and emergency preparedness in response to concerns about COVID‐19, including providing personal protective equipment as necessary, and continued safety and hygiene training.  Additionally, we are closely tracking cases or potential cases in our buildings and notifying our staff as soon as we are notified.

We are also attempting to educate them with whatever information becomes available.


GS: Are you encountering questions about the effectiveness of green cleaning for coronavirus? If so, how are you addressing them? 

MD: The EPA has published a list of approved disinfectants for COVID-19, which has been the number one concern for our clients.  While some disinfectant manufacturers claim to be green, the reality is that EPA considers all disinfectants to be a part of the pesticide family and requires them all to be EPA registered.  

That said, some disinfectants have less harsh ingredients than others.  Product with ingredients such as alcohol, lactic and citric acid, and hydrogen peroxide are examples of what we look for. 

Additionally, another thing to note is that before we disinfect, we clean.  We continue to use the same green products and processes already in place for cleaning.

GS: Can you give us an overview of your protocols for de-contamination of a building that may have had an individual with coronavirus? 

MD: In the regions where we provide this service, we follow very specific protocol.  To start we isolate the area and dispose of any contaminated materials.  We then use an advanced electrostatic disinfecting application that offers 360 degrees of touchless disinfection and sanitizing.  It’s important to note that even with the electrostatic disinfecting application there is no way of knowing if every infected surface has been treated. BMS cannot guarantee surfaces are contamination-free.

After the job is done, we dispose of all PPE according to BMS’s Pathogen Exposure Control Plan, and remove signage and barricades following completion of cleaning and disinfection.

GS: How are you supporting and responding to any fears and concerns or sick leave requests by your staff?  Have you been able to respond to new requests for services with the staff you have?   

MD: We are requiring staff to stay home if they are sick or experiencing any symptoms of acute respiratory illness. Additionally, if staff has had contact with someone who has or may have coronavirus, we are requiring them to stay home.  We are closely tracking staffing, and continually assessing the need to shift staffing to maximize resources.

GS: With more people teleworking, have you been able to shift work hours for your cleaning crews? 

MD: As more clients are work remotely, tenant spaces are shutting down completely.  Our goal is and will be to continue to reallocate those cleaning crews to other projects to the best of our ability.   

In many cases we are rotating the cleaning crews methodically to avoid an entire crew being infected should one person become infected.  

Our cleaning staff are on the front lines of this pandemic, working tirelessly, day and night. The work they do will save lives, and we could not be more grateful to them.  

GS: When was the last time you had to implement these kinds of emergency protocols? For example – during flu season at a school, or during the 2009 H1N1?

MD: In 2009 during H1N1 we provided continuous sanitizing of public areas in buildings.  But unlike what we are dealing with today, we did no heavy-duty disinfecting of tenant spaces.  

Other comparable events would be the emergency procedures the company implemented after 9/11 and after Hurricane Sandy in New York City.

GS: What are some lessons that you’ve learned in this tough time and while addressing urgent requests?

MD: Keeping spaces clean and helping keep clients healthy has always been our goal.  We have seen validation of this goal and the work we already do.  That said, we have also learned more than we’d like to about infectious disease protocol.  However, we have also adapted our practices to major disinfecting of tenant and building spaces in accordance with CDC protocol.  We have learned that communication between management and building staff is critical in extended emergencies.  It is vital to make line managers and cleaning staff feel informed, valuable, and safe.   Also, we have learned that working by telecommunication is not nearly as painful as we had anticipated.

Mike Doherty is President of BMS and its subsidiary companies. He has over 35 years of experience in the building service industry. Since 1998, he has run all operations for BMS and is currently responsible for janitorial, security, architectural surface maintenance and window cleaning services managing more than 2,800 employees.

Serving Our Stakeholders During the COVID-19 Health Crisis

Posted on by Green Seal

Green Seal is closely monitoring developments regarding the novel coronavirus COVID-19, which was declared a national emergency by the White House and a pandemic by the World Health Organization. During this emerging and rapidly changing situation, we rely on the CDC for updated information as it becomes available. 

Green Seal is committed to providing trusted information and resources on staying safe and healthy amid the challenges caused by COVID-19. Whether you’re a consumer, business owner, school leader or Green Seal certified provider, we have resources for you at www.greenseal.org/coronavirus.


Many Green Seal certified producers and providers are on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing vital cleaning products, cleaning services, hygienic products, and lodging or food services while meeting the highest sustainability standard in the market. Green Seal is absolutely committed to serving these stakeholders with the highest quality support. To that end, Green Seal is taking the following steps

  • To reduce unnecessary added workloads on overburdened teams, Green Seal is suspending compliance monitoring activity until the crisis has abated.
  • Due to extreme impacts to the fiber supply chain, Green Seal will temporarily make reasonable accommodations to fiber sourcing compliance for certified paper producers, while also requiring periodic reporting on fiber content. This measure will aid in the continued market flow of hygienic and other paper products that consistently meet the highest sustainability standard in the market.
  • Green Seal will conduct virtual audits instead of in-person audits where necessary. This will allow any companies that have submitted for new certification evaluations to achieve conditional Green Seal certifications in a timely manner.

To protect the health of our staff and the general public, Green Seal transitioned to operating as a virtual workplace for all staff beginning March 12th.  While this measure allows us to do our part in our communities, we have taken steps to ensure that this will not affect our ongoing operations and customer support. 

We will continue to update this blog and our COVID-19 Resources page as new information and resources become available – and we are always available for questions here. 

Thank you for allowing Green Seal to serve you during this challenging time.