As the worldwide medical industry continues to scrutinise the Covid-19 pandemic and trials for vaccines, anti-bodies and potential cures are put through their paces, hospitals, schools and households are urged to disinfect high-touch surfaces to lower any risk of infection.
According to Colin Sham, Director of Beyond Green Cleaning, ensuring the effective use of chemical disinfectants often comes with instructions for users to wear gloves and ensure good ventilation to avoid chemical exposure.
“This was one of the reasons Beyond Green was excited to receive results from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for our San-A-Safe and San-A-Med natural disinfectants, noting their success in combating SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused Covid-19.”
Sham says the many products on the market that claim to be active against viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 without proof was the catalyst in Beyond Green contacting the CSIR for evaluation of the two products.
“The virus used in this evaluation was generated in 293-T cells by co-transfection of a construct carrying the SARS-CoV-2 envelope and a plasmid encoding the luciferase reporter gene. This was followed by the determination of the virus tissue culture infectious dose 50 (TCID50) in the absence and presence of the disinfectant.”
The natural surface disinfectants San-A-Safe and San-a-Med showed an effectiveness of 99.99% against SARS-CoV-2 virus in the infectivity assay conducted, meaning both of the disinfectants may be declared active against this virus.
Back to work safely
As many return to work after lockdown, companies are ensuring physical distancing and ongoing sanitation. “But consideration must be given to the effects of harsh chemicals on staff members and – particularly – the cleaning staff who use them,” says Sham.
“In many instances, a period of time is required to ventilate a building and this should be monitored closely. The environmentally-sound San-A-Safe and San-a-Med alcohol-free solutions have been successfully tested and found to eliminate some of the toughest pathogens while reducing harm to skin and respiratory function.”
Touchless disinfection specialist GermCure’s CEO Francois Viljoen notes: “With over 30 years of experience in innovating and creating sanitation and disinfectant products that meet the stringent standards set by schools, hospitals and the food service sector, Beyond Green has constantly worked towards delivering 100% all-natural, non-toxic and bio-degradable solutions for all business sectors.
“With the onset of Covid-19 and a plethora of ‘sanitising’ options suddenly available on the market,” Viljoen notes, “Beyond Green provides the assurance of high quality, effective solutions tested by the CSIR to ensure the hygiene requirements of organisations and individuals are met.”