“Disinfection should always be a two-stage process for maximum efficiency – cleaning then disinfecting.”
any type of formaldehyde disinfectant is not supported. This is mainly due to multiple accidents that have occurred following fogging.
Fogging benefits
In some situations, an extremely low level of microorganism in a room is required. For example, in Canada, the USA and in Europe, if a patient in a hospital room was infected with Clostridium difficile, fogging was frequently adopted for terminal disinfection. So, in this case, to make sure they covered all the surfaces, including the textiles, it made sense to use a fogging system to saturate the air and try to cover everything in the room so it can provide, in some situations, an additional protection to regular cleaning and disinfection. However, it should not be used to replace cleaning and disinfection.
The drawbacks are more extensive: it cannot guarantee that all surfaces are covered, given the risk of the ‘shadow effect’, so it will never properly treat the underside of horizontal surfaces or objects. It has a limited effect on vertical surfaces and many high touch surfaces are on verticals like doorknobs and light switches. Another drawback is that it’s very time consuming and, if done, needs to be done properly. Cutting corners could put the whole process at risk of failure with security and benefits nullified.
It can only be used by well-trained staff. Sadly, evidence online shows anyone can rent fogging machines and use anything they want disinfectant-wise. Foggers should only be used by well-trained staff as there’s a high risk of exposure to inhalation. It’s also exceedingly difficult to measure the effectiveness of the treatment because in real life conditions in a closed space, it's very difficult to measure the gains you can make in terms of safety or disinfection performance.
It’s ineffective if you use the most common disinfectant in fogging machines. Hydrogen peroxide is the most common
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one and probably one of the safest, but when fogged it’s not effective on biofilms, and we know that biofilms in different areas are the main source of pathogenic bacteria. It could be around drains, or in bathrooms in more humid areas.
Another drawback is that some technologies require a certain humidity level of the room is controlled and maintained, and also at a certain level, and also there's a risk for electrical components when you saturate the air, such as saturating the inside of a computer in a medical device.
Turning to the recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO), this technology supplements, but should not replace, the need for manual cleaning as fogging as a primary disinfection strategy is ineffective.
Furthermore, the WHO does not support fogging of chemicals like quaternary ammonia compounds. Fogging of outdoor spaces such as streets and marketplaces is not recommended. Nor should fogging occur on people – so the chamber and/or tunnel fogging devices seen in some parts of the world are not recommended under any circumstances.
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) stated: “Do not perform disinfectant fogging for routine purposes”. It should be used in extreme conditions, never as a routine procedure. They also do not support the fogging of chemicals like quaternary ammonia and assert that fogging alone does not meet the CDC guidelines for COVID-19.
InnuScience stands by its position that disinfection should always be a two-stage process for maximum efficiency – cleaning then disinfecting. It also stands by the principle of Justified Disinfection – that disinfection, whilst essential, should be done only where the application of such a product is fully justified with the view to delivering proper hygiene whilst reducing the negative impact on the environment of indiscriminate overuse of disinfectants.
www.innuscience.com
twitter.com/TomoCleaning
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