Health

‘Health Tag’ Not Effective In Preveting Infection Especially Covid-19 – National Poison Center

Due to Covid-19 outbreak, a lot of disinfectant products have become options among few peoples to make them feel safe and protected from the virus.

This is including ‘disinfection cards’ which claimed as a “portable air purifier” within a radius of 50 cm by releasing a low concentration of chlorine dioxide gas for 30 to 60 days.

This disinfection cards which being sell on e-commerce platforms are touted to be able to kill the novel coronavirus.

This matter got Pusat Racun Negara attentions and they have explained this issue via their official Facebook page as below.

The current product of VIRAL and its online retailer allegedly act to prevent virus and bacterial infections through the release of Chlorine Dioxide gas around its consumers. Is that so?

A special study on the effectiveness of such products has been conducted and published through the article “Hidekazu NISHIMURA, Investigation on Practical Usefulness of Body-worn Devices that Claim to Release Chlorine Dioxide. Japanese Journal of Environmental Infections 32 (4): 222-226. July 2017.

The results of this study found:

1. No effect of disinfection or virus has occurred

2. The emitted gas is very low or not detectable at all

This finding shows that the use of ‘disinfection cards’ is NOT effective in preventing infection especially COVID-19.

Chlorine Dioxide is a highly irritating gas especially to the respiratory tract depending on the quantity and concentration of the exposed gas.

What is more worrying is that consumer’s believe in this product will make them feel safe and protected from infection. As a result, they may be less cautious and do not practice effective preventive measures such as hand washing and social incarceration.