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from the Dunning–Kruger-Effect-or-Darwin-Award-Candidates? dept.
Americans are drinking bleach and dunking food in it to prevent COVID-19:
Americans are doing more housecleaning and disinfecting amid the COVID-19 pandemic and many are turning to wild and dangerous tactics—like drinking and gargling bleach solutions.
Back in April, the agency noted an unusual spike in poison control center calls over harmful exposures to household cleaning products, such as bleach. The timing linked it to the spread of the pandemic coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (not statements by President Trump). But to get a clearer idea of what was behind the rise, CDC researchers set up an online survey of household cleaning and disinfection knowledge and practices.
In all, they surveyed 502 US adults and used statistical weighting to make it representative of the country's population. The findings—published Friday in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report—are stunning.
Overall, 60 percent said they were doing more cleaning and disinfecting amid the pandemic and 39 percent admitted to doing at least one non-recommended cleaning practice the CDC considers high risk.
The questions and responses are fully available (NO paywall); read it here:
Journal Reference
Gharpure R, Hunter CM, Schnall AH, et al. Knowledge and Practices Regarding Safe Household Cleaning and Disinfection for COVID-19 Prevention, [OPEN] MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (DOI: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6923e2)
Questions from the survey:
Recommended Best Practices:
- When making a dilute bleach solution, only room temperature water should be used
- Bleach should not be mixed with vinegar
- Hand sanitizers should be kept out of reach of children
- Bleach should not be mixed with ammonia
- For some household cleaning products, eye protection should be used during use
- Hands should be washed with soap and water after using household cleaning products
- For some household cleaning products, gloves should be used during use
- Good ventilation (air flow) is needed when using cleaning chemicals
- Household cleaning products should be kept out of reach of children
Risky Practices Performed:
- Drank or gargled diluted bleach solution
- Drank or gargled soapy water
- Drank or gargled a household cleaner
- Inhaled the vapor of household cleaners like bleach
- Misted the body with cleaning spray or alcohol spray
- after being in public spaces
- Used household cleaner to clean or disinfect hands or bare skin
- Washed fruits, vegetables, or other food products with bleach
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 07 2020, @11:42PM
Packaged carrots of any type, really. They sit there way too long, and you end up with spoilage. I always used to buy fresh, loose carrots in ones and twos, now I just buy more of those. I can look at them to make sure they're not rotten or split. You can't do that in those bags, not very well anyway. Just buy fresh, loose carrots and clean them yourself. Problem solved. Added bonus, you cut out some packaging which has gone sky-high since this pandemic started. We've gone back to single-use plastic bags and everything. I'm still bagging the carrots of course, but in a thin produce bag, not a thick printed fancy bag that hides the quality (or lack thereof) from me. So there we go. I've ranted about carrots. There really is too much time on our hands these days...