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posted by martyb on Sunday June 07 2020, @10:44PM   Printer-friendly
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

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday June 08 2020, @09:22PM (1 child)

    by VLM (445) on Monday June 08 2020, @09:22PM (#1005008)

    Don't hold back, give them the good news about flourine also.

    For extra fun talk about corrosion inhibitors, the whole Flint Michigan thing was caused by a lack of inhibitors. It certainly wasn't caused by lead pipes, those things had been installed for a century in some cases certainly no new ones have been added in at least half a century. What did change was not adding inhibitors anymore, probably to "save money".

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday June 09 2020, @02:09AM

    by dry (223) on Tuesday June 09 2020, @02:09AM (#1005063) Journal

    Hmm, interesting. Never heard of adding corrosion inhibitors to the water supply before, perhaps due to the water here being not particularly corrosive (snow melt). Looking at my governments guidelines , it does seem expensive just to monitor and educate the users about the lead in water, little well treating it. I guess the water company that served Flint was criminally negligent for not monitoring for lead, little well treating it.
    As for fluorine, well we all know about General Jack Tripper.