SynthesisThe Science of the total environment2021
Outdoor disinfectant sprays for the prevention of COVID-19: Are they safe for the environment?
Synthesis in The Science of the total environment, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 60 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Phage cocktails for the disinfection of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae on high-touch surfaces in intensive care units.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Environmental Chlorine Pollution Mitigation Using Material-Pollutant Interactions and Field-Scale Applications.Materials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Residual Chlorine Interaction with Microelements in Plants Applied for Phytoremediation in Rain Gardens.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Investigating the Nanostructure Design Mechanism Behind the Hydrophobicity of the Biomimetic Surface.ACS applied materials & interfaces · 2025Article
- Porous Cellulose Thin Films as Sustainable and Effective Antimicrobial Surface Coatings.ACS applied materials & interfaces · 2023Article
- Environmental challenges of COVID-19 pandemic: resilience and sustainability - A review.Environmental research · 2023Review
- Assessment of residual chlorine in soil microbial community using metagenomics.Soil ecology letters · 2023Article
- In vitro evaluation for estrogenic mechanisms of the disinfectant benzalkonium chloride as an emerging contaminant.Brazilian journal of medical and biological research = Revista brasileira de pesquisas medicas e biologica · 2023Article
- Analyze the toxicities of benzalkonium chloride as a COVID-19 disinfectant in physiological goldfish (Veterinary world · 2023Article
- Pilot Study of Pollution Characteristics and Ecological Risk of Disinfection Byproducts in Natural Waters in Hong Kong.Environmental toxicology and chemistry · 2022Article
- Disinfectants against SARS-CoV-2: A Review.Viruses · 2022Review
- Ozone for SARS-CoV-2 inactivation on surfaces and in liquid cell culture media.Journal of hazardous materials · 2022Article
- Disinfectant-induced hormesis: An unknown environmental threat of the application of disinfectants to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection during the COVID-19 pandemic?Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987) · 2022Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on household disinfectant consumption behaviors and related environmental concerns: A questionnaire-based survey in China.Journal of environmental chemical engineering · 2021Article
- COVID-19 and environmental concerns: A rapid review.Renewable & sustainable energy reviews · 2021Review
- Liquid repellency enabled antipathogen coatings.Materials today. Bio · 2021Article
- The role of disinfectants and sanitizers during COVID-19 pandemic: advantages and deleterious effects on humans and the environment.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Due to the wide range of viability on inanimate surfaces and fomite transmission of SARS-CoV-2, hydrogen peroxide (0.5%, HP) and hypochlorite-based (0.1%, HC) disinfectants (common biocides) are proposed by World Health Organization to mitigate the spread of this virus in healthcare settings. They can be adopted and applied to outdoor environments. However, many studies have shown that these two disinfectants are toxic to fishes and aquatic non-target organisms (primary producers and macroinvertebrates). The global market of these disinfectants will increase in coming years due to COVID-19. Therefore, it is urgent to highlight the toxicities of these disinfectants. The main findings of this article allow the community to develop a new strategy to protect the environment against the hazardous effects of disinfectants. Therefore, we use the "toxicity calculated ratio (TC ratio)" that refers to the fold increase or decrease in the toxicities reported in the literature (NOEC, LOEC, LC50 and EC50) relative to the WHO-recommended dose of HP and HC. The calculated TC ratios are valuable for policy makers to formulate the regulations to prevent disinfectant exposure in the environment. Our results were collected via PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis) guidelines and showed that the TC ratios are from the single digits to several thousand-fold lower than the HP and HC recommended dose, which means these disinfectants are potentially dangerous to non-target organisms. The results also showed that HP and HC are toxic to the growth and reproduction of non-target organisms. Therefore, we recommend policymakers formulate protocols for critical assessment and monitoring of the environment-especially on non-target organisms in water bodies located in and around disinfectant-exposed areas to safeguard the environment in the future.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.