Green Cleaning and Infection Control: An Expert Roundtable Discusses the Issues

2. Use a disinfectant product that has the “greenest” profile and still has the necessary kill claims. For example, older phenolic cleaners tend to have more hazardous ingredients compared to quat-based products.

Sawchuk: It is important to stress the importance of following manufacturers’ directions as to dilutions, pre-cleaning, dwell time, etc. Having said that, cleaning and disinfecting or sanitizing is a two-step process: clean first and then apply the disinfectant or sanitizer for the stated dwell time (which is leaving the surface wet a specified amount of time). Therefore, a green-certified cleaner can be used to pre-clean. Green-certified cleaners have been proved, albeit some better than others, to work as well as or better than traditional cleaners. Then for the second step, all disinfectants or sanitizers used must have an EPA registration number, which verifies which viruses, bacteria, fungi, etc. that particular product will kill. Those who select the products must ensure that the chosen disinfectant or sanitizer has the stated claims for any virus, bacteria, fungi, etc. that is of particular concern to the facility. That is, all disinfectants or sanitizers do not kill the same viruses, bacteria, or fungi, even two disinfectants approved for hospital use. The most critical selection is the cleaner. The next important factor is proper procedures. Failing on product selection or implementing improper procedures will affect the result.

Sheldon: Healthcare professionals are justified in their concerns. As an ES outsourcing contractor, we follow recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) utilizing EPA-registered disinfectants in all of our healthcare cleaning compounds and chemicals. We disregard unproven claims that the prudent use of proper disinfectants has a negative impact on our environment.