It seems that Americanshave gone a little overboard with their use of products in their attempt to combat the coronavirus, putting health .
According to a survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, since the pandemic in America, the country's national poison center has seen a sharp increase in the number of calls it receives.
Although they cannot say for sure that this increase is due to precautionary measures against the coronavirus, the timing coincides with media reports of shortages in cleaning supplies due to the pandemic and increased demand for orders for direct home delivery of products.
In their study – published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report – the researchers compared calls made to 55 poison control centers in the United States between January and March 2020, 2019 and 2018.
In 2020, reports of exposure to cleaning and disinfection products increased by 20% and 16% for the same periods in 2019 and 2018 respectively.
All ages appear to be affected by pandemic-related poisonings, but children aged 1 to 5 are the most involved.
The increase in calls to the poison control center is due to increased exposure to bleach, alcohol-free disinfectants and hand sanitizers – which people are likely using to fight the coronavirus.
In at least two cases, there was real danger. One was when an adult woman who had heard a news story that consumers should clean their recently purchased groceries filled her kitchen sink with a dangerous mixture consisting of 10% bleach, vinegar and hot water, which creates a toxic gas.
While he was cleaning out the other groceries he had bought, he detected a "strange" smell of bleach and began having difficulty breathing, wheezing, and coughing. He was taken to the hospital by ambulance where he was treated with oxygen and bronchodilators. He recovered and was able to leave the hospital a few hours later.
The other case involved a preschool girl who consumed an unknown amount of hand sanitizer from a bottle she found on the kitchen table. Her family said she then began to feel dizzy, fell and hit her head. She was taken to the hospital, nearly unconscious, where doctors determined that her blood alcohol level was nearly 3.5 times the legal limit. That is, she had a blood alcohol level of 273 mg/dL, where 80 mg/dL was. Fortunately, she had no further problems and was discharged from the hospital after 48 hours.
Additionally, most experts believe it is not necessary to individually clean groceries when you return home. Although research has found that the coronavirus can survive on surfaces, there is no evidence that people have gotten sick from food or food. Most epidemiologists believe the risk is low.
Instead, they recommend washing your hands immediately upon returning home and following standard food safety guidelines, such as keeping raw meats separate from cooked foods and produce, cooking foods to appropriate temperatures, and keeping perishable foods refrigerated or frozen. For disinfecting hands and common surfaces, standard alcohol-based sanitizers (60 percent alcohol or more) and diluted bleach solutions are effective.
