{"id":60388,"date":"2020-05-05T12:18:24","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T16:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/?p=60388"},"modified":"2020-05-05T12:18:24","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T16:18:24","slug":"canadians-are-accidentally-poisoning-themselves-while-cleaning-to-prevent-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/canada\/canadians-are-accidentally-poisoning-themselves-while-cleaning-to-prevent-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadians are accidentally poisoning themselves while cleaning to prevent COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"
From people experiencing burning eyes and trouble breathing to children drinking hand sanitizer, there’s been a jump in the number of cleaner and disinfectant-related accidental poisonings since the COVID-19 pandemic began, as Canadians try to keep themselves and their homes virus-free.<\/p>\n
According to Health Canada, February and March combined showed a 58 per cent\u00a0increase from the same period a year earlier in reported exposures related to cleaning products, bleaches, disinfectants, hand sanitizers, and chlorine and chloramine gases.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n
Poisonings involving bleach are most common, making up 38 per cent of all calls to poison centres in March.<\/p>\n
The federal health agency attributes the increase to\u00a0factors such as:<\/p>\n
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More cleaning products in homes as\u00a0people stock\u00a0up in isolation.<\/li>\n
More exposure to those products as\u00a0people clean and disinfect their homes more often.<\/li>\n
More time spent at home \u2014 including for children.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Jim Chan has seen the effects of cleaner- and disinfectant-related\u00a0poisonings\u00a0firsthand over the years.<\/p>\n
During his 36 years as a City of Toronto public health inspector, Chan investigated cases where people unknowingly used a toxic combination of cleaning chemicals. Chan retired a few years ago and now works as a health consultant.<\/p>\n
“One lady used a mixture of vinegar and chlorine bleach in a bucket trying to clean her counter at home and ended up in the hospital, because there was a large volume of chlorine gas being manufactured causing quite a bit of injury,” said Chan.<\/p>\n
“In more serious cases, that could be fatal.”<\/p>\n
Health Canada and the five regional poison centres from across the country \u2014 which represent all provinces and territories \u2014 provided CBC News with the most-recent numbers of reported exposure to toxic cleaning products from February and March in 2019 compared to 2020.<\/p>\n
During those two months,\u00a0the number of exposures reported to poison centres went up from 954 in 2019 to 1,506 in 2020.<\/p>\n
Chan thinks the number is likely higher since\u00a0some people won’t report less-serious reactions to poison centres or don’t recognize the symptoms associated with cleaner-related\u00a0poisonings.<\/p>\n
Health Canada says numbers for April 2020 aren’t yet available.<\/p>\n
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Taking precautions<\/h2>\n
Kate Wallace from Toronto has stepped up her cleaning and disinfecting methods since the novel coronavirus pandemic began, replacing her regular vinegar and water cleaner with a bleach and water mixture to disinfect.<\/p>\n
She’s taking precautions to keep her two young children \u2014 daughter Charlie, 2, and son Emmett, 4 \u2014 away from toxic cleaners while also trying to keep the house virus-free.<\/p>\n
“They’re at that age where anything could happen in a couple of minutes,” said Wallace, who makes a point of storing\u00a0 cleaning supplies on a high shelf and keeping her kids at a safe distance when she’s cleaning.<\/p>\n
She follows the\u00a0guidelines\u00a0set out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. on how to clean and disinfect safely, including how to make a bleach solution safely \u2014 by mixing \u2153-cup bleach with 16 cups of water.<\/p>\n
“The kids are pretty respectful of it, and I think being really consistent about the container you use as well, so they know what to look for, has really been helpful,” she said.<\/p>\n
Common cleaning mistakes<\/h2>\n
Chan says Canadians should make sure they take cleaning advice from reputable sources, such as government websites.<\/p>\n
He says the most common mistake people make is mixing bleach with vinegar or with a cleaning product that has ammonia in it, producing potentially deadly gases. Some wipes used to clean surfaces have ammonia in them, he says, so people should read labels carefully.<\/p>\n
“Some labels can be very confusing,” he said. “So, make sure that it’s only bleach and water mixed together as per the CDC guidelines.”<\/p>\n
He says the mixture should be made and used in a well-ventilated space while wearing gloves. Once surfaces are wiped down with bleach, people should leave it on for one minute and then wipe it off, Chan says.<\/p>\n
Accidental consumption<\/h2>\n
He also warns against accidental ingestion of alcohol-based hand sanitizers. The greater the alcohol content, the greater the danger, he says.<\/p>\n
“Accidental consumption, especially by kids, can be quite serious, so if you have kids at home, you have to be so careful because some of the alcohol-based sanitizers smell pretty good \u2026 like fruit.”<\/p>\n
There’s also a risk to people who clean fruits or produce with too much sanitizer\u00a0or use excessive amounts on their hands before eating.<\/p>\n
The CDC recently\u00a0reported\u00a0a case of a preschool-aged girl who was found unresponsive at home after ingesting an unknown amount of ethanol-based hand sanitizer. According to the report, her blood-alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit in most states.<\/p>\n
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