by Autumn Ryan,
Founder and CEO
It takes a janitor to know a janitor! I started out as a janitor the day after I graduated from college. What I’ve learned over 20 plus years is that we’ve been brainwashed about safe cleaning. Pine. Lavendar. Bleach. They are toxic. And they are harming our hands, lungs and environment and largely because we don’t read the label.
It took the Covid-19 pandemic to alert most consumers to the fact that Lysol needs to dry on the surface before it is considered disinfected. And that the surface residue left by Lysol disinfectant is harmful. In fact, the label recommends washing toys and food contact surfaces with potable water after spraying. It’s been right there on the label all along.
Then, there’s bleach.
Then there’s sodium hypochlorite: i.e., liquid bleach. Did you know that most day care centers follow USDA guidelines for cleaning toys and surfaces each day with a bleach and water solution? According to the USDA, the amount of bleach and water to use depends on the concentration of the bleach you choose (again reading the label is very important). Typically that solution is ¾ cup household liquid bleach to 1 gallon of water.
But I do not want my children playing with toys or sleeping on mats that are disinfected with bleach. On the EPA toxicity scale, bleach (sodium hypochlorite) is Category 1, meaning it is highly toxic and highly corrosive.
Another thing that most people don’t know is that the shelf-life of bleach is unstable. In my janitorial business I witnessed teachers making bleach solutions with extremely outdated product. They weren’t disinfecting anything, they were just making the room smell like bleach.
Finally, storing bleach in a warm area will degrade the product.
Truly Disinfecting
Disinfecting is so much more than cleaning. Aseptic Health recommends Aseptic Plus+, a hospital grade disinfectant that is a Category 4 on the EPA toxicity chart which means it has very low toxicity, it is non-corrosive, and in the same category as water. Available commercially through SanitizeITclean.com and your Certified SanitizeIT® Operator.
What does it mean to be a hospital grade disinfectant? Two highly infectious pathogenic organisms, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, must be tested by an EPA accredited laboratory. These are two tough pathogens to kill and Aseptic Plus+ kills both at 99.999% in 10 minutes.
Now, Let’s talk about kill logs and kill times.
Not to get too deep into the weeds, but how many bacteria you remove is as important as how fast you remove them.
For example, bleach kills bacteria at 99.9%. That means out of 10,000,000 bacteria, 10,000 bacteria are left behind, which are more than enough to harm you. Aseptic Plus+ kills 99.999% leaving only 100 bacteria. The more bacteria you leave behind on a surface allows more opportunity for that bacteria to harm you or become immune to the cleaner and reproduce. So, a 99.999% kill rate is one hundred times better than a 99.9% kill rate.
Fast kill times are important. And even more important is what kinds of bacteria and viruses the disinfectant kills. Aseptic Plus kills more than 30 microorganisms in 5 minutes to 10 minutes, including coronaviruses, H1N1 (Swine flu), Influenza B, Escherichia coli, Legionella even MRSA.
Our goal at Aseptic Health is to provide Certified Clinically Clean® environments that are safe for you, your plants, your pets and your family. Through innovation and differentiation we are positioning our company to meet the current and future needs of society. We want to have an impact on every industry. Not just for our own benefit, but for the good of humankind.
