COVID-19 Info & Cleaning Standards

COVID-19 Operations Information & Cleaning Standards

NEW  (Neutral Electrolyzed Water) Disinfectant/Sanitizer Information

Site Sanitation Planning Guidance

NEW HypoGen Technical Data Sheet

Neutral Electrolyzed Water Safety Data Sheet

    FCUSD started piloting the use of on-site generated HOCl (hypochlorous acid) in 2018 because of its effectiveness as a disinfectant and it’s low toxicity. The use of toxic chemicals is a key concern in schools, especially for medically fragile and pre-school thru 2nd grade age children. This is what drove the enactment of California’s Healthy Schools Act in 2000. The low toxicity of HOCl allows for much more efficient and effective disinfection methods like misting/fogging. FCUSD deployed HOCl generation and misting equipment in 2018 as part of a “Rapid Response Protocol” for quickly disinfecting schools during flu outbreaks or exposure to serious pathogens like Cdiff, norovirus, hand foot & mouth disease and others.

    When SARS-CoV-2 started showing up in the U.S. there were NO disinfectant products with kill claims against the new virus because there were no studies to provide data to support kill claims. In order to provide disinfectant guidance, the EPA developed the List N: Disinfectants for Use Against SARS-CoV-2 using the criteria below.

EPA expects the products on List N to kill SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, because they:

·         Demonstrate efficacy against the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19);

·         Demonstrate efficacy against a pathogen that is harder to kill than SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19); or

·         Demonstrate efficacy against a different human coronavirus similar to SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19).

    The EPA’s List N has numerous products on it with HOCl as their active ingredient. The EPA expects these HOCl based products to kill SARS-CoV-2 because they met 2 of the 3 criteria set by the EPA. On March 31, 2020 the EPA issued a news release that relaxed regulations on the use of several active ingredients to give manufacturers greater flexibility to meet growing demand for products to combat the SARS-CoV-2 virus. HOCl was one of the active ingredients on that list.

    The CDC guidance for disinfecting specifically mentions the use of a bleach solution for killing SARS-CoV-2. Both bleach (sodium hypochlorite) and HOCl are chlorine based disinfectants with similar kill mechanisms. HOCl has long been known to be the most powerful form of chlorine based disinfectant, 80-100 times more effective than bleach.

The downside of HOCl disinfectant traditionally has been its limited shelf life. The explosion of companies developing on-site generation technology to create HOCl solution in recent years has improved shelf life and enabled much more widespread use of HOCl disinfectants. This has fueled rapid adoption of HOCl solutions, which check off most of the major qualities of a perfect disinfectant: effective kill, quick dwell times, non-toxic, non-flammable, cost effective. Many studies have also shown HOCL to be effective at reducing and preventing biofilm formation, which is a key factor impacting kill rates, dwell time of disinfectants, and overall cleanliness of surfaces down to the microscopic level.

        After months of research and piloting of HOCl generation systems, FCUSD chose to go with the system recently rolled out by an industry leader in chlorine technology, ChlorKing. The ChlorKing Hypogen 5 system is well engineered to produce a potent HOCl solution in a highly robust and cost effective system. ChlorKing is still in the EPA registration process, as are numerous other companies making HOCl based products. The EPA has granted ChlorKing an “establishment number” (82229-GA-001) allowing the production and use of electrolyzed water that is produced on-site. The HYPOGEN Technical Information document found on the ChlorKing website contains further detail in the Regulatory section 7.0.

    HOCl is non-toxic to humans. It is produced by the human body itself to fight germs. It is used in health care to treat wounds, in eye care, in dental care and many other medical fields. There are too many studies and articles to cite here. Try Googling "hypochlorous acid and safety", or any like terms, and prepare to spend hours researching. When it comes to disinfectant chemicals, we know of nothing nothing safer.

Here is a sampling of links:

 Articles About HOCl (hypochlorous acid)

 

National Library of Medicine:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7315945/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28692424/  

Optometry Times:

https://www.optometrytimes.com/view/hypochlorous-acid-harnessing-natures-germ-killer

 

Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypochlorous_acid

Hypochlorous acid - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org

 

Other: https://wocn.confex.com/wocn/2018am/webprogram/Paper11054.html  

 

Abstract: The Safe Use of Pure Hypochlorous Acid as a Cleanser of Skin and Wounds on the Premature Infant (50th Annual Conference) Problem: Premature infants (<37 wks) have fragile, translucent skin and are sensitive to cleansing agents such as hydrogen peroxide, povidone iodine, Dakins Solution, chlorhexidine, etc.(1). wocn.confex.com

https://www.healtheuropa.eu/can-hypochlorous-acid-revolutionise-hospital-cleaning/101602/

 

Can hypochlorous acid revolutionise hospital cleaning? John Ware, Director of Envirolyte ECA UK Ltd, details how the Envirolyte disinfection product can aid in the fight against COVID-19. The arrival of the coronavirus created an enormous amount of interest in Envirolyte hypochlorous acid (HOCL) as a disinfection product, to see if it could be used within a wider prevention and protection strategy to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. www.healtheuropa.eu

https://aquaox.wordpress.com/tag/inhalation-effects-hocl-respiratory-effects-hocl/    

 

Expert Recommendations for the Use of Hypochlorous Solution: Science and Clinical Application - PubMed Wound complications such as infection continue to in ict enormous nancial and patient quality-of-life burdens.The traditional practice of using antiseptics and antibiotics to prevent and/or treat infections has been questioned with increasing concerns about the cytoxitity of antiseptics and prolifer … pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

Hypochlorous acid: harnessing nature’s germ killer / www.optometrytimes.com

https://hocltrust.org/Science/safety_toxicity.html https://academic.oup.com/jac/article/74/2/365/5156210

 

 

Safety and efficacy profiles of different commercial sodium hypochlorite/hypochlorous acid solutions (NaClO/HClO): antimicrobial efficacy, cytotoxic impact and physicochemical parameters in vitro | Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy | Oxford Academic Introduction. Wound infection and development of microbial biofilms pose a serious threat to the wound-healing process. While the sole colonization of a wound with microorganisms that undergo limited proliferation does not generally lead to a host response, increasing microbial number, diversity, virulence and penetration of deeper tissue levels, can result in local infection, tissue damage ... academic.oup.com

https://thoclor.com/the-technology/hocl-faqs/

 

 

FAQs About Our Hypochlorous Solution HOCl > Thoclor Labs Our method of creating pure & stable hypochlorous solution (HOCl) has been perfected over more than 10 years R&D. Find out how this immune molecule in our formulations quickly & effectively treats burns, wounds, ageing & environmental damage of the skin. Safe & non-toxic, never tested on animals. thoclor.com

https://www.luminnovahealth.com/hypochlorous-acid

 

 

Hypochlorous Acid — Luminnova Health Application. Hypochlorous acid can be used in all business, healthcare and hospitality and other service environments. In fact it is so safe that the FDA has approved HOCL for sanitizing food items such as fruits, vegetables, seafood and food prep areas. www.luminnovahealth.com

https://www.hypochlorousacid.com/about

 

 

About Hypochlorous Acid New Technology & Research . The use of chlorine for disinfection has been researched for over 100 years. It has been an undisputable fact that hypochlorous acid offers far superior disinfecting properties than sodium hypochlorite (chlorine bleach). www.hypochlorousacid.com

 

Our district custodians daily complete a general cleaning of district classrooms, school grounds, multi-purpose rooms, libraries, restrooms, and administrative offices and disinfect restrooms and high-use areas. Deep cleaning of various types of flooring (vinyl, carpet, wood, etc.) is completed at least once a year at all sites.