Is it a bit OTT to disinfect your shopping when you get it home?

[Bunnylady54]

I keep seeing posts on Facebook about doing this & tbh it wouldn’t have occurred to me at all. I keep as safe as I can when I shop but not sure it’s necessary to spray what you take home. Also saw something about washing coats etc when you’ve been for a walk.

Fair enough. It would be more damaging to my mental health to have to keep washing my hands in my own home rather than give things a quick wash in soapy water when I bring them in, but each to their own.

Not OTT at all.

I’ve been doing it for the last couple of weeks after reading that the virus can live on plastic/cardboard/surfaces for several days.

I have some food safe antibacterial (food safe) cleaner that was recommended on one of the nhs lists and I mix it with hot water and after removing all external packaging I give everything a through wash before putting it away.

I had a huge grocery delivery yesterday and it took me the best part of an hour to clean it all but I consider it to be essential.

I think the point is this pandemic & virus is so new that no one -including NHS WHO & Govt - have all the answers. They are learning too. By the time they say the risk via plastic us moderate it may be too late already.

Why wait? Use common sense. As you was your hands, wash anything that could be holding the virus - packaging, clothes, even jackets I'd say. Stay home. It's worth every precaution. Even the OTT ones.

Mental health won't matter if you are dead.

Fair enough. It would be more damaging to my mental health to have to keep washing my hands in my own home rather than give things a quick wash in soapy water when I bring them in, but each to their own.

Hardly. If I receive a shopping delivery, here's what I do:

• Wash hands before receiving delivery, put away shopping, wash hands again.
• Wash hands before cooking, wash hands after cooking.
• I clean sides and surfaces daily with dettol, including light switches and door handles etc.

I don't go out. I fail to see in what scenario I would need to be washing my hands frequently enough in my own home that it would be enough to damage my mental health.

Can you not see how someone with OCD might go through a really damaging thought process in relation to all this? EG

Wash hands. OK, so my food is being delivered in plastic bags. I touched the bags, I'll wash my hands. Decontaminate all food. Now I have to wash my hands. Put away all food. Now I have to wash my hands again. Oh but wait now the bags are still in my home and they've been on my kitchen floor. Wash hands again because I've now got to touch the door handle to go outside. Touch bin outside to open it and throw away plastic bags. Oh but now the hand I used to open the bin might be contaminated - I open the door, go back up and wash my hands. But now the tap is contaminated. I clean it with an alchohol wipe. I have to go back downstairs and clean the door handle with a wipe. Oh but now the virus could be on the packaging of the wipe. Clean the outside of the packaging with another wipe. Put wipe away. Wash hands again. But what if any of the plastic bags rubbed against my clothes? Shit. Change clothes, put in washing machine. But what if those clothes touched my skin and contaminated me? Shit. Better have a shower and wash my hair just in case I touched my hair. Shit, and I forgot the shopping bags were on my kitchen floor. Wash kitchen floor.

It just isn't healthy. I cannot live that way.

Mental health won't matter if you are dead.

Actually poor mental health has got more chance of killing me than this virus does, given statistically I'm low risk and I've got three suicide attempts behind me from when my OCD was at its worse. I'd rather not risk going there again, if it's all the same to you.

There was a woman on the news who had OCD... and she's had years of therapy to STOP washing her hands all the time, and obviously the government advice threw her off course, BUt that's life. Sometimes things are going to damage our mental health. We still have to do them if it means avoiding damage to our physical health.

BUt that's life. Sometimes things are going to damage our mental health. We still have to do them if it means avoiding damage to our physical health.

And I am doing them Flossie, I'm not exactly being cavalier with my health here. I've barely been outside for 2 weeks.

I'm not having a go at you Pish. I'm talking to everyone! Lots of people on here seemed to think it was mad to clean things that came from a supermarket, whereas I think it's sensible. We're all doing what we can.

You do understand that dettol anti bac spray has NOT yet been tested on the Covid19 strain right?

Yes, because it is such a new strain that it isn't available for commercial testing. No household cleaners have been tested against it, for that reason.

Given that it is effective against coronavirus and based on analysis of the structure of COVID-19, there is realistically no doubt that it is effective against this strain too.

I don't know why you're so keen to whip up hysteria based on a technicality.

It is effective against the coronavirus and it certainly hasn't been "comfirmed that it doesn't kill Covid 19 strain." as you claimed. This really isn't the time to spread dangerous misinformation.

All I, and others, are saying, is why not use the simple things that have been proved to be effective.
Most people have got basic bleach, washing up liquid and soap in their homes.
People have been panicking that they cant get disinfectant, antibac wipes etc. They don't need those things.
That's all.

Of course there's no need to run out and buy specific products But I, like lots of people, happen to have them in the house (and given we are self isolating, would struggle to buy other cleaning products).

Telling people that these products have been "confirmed" to be ineffective, when that is untrue is scaremongering nonsense.

There is a big difference between something being confirmed to be ineffective and not tested/ not confirmed to be effective.
The latest info from the journal of hospital infection last week was that bleach solution, washing up liquid both work on hard surfaces.
Alcohol 70 % works but has to be in contact for 1 minute before it evaporates.
Ordinary soap for hands.
Chlorhexidine ( hibiscrub) antibacterial was ineffective on hard surfaces.

There is a big difference between something being confirmed to be ineffective and not tested/ not confirmed to be effective.

Yes, I know.

That's why I'm objecting to a poster saying "it was mentioned to me on here and I comfirmed that it [dettol] doesn't kill Covid 19 strain.". Because that isn't true.

I don't think we're disagreeing here

The issue I have with dettol, in particular, is that it clearly says on the label that it kills corona virus.
Yes, it does kill SOME corona viruses. There are several. They cannot claim that it kills the corona virus that causes Covid - 19.
Most people will think it does kill this virus and will assume it has been tested.
I think companies generally should be careful about how their labelling can be interpreted.

My oncologist told me I should clean everything that comes into the house or leave it for 72 hours. I think it's only sensible. He did admit it was unlikely to contract the virus this way but said I was not in a position to take risks.

Fair enough. It would be more damaging to my mental health to have to keep washing my hands in my own home rather than give things a quick wash in soapy water when I bring them in, but each to their own.

Only problem with this, though, is that you’re making an assumption that washing packaging on its way in means you then don’t need to wash your hands as often - it doesn’t. You can’t guarantee you’ve actually completely decontaminated the surfaces. So you should still be washing your hands just as often anyway, even at home. That’s why, for me, the extra step (& stress/pressure on myself) of washing packaging is unnecessary and providing a false sense of security in many ways.

I also think I fall into the ‘deteriorating mental health is more dangerous to me than Covid19’ category - I think a lot of people will do, sadly.

Soap is effective against coronavirus, possibly more so than bleach or other things as it actually destroys part of the virus, making it unable to replicate.

The short story: because the virus is a self-assembled nanoparticle in which the weakest link is the lipid (fatty) bilayer. Soap dissolves the fat membrane and the virus falls apart like a house of cards and dies – or rather, we should say it becomes inactive as viruses aren’t really alive.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/12/science-soap-kills-coronavirus-alcohol-based-disinfectants

@DesLynamsMoustache That guide is on the community group helping the elderly and vulnerable locally here - sorry that wasn’t clear, I was posting more to give an example of the process than to prove anything! It just seems pretty sensible given it can live on hard surfaces for so long, I don’t personally need more science than that - I’d totally agree that generally, under normal circumstances it would be completely OTT.

Also, I’ve seen an awful lot of stupidity and ignorance not to mention a complete lack of social responsibility demonstrated in the last couple of weeks everywhere. I have zero faith that every person who walked past that item of shopping, maybe picked it up & put it back has bothered to wash their hands, or disinfected the trolley handle after they coughed on it, or coughed as they stood there deciding what to buy. Why take the risk right now?

This thread is like an alternative universe. I am thankful to not be plagued by these circular thoughts.

Most Coronaviruses can survive in the freezer for weeks. So make sure you wipe down your freezer stuff too.....