Aerosol Based Disinfection Methods: Everything you Need to Know

Most of the liquid disinfectants that are approved by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are chlorine based. Chlorine is highly effective at breaking apart the COVID virions by attacking the molecular bonds within them. It should come as no surprise that many institutional disinfection protocols mandate the use of these disinfectants. Typically, they are sprayed on hard surfaces multiple times a day.

In a place where large numbers of people come to work, like a warehouse, they may decide to adopt a disinfection protocol when one of the workers presents with COVID like symptoms. It may not be feasible to have staff attempt to wipe every surface in the workspace. Whatever the case may be, the conventional protocol to disinfect multiple times per day by wiping down is not practical every workspace.

Fogging and Misting

There are now machines that create a fog or mist of disinfectant. In the case of misting, the active chlorine-based ingredient is released into the air in tiny droplets that are often diluted with water. A fan is used to ensure the droplets get dispersed around the room. As the water evaporates, the airborne disinfectant remains suspended in the air. Fogging techniques are somewhat more sophisticated. They typically work by using a mixture of water and glycol that is heated rapidly to produce a vapor. The chlorine is added to the water glycol mixture and then gets dispersed around the room with the aid of fans. In addition to fogging and misting, there are also electrostatic methods, where electrically charged atoms are sent into the air and they then bind with the virions to alter their chemical composition. Ozone machines operate under the same principle – the airborne ozone is a charged molecule that binds to the virions.

Which method is best?

There is a good reason why the CDC approves so many chlorine-based disinfectants. The scientific and medical communities have known for decades that chlorine is highly effective at breaking up organic matter. This is why it is used to disinfect everything from swimming pools to surgeon’s operating tables. When dealing with a pathogen as insidious as COVID, how could you not go with the sure thing?

Economy may decide

Now that we have established the efficacy of chlorine, the question now is which delivery system is best – misting or fogging? This one is partly a question of economics. Fogging is a much more versatile and robust method than misting because of its incorporation of heat. A glycol based fogging method that disinfects via chlorine will create vapors that rise up higher and will condense on the surfaces in its path. Misting, on the other hand, does not have the rising power of all that heat on its side, meaning that the breadth of how far the chlorine will travel depends on how far the gusts of the fan carry it. Once the water in the chlorine mist evaporates, there is nothing to ensure that the chlorine will adhere to any of the surrounding surfaces. All of this means that fogging is highly superior to misting. Economics plays a role because fogging with all that glycol and heat is far more expensive than misting.

Most people who get COVID have no idea where they got it. Why not reduce the uncertainty by making your workspace COVID free. After all, nobody can be 100% certain that they didn’t miss a spot when wiping down a surface. Nobody can see the COVID virions in the air at any given time. You might as well let the airborne chlorine work its magic and keep everyone safe.