We just visited an ice cream shop we frequent. But we happened to arrive just after the young clerk finished sanitizing all surfaces with some sort of bleach. The odor of chlorine was so strong that our eyes watered and we began to cough. The clerk explained that he is required to do this every hour. In addition to exposing employees and customers to high concentrations of chlorine, the ice cream in open bins is exposed as well. Chlorine dissolves in water – for example, the water from melted ice crystals around the ice cream.

Chlorine is a toxic  gas. It was used in World War I, until it was replaced with even more toxic gasses. In high concentrations it damages the eyes and lungs. What other noxious gasses or vapors are released by hand sanitizers and surface sanitizers in grocery stores and restaurants, not to mention homes? How many of these sanitizers are used in kitchens and children’s rooms? Children with developing lungs, elderly people, and those with lung disease are more susceptible.

We must ask:

• How much health damage is caused by these sanitizers? We know about people who set their hands on fire after using hand sanitizer near an open flame. But what about lung damage from fumes?
• How much Covid-19 was prevented by all these millions of gallons of sanitizers? Evidence suggests that disease transmission from environmental surfaces is minimal.
• How much was added by all these sanitizers to curbing Covid-19? In addition to ordinary hand washing with soap and water, was anything at all added?

No one will begin to answer these questions until we insist on asking them.

We will no longer patronize the ice cream shop until the pandemic rules are repealed. But the clerks are stuck there, breathing chlorine every hour. Children are stuck breathing fumes from sanitizers their worried parents use around them. But the side effects of sanitizers should also worry us.