This was mentioned on the Reopen discussion. I want to further address the idea.
Alcohol is readily available in 3 forms- isopropyl, methanol, and ethanol. Ethanol is the only alcohol approved for hand sanitizer. The other two are toxic, and the exposure in spraying, though light, just isn’t a good idea. Denatured alcohol is typically ethanol, methanol, and sometimes other solvents that render it undrinkable. Well actually WHO does allow isopropyl hand sanitizer, but not USA. It can be absorbed a little through the skin and a lot through the lungs, but the main issue is deviants straight-up drinking the stuff.
Anyhow, to sanitize hands against COVID19, the guideline so far is 80% ethanol, or 160 proof alcohol. That’s somewhat expensive, but here’s the thing I want to point out- 80% ethanol (or other sufficiently pure alcohols too) in a spray bottle is very flammable, and misuse around, say, a light switch could end badly.
We’re hardly unique in looking for a way to address the fears of surface contamination. The industry thus far has backed the “disinfectant fogger”:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=disinfectant+fogger&ref=nb_sb_noss_2
It’s not flammable, and does “fog” an area. It’s not great for computers or lasers, but could be more thorough on a keyboard than you could ever wipe with a towelette. My perception is that it’s in an uncomfortable niche where a) it’s unproven, and b) it’s probably overkill anyways, as surface transmission I believe to be unlikely unless a person is wildly touching their face after touching public surfaces without handwashing or using sanitizer, like we used to do in the before-times, in the long-long ago, before we adopted the mask.
There is a question of “does the risk outweigh the benefits?” in some of this. Being exposed to an overabundance of overapplied bleach or alcohol mists can really irritate the lungs, nose, and eyes, and arguably may leave a person more vulnerable to infection. No way to know that, no expert has tried to weigh in on how that works, but I do have concerns about overapplying esp if we’re talking about spraying liberally, over and over.
Disinfectant fogger is safer and seems much more thorough than trying to wipe the surfaces (you’ll never wipe every sq cm here)- if it actually works. They’re expensive, and difficult to imagine training every member to use by themselves, and fogging inside the laser would be an easy, yet very regrettable mistake. I don’t even know how to use one yet. I’m not totally on board with foggers yet, but that may change. Thought it was important to bring up the tech, though.
