It is an understatement to say that 2020 has been a lifechanging year for most industries. Covid-19 has transformed most businesses irreversibly, mostly for the worse. However, it has provided tremendous tailwinds to the disinfectants business, which has seen a global boost in sales with a wider customer base that understands the critical importance of good hygiene and sanitation, both for home and workplace. Moreover, this broader customer base is here to stay as individuals care more about personal hygiene and companies get more serious about incorporating effective sanitation as a long term practice and as part of their regular SOPs.
Hygiene as Part of the Daily Routine is Here to Stay
One of the many positive long-term behavioural changes generated by this pandemic is an increased focus and attention to hygiene – of oneself as well as one’s environment. While hand-washing was always touted as an essential part of one’s routine, now hand disinfection with sanitizer as well as disinfection of surfaces (floors, work desks, high touch point areas) is of paramount importance and a part of daily protocols. People will also take greater care to wear masks when sick, for fear of infecting others.
The Importance of an Effective Disinfection Strategy for UnLockdown
UnLockdown has brought with it many challenges, and one of the most arduous, besides the problem of widespread testing, has been that of protecting the population from Covid-19 transmission as people get back on the roads, buses, trains and into office buildings.
Let’s say that every individual is exposed to contamination from approximately 100 potential carriers of infection during a commute. The medium of contamination can be shoes, clothes and hands. So if this contamination collected on mediums during transit is not eliminated at the doorstep of an office, each person entering will be exposed to not only the contamination of the 100 potential carriers in that workspace, but also to the additional 100 potential carriers that each of their colleagues were exposed to during the commute, effectively exposing each individual to 10,000 potential carriers of infection.
However, if each individual goes through a disinfection process before entry, during which his clothes, shoes and hands (mediums) are disinfected, then the contamination gathered during transit is eliminated at the doorstep of the office, which means that each individual is now exposed to just the 100 potential carriers that are in the workspace, and not the contamination of all the potential carriers in transit. This process thereby reduces risk of infection by 100x. This example clearly demonstrates the critical importance of an effective disinfection strategy as people re-enter workspaces and public spaces in UnLockdown.
Product Quality Checks are Critical
One of the unfortunate side-effects of the massive boom in the disinfectants industry, especially in India, is the rise of spurious manufacturers who have opportunistically into manufacturing sanitizers and other disinfectants without proper licenses. In fact, in a recent raid reported by mainstream media, nearly 50% of 122 hand sanitizers tested were found to not match label specifications and 5 were found to contain toxic methanol. With adulterated sanitizers flooding the market and driving down prices of this product, which has now become a commodity, genuine manufacturers cannot compete at these low prices with good-quality products that cost more to manufacture. Ultimately, it is consumers who suffer when faced with poor quality products that are injurious to health. As more people take to this business for short-term gain, it is essential for customers to carefully check that the manufacturers have genuine licenses in order to trust the quality of the products they are purchasing.
Infection Control as a Specialized Function in Workspaces of the Future
Covid-19 is here to stay, at least for the short-term, and in order to stay protected while resuming some semblance of normal life, all workspaces will need to rely on the services of infection control specialists. It will be the role of these specialists to evaluate infection risks, propose specialized solutions and products that are both effective and safe for human health, and educate end users about proper usage of these products for optimum results.
It is every individual’s greatest hope that a Covid-19 vaccine will soon be released that will make the world go back to what it was before this fateful year. However, such a reversal will not be easy, even with a vaccine. We believe there will be some permanent and lasting changes to human behaviour, workplace design, and most importantly, to personal awareness of sanitation and disinfection. It has taken a pandemic for us to realize the importance of good hygiene but let’s hope at least this lesson will outlive the pandemic!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Devendra Mohnot is a metallurgical engineer with an MBA by education and has nearly 50 years of experience in several industries – pharmaceuticals, diamond manufacturing, tea manufacturing, and spring manufacturing. He is the Founder and Managing Director of Antrix Hygiene Limited, which has 25 years of expertise in the infection control industry with 1,000+ hospital and pharmaceutical customers. Antrix Hygiene exclusively launched and built Henkel Ecolab’s healthcare business in India and its customers include Asian Heart, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani, Bhatia Hospital, Jaslok, MIOT, JIPMER Puducherry, Lakeshore, Sree Chitra Medical Institute, SGPGI Lucknow, Novartis, Zydus Cadilla, Sanofi, Emcure, Wockhardt, Intas, Sandoz, Chiron, and IPCA, among others.
About Antrix
Antrix Hygiene Limited, with its 25 years of global expertise in medical disinfection serving over 1,000 hospital and pharmaceutical customers, has already been assuming the role of infection control specialist for healthcare clients for many years. Since the advent of Covid-19, it has expanded its services to also support institutional customers in finding the right solution for their disinfection needs. In the near future, it is only with the help of infection control specialists that public and private institutions will be able to manage the risk of an outbreak that could shut down their operations for an indefinite period of time.
