No more disinfectant tunnel after PGI cue

Naina Mishra
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 14

The UT Administration has now decided to stall the process of setting up more disinfectant tunnels after the PGI projected that the usage of such tunnels gives a “false sense of security”.

Focus on social distancing instead: PGI

More focus should be on social distancing, washing of hands with soap and water and cough etiquettes, early detection and containment measures besides provision of PPE kits to health workers.

UT Adviser Manoj Parida said, “If the unanimous opinion of doctors is that such tunnels are not effective or harmful, we will stop installing more. About the ones already existing, a decision will be taken by the UT Administrator.”

A tunnel each has been set up at the Sector 26 grain market and the MC office in Sector 17. Three more such tunnels were in the pipeline. While the MC had installed the two tunnels, the UT engineering wing was to set up the other three.

These tunnels spray sodium hypochlorite, a chlorine compound often used as a disinfectant or a bleaching agent. Initially, it was believed that this tunnel of sodium hypochlorite spray would work like a mass disinfectant, thereby disinfecting a large number of people.

An official statement released by Prof JS Thakur, chairman, Covid-19 Prevention and IEC Committee, PGI, reads, “The use of these tunnels may give false sense of security and may have adverse health effects as sodium hypochlorite has a lot of harmful effects on body.”

The PGI clarified that the medical institute did not recommend the use of sodium hypochlorite-spraying tunnels. MC Commissioner KK Yadav said, “We had written to the PGI Director and sought their opinion on the matter. We haven’t got it yet. If the opinion is diverging, we will remove the existing tunnels.”

Harmful effects of sodium hypochlorite

As per the PGI, 0.5% solution of hypochlorite, which is known as Dakin solution, is used for disinfecting areas contaminated with bodily fluids, including large blood spills. But higher concentration of sodium hypochlorite (5%) exposure may cause nasal and ocular irritation, sore throat and coughing. While exposure to stronger concentration (10-15%) of this can cause serious damages in multiple organs like burning pain, redness, swelling and blisters, damage to the respiratory tract as well as the esophagus, serious eye damage, stomach ache, a burning sensation, diarrhoea and vomiting. According to the WHO, spraying alcohol or chlorine all over the body will not kill viruses that have already entered it.