Use of hypochlorite solution as disinfectant during COVID-19 outbreak in India: From the perspective of human health and atmospheric chemistry

Abstract

The current situation in India regarding the COVID-19 pandemic is the worst since its first detection, in terms of the number of new cases per day, and it is now more than 10000 (as of June 16, 2020). In addition to several precautionary steps being taken (social distancing, use of masks, sanitizing hands etc.), spraying disinfectants (NaOCl solution) over several residential, official and commercial buildings, open areas, markets, public road transports, railways etchas been occurring on a regular basis. It has also come to the world’s attention that spraying of disinfectants has been especially used on people who are migrating from one part of the country to another. In this letter, I have made an attempt to discuss some major impacts of NaOCl on human health as well as atmospheric chemistry. NaOCl once emitted into the air reacts easily with the water vapor to form HOCl that further gets photo-dissociated into various reactive species. These reactive species have significant potentials to participate in various tropospheric chemistry of chlorine radical, ozone, S (IV) oxidation, hydrocarbon oxidation, modification of chloride salts etc. I have also recommended some important steps to be taken if spraying of NaOCl is deemed essential.