It seems like such a simple and easy way to clean up a dirty surface: wipe it down with a disinfecting wipe, the kind of product sold in easy-to-grab cylindrical canisters. Indeed, in the earliest days of the COVID pandemic, consumer interest in disinfecting products skyrocketed.
But products labeled as disinfectants aren’t simply cleaners. They also contain pesticides, and they require more careful handling than you might expect for a product that frequently appears on back-to-school supply lists.
The chemicals in these products kill germs, and they are used for infection control in some healthcare settings like hospitals. But they have to be used carefully—and they’re not really needed to keep your kitchen counters clean.
Chemicals in disinfectant wipes have been linked with a number of health problems, including asthma. And experts we spoke with said such risks may be greater for young children.
Here’s what you need to know about these germ-killing products, and how to clean and disinfect more safely.
What’s in a Disinfectant?
Whether a product is a wipe, spray, liquid, or powder, those whose labels say they “disinfect” are legally distinct from those whose labels claim only to clean. To be able to call their product a disinfectant, manufacturers must prove that the active ingredients kill specific bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus (which can cause dangerous infections) on surfaces. Manufacturers must also prove any label claims about specific viruses.
Bleach (or sodium hypochlorite) is one active ingredient you may see in some disinfecting products. Hydrogen peroxide is another.
Quaternary ammonium compounds—QACs or “quats” for short—are also among the active ingredients that may be found in household cleaning products such as disinfecting wipes. They appear on ingredient lists with names such as alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride, and other types of “benzyl ammonium chloride.”
The Potential Harms of Disinfectants
Certain disinfectant ingredients, particularly bleach and quats, can pose health risks. And disinfecting wipes, especially those containing quats, may be of particular concern for children, according to Dawn Gouge, PhD, a public health entomologist with the University of Arizona, because they’re sometimes styled as classroom-friendly products. “They’re marketed to schools. They’re marketed to teachers,” Gouge says.
Because bacteria and other microbes are considered pests, many kinds of antimicrobial products, including quats, are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency as pesticides. Quats, just like other pesticides, are usually required to bear a caution: “Keep out of reach of children.”
But in practice, children may still be exposed to them in the environment. A 2022 study in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology discovered that quats could even be found in human breast milk, and that levels were higher among mothers who used disinfecting products and disinfected more frequently.
There are two health risks most commonly associated with disinfectant use: respiratory issues like asthma and potential reproductive harms.
Lung irritation, asthma, and allergies. Bleach is well-known as a possible cause of asthma, and quats have also been found to have the potential to set off the condition.
Much of the evidence about the human health effects of disinfectants comes from studies of adults who work with them, in addition to research in labs. According to a 2019 analysis published in the American Journal of Infection Control, asthma occurs at higher rates in adults who use disinfectants and cleaners regularly for their jobs—such as janitors and healthcare workers—than in other workers.
In another recent analysis, published in 2022 in the journal Frontiers in Toxicology, researchers found that quats, particularly one common one called benzalkonium chloride, have been implicated as potential allergens and lung and skin irritants in a number of studies and case reports.
And the problems these chemicals may cause in adults can occur in kids, too, says Susan Pacheco, MD, professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas McGovern Medical School and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, Council on Environmental Health. Quats, for example, can facilitate the development of allergies and trigger asthma attacks in children, she says.
In fact, the experts we spoke with say that the active ingredients in disinfectant wipes may be more concerning for children than adults. “Kids breathe more air per pound of body weight than an adult does. Their exposure will be greater in terms of inhalation than an adult exposure would be,” says Jerome Paulson, MD, a pediatrician and emeritus professor at George Washington University.
In a 2005 study published in JAMA, researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other institutions found that between 1998 and 2002, there were hundreds of case reports where disinfectants, including bleach and quats, had caused illnesses or injuries among children in schools and child care centers from 1998 to 2002. These included eye, skin, and upper respiratory irritation.
Reproductive health harms. Recently, researchers have also begun to draw more attention to some early evidence that quats in particular may pose reproductive risks. This was first discovered by accident, when a researcher at the University of Washington working with lab animals began to notice decreased pregnancies and fewer live births among the mice in her colony shortly after moving to a new facility. She was eventually able to trace the source of the problem to the cleaning supplies being used to disinfect the lab—cleaning supplies whose active ingredients were quats.
To find out more, scientists dosed rodents with quats, and compared reproductive issues among those animals, rodents that had never been exposed to quats, and rodents who lived in facilities that were cleaned with quat-based disinfectants.
The results were eye-opening, according to Genoa Warner, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of chemistry and environmental science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, who recently co-authored a review on the reproductive health toxicity of quats. “The animals that were exposed through regular old disinfection—ambient exposure—had significant effects,” she says, including decreased sperm concentration in males and higher rates of certain kinds of birth defects in offspring. In some cases they even experienced more problems than those who were deliberately fed the chemicals in higher doses.
Though more research is needed in humans, growing evidence suggests that quats may be endocrine disrupting chemicals, Warner says, which means they could disrupt the normal functioning of the body’s hormones even at very low doses.
How to Clean and Disinfect Safely
Clean instead of disinfect. Disinfecting is critical to limiting the spread of infection in settings such as healthcare and early childhood care facilities. But for most people at home, cleaning on its own—meaning the removal of dirt and other substances from a surface via scrubbing with soap and water—will remove plenty of worrisome germs. “I think quats are overkill in many cases,” Warner says, particularly for many day-to-day consumer cleaning tasks.
At home and in settings where people aren’t required to disinfect, cleaning is really more important than disinfecting, says Stephanie Holm, MD, MPH, co-director of the Western States Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit, assistant clinical professor at UCSF, and lead author of the 2019 study. And if you like the convenience of wipes, note that there are plenty that clean but don’t disinfect.
The EPA maintains a list of cleaning products considered to be safer than others—the standard the agency uses screens out any products linked to asthma or breathing difficulties. You can also see CR’s guide to choosing safer and more sustainable cleaning products.
Consider safer disinfecting products. In the 2019 article, Holm and her team found that disinfecting products that used hydrogen peroxide were linked with fewer negative health effects than those with bleach or quats. If you want to use a disinfecting product, consider looking for one whose active ingredient is hydrogen peroxide.
When you need to disinfect, do it properly. Certain situations call for the use of a disinfectant at home to prevent the spread of infection. An example, according to the CDC, is if someone in your house contracts the highly contagious and misery-inducing stomach bug norovirus. Any mess from vomit or diarrhea on a surface should be cleaned and then disinfected.
If you decide to use disinfectant, be aware that surfaces you intend to disinfect should be cleaned first of any debris. Skin cells, for instance, a component of dust, can reduce the effectiveness of some disinfectants, Holm says—so if you don’t clean off the dust first, your disinfectant may not work as well.
To kill certain germs, disinfectants must be left wet on the surface for a number of minutes—check the product’s label for specific instructions on how long. That means you have to use enough of the product to keep the surface wet long enough for the active ingredients to take effect.
Don’t use disinfectants around kids. Make sure young children are out of the room when you’re using disinfectants, and for a little while afterward. (Gouge says the amount of time might vary based on a product’s active ingredient and the level of ventilation in the room.) This will keep small hands from touching drying disinfecting fluid, and potentially getting it in their mouths. And be aware that the fumes that these products give off—which can potentially trigger respiratory irritation and asthma—can remain detectable in the air for about 20 minutes, according to one study in the journal Environmental Health. These products should also be stored securely out of reach of kids.
Check the policy at your child’s school. Some schools may request disinfecting wipes as back-to-school supplies or during cold and flu season. If your school is one of those, it’s worth calling the school to find out whether the wipes will be stored out of reach of children, recommends CR’s senior scientist Michael Hansen, PhD—and whether simple cleaning wipes are an acceptable substitute.
You should also check that adults, and not kids, will be the only people handling the products—any cleaning tasks undertaken by children should be done only with regular soap and water. In one case in Massachusetts, officials from the state’s Department of Agricultural Resources sent a warning letter to a school where teachers had given disinfecting wipes to children for the purpose of cleaning desks, computers, and tables.
If your child has asthma, it’s reasonable to ask your pediatrician to write a note that says disinfectant wipes shouldn’t be used in your child’s vicinity, Pacheco says.
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