•  On Mar, 18, 2021
•  admin
•   Detergent, Disinfection

The Malaysia government has raised the cleaning and sanitizing expectation as one of the actions for overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Many have used surface disinfectant unfortunately not all the same sanitiser is the same. Perhaps, disinfectant does not same for surface cleaning.

Many use surface disinfectant every day for household surface sanitize purpose.  Unfortunately, the surface disinfectant is not the same as surface cleaning.  Even though there are some overlapping performances for these 2 concepts, but they serve a different purpose.

Thorough Surface Cleaning still the best practice to maintain hygiene living environmental.

What is Surface Disinfectant?

There are many disinfectants solution available in the Malaysia market. Many users use chlorine base bleach solution, disinfectant tablet, Hypochlorous acid solution and alcohol.  The mechanism for those disinfectants are

• Penetrate into bacteria and virus-cell and break the living chain.
• Dehydrate the cell wall and cause the cell collapse.

As aware, all solution comes with alkaline or mild-acidic characteristic nature. But difference acidity characteristic may bring various impact on human skin.

On the other hand, alcohol is a solvent-based solution but without surfactant as the disinfectant ingredient. Hence, the selection of a disinfectant solution becomes a challenging job for many housewives.

The Difference – Surface Cleaner and Disinfectant

The Surface Cleaner
The surface cleaner is a product that consists of surfactant.  Perhaps, the surfactant is the main contributor to a cleaning process. 

Disinfectant
For disinfectant product, we seldom add any surfactant ingredient. For instance, Dettol is a famous multi-purpose disinfectant solution and no surfactant added.

During application, a sanitiser solution is used to sanitize the substrate surface but with very minimum cleaning ability.  In other words, it kills the germs on the surface.

However, for a stubborn contaminant, we have to use detergent for efficient cleaning. For instance, we use a solvent-based solution. Such as alcohol, it could be used to sanitize the table and also remove the adhesive left over.

Confuse between Surface Disinfectant and Surface Cleaner?

Cleaning: For dirt, soil, oil film and impurity removal. It does not KILL germs but removing it.
Disinfectant: The main purpose is to KILL germs but not removing it from the surface.

What Should I Select?

Now you have the basic idea in order to segregate these 2 products via its function and properties.  Comes to product selection, there are a few scenarios:

1. Hand Cleaning & Sanitize
   The hand is touching many substances and maintaining a clean hand is our 1^st priority in personal hygiene.
   Frequently wash your hand with ordinary soap or hand cleaner under city water will be sufficient for maintaining a cleaned hand.  In addition, uses only the non-wash disinfectant if you are able to access clean water.
   With thorough hand cleaning, the dirt, soil, oil film and bacteria are removed!
2. Table Cleaning & Sanitize
   The table may cover with soil, grease and bacteria over a period of time.  First of all, removing the dirt and oily stuff is the first priority. We have to use a surface cleaner to clean the table.  Afterwards, we can spray the disinfectant solution on the table for the surface sanitizing purpose.

With the above 2 examples given, we believe you have a better idea to understand the difference between surface disinfectant and surface cleaning. 

DST does supplies several surface disinfectants and surface cleaners for your daily and household application.  You are welcome to talk to DST or visit our EC Specialty Supplies’ FB page for more details.