Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada (Jan 2021)

Increases in exposure calls related to selected cleaners and disinfectants at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: data from Canadian poison centres

  • Yasseen III, Abdool,
  • Weiss, Deborah,
  • Remer, Sandy,
  • Dobbin, Nina,
  • MacNeill, Morgan,
  • Bogeljic, Bojana,
  • Leong, Dennis,
  • Wan, Victoria,
  • Mosher, Laurie,
  • Bélair, Guillaume,
  • Thompson, Margaret,
  • Button, Brooke,
  • Hardy, James,
  • Perwaiz, Shahid,
  • Smith, Alysyn,
  • Wootton, Richard

DOI
https://doi.org/10.24095/hpcdp.41.1.03
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 1, no. 1
pp. 25 – 29

Abstract

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AbstractLittle is known about the use or misuse of cleaning products during the COVID-19 pandemic. We compiled data from January to June in 2019 and 2020 from Canadian poison centres, and report on calls regarding selected cleaning products and present year-overyear percentage change. There were 3408 (42%) calls related to bleaches; 2015 (25%) to hand sanitizers; 1667 (21%) to disinfectants; 949 (12%) to chlorine gas; and 148 (2%) to chloramine gas. An increase in calls occurred in conjunction with the onset of COVID-19, with the largest increase occurring in March. Timely access to Canadian poison centre data facilitated early communication of safety messaging for dissemination to the public.