key: cord-0708943-r4txus6n
authors: Rabby, Md Insiat Islam; Hossain, Farzad; Akter, Ferdousi; Rhythm, Riyazul Kabir; Mahbub, Tamanna; Huda, Syed Nazmul
title: Disinfection booth: blessing or curse for spreading of COVID-19 in Bangladesh
date: 2020-09-02
journal: Can J Public Health
DOI: 10.17269/s41997-020-00402-6
sha: 45cd036550b76d388c3b942a434d4adbfd63d1bf
doc_id: 708943
cord_uid: r4txus6n

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Therefore, healthcare organizations of the whole world need to be focused on this issue as no studies or scientific evidence concerning the effectiveness of a disinfection booth in preventing COVID-19 has yet been proved through comprehensive search. Furthermore, such booths utilize alcohol, bleach, chlorine solution, or chloroxylenol which are harmful to human health (Mallhi et al. 2020) . Therefore, it is not advisable to fog or spray particular chemical products, i.e., quaternary ammonium compounds, chlorine-based agents, or formaldehyde. Meanwhile, according to the guidelines of the US CDC, registered disinfectants can only be utilized in the disinfecting and cleaning facilities under the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) (United States Environment Protection Agency (USEPA) 2020). Moreover, the Allergy Society of South Africa strongly condemns the use of a disinfection booth under any circumstances (Gray and van Niekerk 2020).

In fact, WHO clearly stated that the utilization of disinfection booths can be dangerous not only physically but also psychologically, and the practice does not minimize the risk of an infected person spreading the virus through touch or droplets (Foyez 2020) . Moreover, according to one of the WHO advisories, chlorine spraying can cause irritation of the skin and eyes, as well as gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea and vomiting, and sodium hypochlorite inhalations can lead to nose, throat, and respiratory irritation of the mucous membranes (Spraying of disinfectant on people "physically and psychologically harmful": Health ministry 2020).

Contrary to these advisories, disinfection booths are currently found in various renowned government and non-government organizations, shopping malls (i.e., Prince Bazar, Aarong), foot overbridges (i.e., New Market), and city streets of Bangladesh. Even some hospitals and police stations have installed them. To show the current scenario in Bangladesh, a few photos of different places that installed disinfection booths, from the newspaper and our personal collection, are presented in Figs. 1, 2, and 3. Figure 1 , which we collected personally on 16 July 2020, shows a disinfection booth in front of a police station. Figs. 2 and 3 were taken from newspapers, with Fig. 2 showing a disinfection booth installed by the Bangladesh Army at the city street of Jashore for use by local people (Army installs disinfection booth in Jashore 2020). Fig. 3 shows a scenario of a disinfection booth that has been installed on the foot overbridge of a highly populated shopping mall-New Market (COVID-19: New Market traders install disinfection tunnels, resume business 2020). Bangladesh used these booths since April 2020 to minimize the COVID-19 spreading rate, but the infection statistics of COVID-19 from April 2020 to date do not show any noticeable reduction of spreading rate (Bangladesh Overview 2020) .

In summary, evidence shows that the disinfection booth has no positive impact to reduce the spreading rate of COVID-19. Meanwhile, it has a negative impact on human health in some cases because of harmful chemicals when it is spread over the full body. Therefore, general people, higher authorities of government, and non-government organizations of Bangladesh need to be more concerned to follow COVID-19 guidelines properly. In fact, we urge higher health authorities of Bangladesh and other nations as well to discourage the utilization of a disinfection booth and rather to emphasize the necessity of proper hand hygiene, wearing of masks, and using physical distancing for preventing the spread of COVID-19 among the general public.

Army installs disinfection booth in Jashore. UNB News

COVID-19: New Market traders install disinfection tunnels, resume business. UNB News

Disinfection tunnel' harmful: WHO. New Age Bangladesh

The use of disinfection tunnels or disinfectant spraying of humans as a measure to reduce the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus

City street (Army installs disinfection booth in Jashore 2020) Fig. 3 Foot overbridge (COVID-19: New Market traders install disinfection tunnels

Fad or future? Experts question efficacy of disinfection gates. The Express Tribune

Walkthrough sanitization gates for COVID-19: a preventive measure or public health concern

Spraying of disinfectant on people "physically and psychologically harmful": Health ministry. Outlook -The News Scroll

COVID-19 disinfectant tunnels may harm humans more than virus. The Federal

United States Environment Protection Agency (USEPA)

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