In a post-COVID environment, cleanliness on transit buses and motorcoaches has become a paramount concern for transportation professionals. Disinfecting should no longer be a reactionary response due to “spikes in COVID cases,” but become part of a daily routine. It is critical for vehicles to be disinfected regularly, in a safe, and effective manner, to restore riders and the public’s faith faith in virus-free transit and intercity/coach transportation.
While the market has many cleaning and disinfectant solutions, the teams at Salus Product Group and PURE Bioscience believe that the PURE® Hard Surface Disinfectant is the safest, fastest, and most efficient surface disinfectant for buses and motorcoaches. This, representatives said, is due to its patented chemical makeup. PURE® Hard Surface Disinfectant is strong enough to provide rapid and long-term effectiveness, yet safe enough to receive the EPA’s lowest toxicity rating available. PURE® has also received a GRAS Rating (Generally Recognized As Safe) from the FDA, unlike other brand-name products that use bleaches, ammonias or other harsh chemicals.
“In bus transportation, reducing exposure to chemicals and carcinogens is vitally important,” said Toby Drysdale, owner of Salus Product Group. “This solution represents a breakthrough for keeping riders and drivers safe while riding the bus.”
Silver Dihydrogen Citrate
Salus Product Group is an authorized distributor of PURE Hard Surface Disinfectant by PURE Bioscience, a provider of proprietary antimicrobial products for pathogen and hygienic control.
The active solution behind PURE is Silver Dihydrogen Citrate (SDC), a broad-spectrum, non-toxic antimicrobial agent which is manufactured as a liquid and delivered in various concentrations.
“We own the patent on SDC, which is a new molecule,” said Tom Myers, chief operating officer of PURE. “We developed SDC and, after patenting the molecule, spent a lot of effort to receive EPA and FDA approvals.”
The development process for SDC has taken around 15 years. PURE spent the first five years developing the molecule, which has now received EPA approval for disinfecting surfaces as well as FDA approval for direct food contact without rinsing.
The product is unique in that it has a 30 to 120 second hospital-grade disinfectant kill, setting SDC apart from most other chemicals which take five to 10 minutes wet on the surface. While most other disinfectants require a post-application rise, the PURE solution can be applied to food and even infant bottles and pacifiers with no rinsing required.
Vehicle Disinfection
While PURE developed the SDC solution and passed through EPA and FDA approval stages, Salus Product Group provides a large variety of misting and airless disinfectant sprayers in handheld, backpack, and wheeled portable configurations.
Drysdale said that handheld sprayers seem to work best in onboard bus applications. Handheld sprayers releasing the PURE Hard Surface Disinfectant emit a smoke-like mist.
“The mist is applied 2 feet above the surface – or 2 feet away from a vertical surface,” Drysdale said. “Spraying at a rate of 2 feet per second, it only takes 30 to 40 seconds to spray the length of an entire school bus.”
“As with any school district, there is no one-size-fits-all applicator,” he said. “The handheld is an easy-to-spray solution, but we also provide high-capacity units and 50-foot hoses for larger districts with bigger cleaning lanes. We work closely with agencies and operators to assess their specific needs and find the best application for their disinfecting process.”
Drysdale added that they are also looking into developing On-Board Dispensing Systems which would handle a single vehicle’s disinfection even faster than handheld sprayers and further reduce staffing burdens.
The Science Behind Disinfecting
Disinfection “log reduction” is a measure of a product’s ability to reduce pathogens on a scale of 0 log to 6 log, with 6 log representing the highest pathogen reduction. Bill Johnson of PURE Bioscience said that the PURE Hard Surface Disinfectant can reduce pathogens on a bus on the order of 4 log to 5 log in approximately one minute.
In addition to killing 99.999 percent of germs on hard surfaces, the disinfectant eliminates the SARS-CoV-2 virus (causes COVID-19) in 30 seconds on hard non-porous surfaces, and kills more than 31 harmful germs, viruses, and bacteria including MRSA, VRE, CRE, E. coli, Salmonella, Human Coronavirus, Norovirus, Influenza A (H1NI), HIV Type 1, Hepatitis B and C, and more.
“There has never been technology like this before, and not only in bus transportation,” Johnson said. “This the safest, fastest, and longest-lasting tool to fight bacteria, viruses, and fungi, while still being safe to use around children, pets, and anyone else.”
Myers said PURE Hard Surface is EPA-Registered (72977-5-73912), FDA approved, and GRAS rated. It received the EPA’s lowest Toxicity Rating of Category IV, with no harmful ammonias, bleaches, quats or other volatile organic compounds.
“We are the only disinfectant that actually kills COVID-19 without any kind of warning on the label,” Myers said. “It can literally be used on children’s toys, baby pacifiers, and pet dishes safely and with no rinsing.”
The solution requires no mixing, and dries approximately three minutes after spraying. It also doesn’t require additional rinsing or wiping of the surfaces, saving operators time and money,
“There are other disinfecting sprays that are just as effective as PURE,” Drysdale said. “But those solutions require warning labels such as DANGER, WARNING, or CAUTION and require protective equipment to apply or require dilution. PURE has no such drawbacks for transportation applications. It acts faster than other disinfectants and provides longer untouched residual protection.”
“An operator can spray the bus first thing in the morning,” he continued, “and that is the last time they’ll spray the bus that entire day.”
Beyond the Bus
Another unsung facet of a strong and safe disinfectant, Drysdale added, is addressing the nationwide labor shortage. Because of the quick and efficient application process, very little additional labor is required to keep riders safe.
“On a single bus, the operator would take an extra minute of time to disinfect at the start of each shift,” he said. “It really can help companies and agencies dealing with a shortage on drivers or other employees.”
Drysdale said that PURE Hard Surface Disinfectant can (and should) be used in tandem with other best practices and purification processes to create a robust service plan for vehicle sanitization. No one solution is the end-all sanitization answer, he said.
“PURE and Salus came together because of the importance of disinfection safety,” he said. “This product is easy to use but, most importantly, it won’t hurt anyone. For riders, it is a blessing to walk on a freshly sprayed bus with no dangerous fumes, irritants, or other potentially harmful compounds.”
For more information, please visit www.saluspg.com or contact Toby Drysdale at 833-725-8774 ext 700