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One family of cleaning chemicals is receiving scrutiny for potential health concerns.
Disinfectant use has exploded during the coronavirus pandemic as
people try to keep their hands and surfaces clean. But one family of
cleaning chemicals is receiving scrutiny for potential health concerns.
Quats, or quaternary ammonium compounds, are charged molecules that can kill
bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Quats are effective disinfectants, but
some researchers are raising alarm given recent research on the
compounds’ possible human health and environmental effects, including
fertility issues, endocrine disruption, occupational asthma, marine
toxicity, and potential to spur antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
And, while industry defends quats as safe, some states are taking notice and looking into regulations.
BOSTON Standing at a lab bench, Tanya Shirman eyes her creation: a tiny glass vial filled with an iridescent, sand-like material.
Holding it between her thumb and forefinger, she gives the vial a gentle shake, and the material inside turns from shimmering blues to greens. This is what happens in butterfly wings, the petite Shirman, lifting her voice over the roar of a lab fume hood, told EHN. The spectrum of colors changes from the structures in the wings at the nanoscale, that is, a scale hundreds of thousands of times smaller than the head of a pin.
Shirman, vice president of materials design at the Boston-based startup Metalmark Innovations, is referring to the concept of structural color found in nature such as in butterfly wings, bird feathers, beetles, berries, and the sky.