Lysol Helps Parents and Teachers Create a Healthy Classroom

Lysol is a financial sponsor of National PTA and has been invited to submit a blog post as part of their engagement with PTA. National PTA does not endorse any commercial entity, product or service, and no endorsement is implied by this content.

Implement Healthy Habits for a Successful School Year

Did you know that 38 million school days each year are missed due to influenza alone[1]? When children miss school, they miss out on valuable social and educational moments. Teaching children healthy habits like proper hand washing at an early age has been shown to reduce student absenteeism and illnesses in families[2]. When kids practice healthy habits like proper cough and sneeze etiquette, they are less likely to spread germs around the classroom and less likely to bring them home.

That’s why the National Parent Teacher Association has teamed up with Lysol and the National Education Association (NEA) to spread the word about healthy habits, starting with changes you can make at home. You can implement healthy habits into your children’s routine in a few easy ways:

  • Teach Proper Hand Washing Techniques: One of the most effective ways to help stop the spread of germs is washing your hands thoroughly with soap and water. To ensure children are washing for at least 20 seconds— the amount of time needed to kill and remove germs —encourage them to sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice while rubbing their hands together to keep track of time.
  • Share Healthy Habits, Not Germs: Teaching healthy habits to your children at home can start a broader movement around keeping germs at bay. By demonstrating healthy habits at home, such as regular exercise, eating a balanced diet and disinfecting germ “hot spots” (especially light switches, door knobs and countertops), parents are encouraging children to share their knowledge with their peers. Those peers share with their friends and the cycle continues.
  • Support Schools One Clean Surface at a Time: Lysol and Box Tops for Education have partnered to promote healthy habits and support schools across the U.S. by providing classroom disinfecting products eligible for Box Tops redemption. Encourage teachers to add Lysol Disinfecting Wipes, now eligible for Box Tops redemption, on their school supply lists to help kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses on commonly-touched surfaces around the classroom. It’s an item that both moms and teachers can proudly stand behind!

Visit Lysol.com/HealthyHabits for more information on the Healthy Habits Program.


Rory Tait is the marketing director at Lysol. He drives the Lysol Healthy Habits campaign, a program focused on educating parents across the country on the importance of healthy habits and good hygiene practices.

[1] CDC. “Vital Health and Statistics. Current Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, 1996.”; Published October 1999

[2] Meadows, Emily, and Nicole Le Saux. “A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Antimicrobial Rinse-Free Hand Sanitizers for Prevention of Illness-Related Absenteeism in Elementary School Children.” BMC Public Health. Published November 2004

Comments

  1. Not so fast, Lysol! The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulates environmental marketing claims like this one.

    The process of disinfecting means a surface must be cleaned first, then the wet disinfecting product applied and allowed to sit for a “dwell time”, then wiped clean. Then and only then will it be very temporarily free of most germs.

    PTA’ers need to insist that their schools USE third party certified green cleaning products which are readily available to all schools and used in dilutions for different jobs, including wiping down desk tops. Studies show major cost savings and no new costs.

    For more help, see http://www.CleaningforHealthySchools.org

  2. Andria Ventura says:

    This is a perfect example of why people need to do their homework before making partnerships like this one. Preventing influenza is a great goal. Doing so by exposing children to toxic chemicals on a regular basis is not. The PTA needs to think before it acts. Basic soap and water kills germs and teaching proper hygiene can go far to protect children. Exposing them to carcinogens and endocrine disruptors is not the answer. Shame on you!

  3. Teaching proper hand-washing techniques and encouraging healthy habits through diet and exercise are excellent ideas – and both can be effective in reducing student absenteeism and illness in the classroom. The use of disinfectant products in the classroom, however, has never been proven to be effective at reducing illness. Researchers have been able to document lower pathogen counts on surfaces from use of products like wipes, but that has never been shown to actually reduce rates of illness compared to cleaning with regular soap and water. Many disinfectant chemicals are persistent, leave harmful residue, and have other unintended harmful effects. (There is good reason that the labels of disinfectant wipes tell you to wash your hands thoroughly after you use them!) For safer alternatives to adding Lysol Disinfecting Wipes to your school’s supply lists see our blog at; http://www.womensvoices.org/2015/07/31/tip-of-the-month-watch-out-for-disinfectant-wipes/
    Alexandra Scranton
    Women’s Voices for the Earth

  4. Stacy Malkan says:

    How is this healthy for kids? EWG’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning gives 50% of Lysol products an F — a flunking grade — for toxicity. http://www.ewg.org/guides/brand/6500?grade=f. The Lysol Disinfecting Wipes promoted by your program score a D, with moderate concern for asthma and respiratory effects and some concern for skin allergies, irritation, developmental toxicity and cancer links. http://www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners/1216-LYSOLICDisinfectantWipes

    Can you tell me if the National PTA has vetted these products? Did the PTA ask for input from scientists or do you have studies to back up the claims of safety?

  5. Sara says:

    I appreciate PTA taking a stand on health, but Lysol is so toxic and full of harmful ingredients. What’s the deal, PTA?

  6. Jamie McConnell says:

    Wow, National PTA should have done a little more research before endorsing a product that can exacerbate asthma and other health concerns in children because of the presence of harmful chemicals like quats.

  7. lynn hasselberger says:

    This is bad news! 50% of Lysol products score an F in the EWG guide http://www.ewg.org/guides/brand/6500?grade=f

  8. How can you possibly promote the use of Lysol in our schools? The use of Lysol does not create a healthy classroom. What it does is permeate the air with particles that are then breathed into the lungs of children and staff.

    Best practices advises that disinfecting in schools should only be done by custodians who are trained in the proper use of these products. Disinfectants should be applied in a stream rather than a spray or mist, wiped so that the surface is glistening wet and then left on the surface for the required amount of dwell time.

    Spraying Lysol in the air does nothing except expose occupants to a scented product that could cause asthma or sensitivity episodes in students and staff. Furthermore teachers and parents should not be bringing in products. All cleaning products used in schools need to have safety data sheets and be part of the OSHA Hazard Communications Plan.

  9. marie says:

    Soap is also a problem unless it’s made from natural materials

  10. marie says:

    Soap also has ingredients in it that are harmful

  11. Lysol and similar disinfecting products are not allowed in New York State schools due to our Green Cleaning Products law… https://greencleaning.ny.gov/policies.asp. Please advise your school contacts who are promoting this program that it is against the law in New York State.
    Thank you,
    Carol Chittenden
    Empire State Consumer Project
    http://www.empirestateconsumerproject.blogspot.com

  12. Dorothy Wigmore, MS says:

    Lysol is not good for kids, or those who work around them. Healthy habits do NOT include using toxic chemicals that are likely to cause asthma and breathing problems, and may cause allergies, reproductive problems and cancer. They do include washing hands (with soap), using microfibre cloths for cleaning and disinfecting, and respecting people’s health. See resources such as the City of San Francisco Environment Department’s report (http://www.sfapproved.org/comprehensive-report-safer-disinfectant-products), the Pharos database, and Green Seal and Ecologo products (knowing that they don’t all avoid asthmagens) and sfapproved.org. Also see Informed Green Solutions (http://informedgreensolutions.org/) for various fact sheets and their posting of “Tools for informed substitution: How do you find safer chemicals in the workplace?” at http://informedgreensolutions.org/?q=publications/tools-informed-substitution.

    This is disgraceful, unscientific, unhealthy and harmful. It could be so much better.

  13. Kate Jakubas says:

    This is so disappointing! Lysol wipes contains ammonium quaternary compounds, which are anything but ‘healthy’. The national PTA shouldn’t be encouraging parents to use more of these products, which exploit germophobia to improve Lysol’s bottom line at the expense of health.

  14. Susan Cann says:

    This is outrageous! You’re promoting the use of toxic chemicals in the classroom! I understand that it’s hard to raise money for schools these days, but PARTNERING WITH LYSOL?!!! Has the National PTA vetted these products? Do you realize they contain ingredients that have been proven harmful to not only our children, but our environment? Shame on you! http://www.ewg.org/guides/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=lysol&page=1&per_page=15

  15. Amy Ziff says:

    How is this healthy for kids? Lysol is far from benign and while it may kill germs it can do a whole lot of other harm as well. The EWG’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning gives 50% of Lysol products an F — a flunking grade — for toxicity. http://www.ewg.org/guides/brand/6500?grade=f. The Lysol Disinfecting Wipes promoted by your program score a D, with moderate concern for asthma and respiratory effects and some concern for skin allergies, irritation, developmental toxicity and cancer links. http://www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners/1216-LYSOLICDisinfectantWipes

    My organization studies products to ensure they are safe for use in homes and with families. We use recognized science, authoritative lists from around the world and modeling and predictive analysis to achieve our process. We work with a chemist and others to evaluate every single ingredient in a product in order to determine if we can certify it.

    Can you tell me if the National PTA has vetted these products ingredient by ingredient? If so, by what criteria? Does the PTA ask for input from scientists or do you have studies to back up the claims of safety?

    Parents around this country want to know. I am just one of them.

    • admin says:

      Thank you for sharing your perspectives with us and for contributing to this important dialogue.

      We failed to incorporate our standard disclosure language into this post, which is as follows:

      Lysol is a financial sponsor of National PTA and has been invited to submit this blog post as part of their engagement with PTA. National PTA does not endorse any commercial entity, product or service, and no endorsement is implied by this content.

      This has been rectified in the post. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

      National PTA is committed to educating and empowering families, educators and communities to ensure the health, safety and well-being of every child.

      Thank you again for bringing this to our attention and contributing to this important dialogue.

  16. Here You talked about how a man can make himself/herself healthy. Yeah!! Really it is needed for every person. Now many people are educated but they are not aware of their healthy habits and germ-free life. I like this article. I hope people will get a message from here.

  17. I think I will become a great many horror stories you want to tell follower.Just. The clarity in your post is interesting, and I’m only an expert on this subject you can take for granted.

    Managed Network Services Dallas

Leave a Reply to Susan Cann Cancel reply

*