I never used to buy spray cleaning products. I tried not to use them, with their complicated plastic nozzles and triggers, and over-powering chemical smells. I didn’t like the idea of their damaging potential, wiping out entire colonies of microbiota, and replacing ‘natural’ dirt (which we must all ‘eat a peck of’ before we die…), with the aroma of synthetic sterility.

But since the lockdown, the disinfectant spray – the only bottle of the stuff that I’ve ever bought (and judging by its current availabilty, probably the only one I ever shall buy), has become an ever-present in our lives. Fear of the coronavirus, and its apparent ability to contaminate everything we touch, has found me spraying with abandon. Well, not quite abandon, as I’m ever conscious of the fact that this bottle has to last, because it’s always out of stock on the supermarket shelves. Are people still stock-piling cleaning materials? Or is it that the manufacturers can’t keep pace with our demand for a product that claims to eradicate 99% of all bacteria and viruses. Not all cleaning products promise this – most kill only bacteria. Of course, there’s always the possibility that coronavirus will be among the 1% of viruses that resist, but that’s a risk we just have to accept.

As long as we’re running scared of this microscopic killer, our phones, keyboards, wallets, door handles, taps, work tops, and even, when the paranoia is at its worst, our tins of beans and tubs of yoghurt, will be subject to the never-ending routine of a spray and a wipe from the bottle of disinfectant that has become my most unlikely ally.

Gill

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