While the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has determined “the risk is generally considered to be low” for people to be infected through contact with contaminated surfaces or objects, it is still important to maintain clean spaces to reduce its spread, as well as the spread of other germs and viruses.

Disinfectants can contain hazardous chemicals, so it is important to use them correctly, not to overuse them and to choose products with safer active ingredients, such as hydrogen peroxide.

Look for the U.S. EPA’s Design for the Environment (DfE) ecolabel, which verifies that antimicrobial products, like disinfectants and sanitizers, have been reviewed by EPA and found to meet both the pesticide registration requirements and the standard for DfE-certified products.

For a full list of applicable products, check out San Francisco’s Safer Disinfectants for COVID-19 guide.

For best practices for cleaning disinfecting during a pandemic, check out this fact sheet from the University of Washington.