The necessity of disinfected toilet brushes - information policy of companies on disinfectants in private homes

Background Nico Stehr, a German sociologist, presumes in his theory ‘Moralisation of the market’ that companies are willing to accept financial costs that result from moral considerations and put the interests of society over their own. It was examined whether this applies to companies that sell disinfectants to private users. It was assumed that in this case, companies would inform their customers extensively on the hazards posed by the use of disinfectants and would promote only those uses for which disinfectants are considered necessary. Results Fourteen websites for different product lines of disinfectants were analysed in 2012 whether they complied with legal requirements regarding advertisement and what use of disinfectants they proposed. Most of the companies followed these legal requirements regarding advertisements but promoted their products for more uses than necessary. Little changes were detected after a revisit of the websites in 2014. The websites of the companies did not give a full overview over the hazards and still promoted more uses than necessary. Conclusions The websites of the companies do not enable consumers to make information-based decisions regarding their use of disinfectants. To decrease risks whilst ensuring to keep the benefit of the use of disinfectants, it might be worth to consider more strict rules concerning appropriate uses of disinfectants in advertisements.