How Automatic Car Washes Protect Your Health

While most people and organizations make it a priority to clean bathrooms, office buildings, kitchen, living rooms, and public places to prevent the spread of infectious disease, many forget that you come in contact with your car on a daily basis. Neglecting to thoroughly wash and disinfect your car could result in serious health challenges, especially in these unprecedented times. Professionally washing your vehicle and disinfecting the interior on a regular basis can help stop the spread of COVID-19 and keep you and those you come in contact with safe.

Car going through car wash to disinfect from Covid

The Importance of Clean Cars

The current pandemic has over one million automobiles across the Commonwealth being used as essential transportation for health care workers, first responders, law enforcement, social services, food pick-up, utility contractors, laboratories, rental cars, taxis, and public workers. Those belonging to the general public are driving vehicles to perform essential duties like grocery shopping, getting medicine, and as a way to safely leave their homes for mental health reasons. According to an April study in the New England Journal of Medicine, ?SARS-CoV-2 survives longest on steel and plastic-- the virus was detected up to 72 hours on these surfaces--the primary surfaces on and inside your vehicle. The results indicate that fomite transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is plausible since the virus remains viable and infectious on surfaces for days.?

Automatic drive-thru car washes help mitigate the spread of infectious diseases by:

  • Providing antiviral and antibacterial hard surface-cleaning.
  • Using EPA approved soaps and detergents that sanitize high touch areas.
  • Providing deep cleaning of high touch surfaces that limit transmission of COVID-19.
  • Utilizing ?friction-cleaning equipment? with closed-cell foam and soft-cloth lubricated with soaps, detergents, and water to provide safe agitation for cleaning the vehicle surface.

What You Can Do

You may think that hand washing your vehicle is the safest option, but that?s not necessarily true. Professional car wash facilities are under strict guidelines for disposing of wastewater. Hand washing vehicles puts communities at risk of public health and EPA violations. Automatic car wash facilities do not require face-to-face interaction so that vehicles can be cleaned safely for the vehicle owner while also protecting the environment. If you are concerned about cleanliness and safety in between professional car washes, you can take precautions with the following recommendations:

  • Wear gloves while driving.
  • Keep hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes in the vehicle.
  • Keep passengers to a minimum.

According to the CDC, you should disinfect ?high-touch surfaces? daily. If you?re driving every day, that likely includes your car door handles, steering wheel, gearshift, car seat, and seatbelt. We recommend visiting your preferred automatic car wash facility once a week-- after all, you can?t go wrong being too cautious.