Clorox & Lysol sales skyrocket thanks to Ebola, but do they help?

The Ebola panic in the United States is creating some interesting side-effects.

Disinfectant product sales have shot up 13 percent, while hand sanitizer sales are up 8 percent. Clorox seems to be getting the lion's share of these sales, with a massive 28 percent hike in sales numbers in the last month alone. Lysol sales are similarly up, though parent company Reckitt Benckiser hasn't been as forthcoming with actual numbers.

But do these common disinfectants really help prevent the spread of Ebola? Bloomberg researched that very question and its findings may surprise you.

In a nutshell: yes, both companies do carry household products that can clear away the Ebola virus from surfaces in your home. Bloomberg found information from the CDC that only "hospital-grade, EPA-approved cleaners" should be used to fight Ebola contamination, but many consumer products made by both companies are EPA-approved. Lysol has posted a helpful list of its products that are believed to combat Ebola. The list includes products like Lysol's Disinfectant All Purpose Cleaner with Bleach, Disinfectant Foam Cleaner and Lysol Bathroom Cleaner.

Clorox has an even longer list of Ebola-fighting products, including Clorox Disinfecting Wipes, Clorox Regular Bleach and Tilex Bathroom Cleaner. In related news, Clorox recently donated 12,000 bottles of bleach to West African areas where Ebola has spread.

Clorox and Lysol both are being hammered with questions related to Ebola on social media. The question that seems to recur the most is whether or not Clorox or Lysol products "kill" Ebola. Neither company appears to be prepared to use language quite that strong to describe its products effects on Ebola, but both do state quite clearly that if you have a surface that's been contaminated with the virus, their EPA-approved products will remove Ebola from that surface.

Photo: Mike Mozart