The “Air Disinfection Card” a Court Called a Fraud

November 1 — According to a CCTV News report yesterday, e-commerce platforms have recently been selling an “air disinfection card” for anywhere from a few jiao to a few dozen yuan. The products claim one card lasts about 60 days and is safe for children, pregnant women and the elderly.

Sellers’ customer service says the card works by having a solid granule or powder react with the air to release chlorine dioxide gas, reducing harmful microbes nearby and forming an “isolation layer” around the wearer.

Some sellers also stress that chlorine dioxide is “internationally recognised as a safe, non-toxic, green disinfectant”. A third-party test report for one card claims a kill rate above 99.99% for influenza A virus after the sample and virus strips sat together for 24 hours in a one-cubic-metre chamber.

“Wear it around your neck and it wipes out any bacteria or virus within three metres” — claims like this persuaded plenty of buyers, and convinced even more people, but a court has ruled the advertising false.

The China Consumers Association recently filed a public-interest lawsuit against Shunfeng Gene Technology (Weifang), Zhongcheng Beifang Biomedical (Shenyang) and Qingdao Zhongke Ruiye Gene Biotechnology over deceptive marketing of the “Beifang Qingchen air disinfection card”, which used claims such as a 99.99% disinfection rate.

Shandong High People’s Court issued a final ruling in August this year, overturning the first-instance judgment: Shunfeng Gene was ordered to pay punitive damages of three times the purchase price — more than 2 million yuan — plus testing and notarisation fees, while Zhongcheng and Zhongke Ruiye bear joint liability up to 1.06 million yuan each.

Disease-control experts point to a “logical paradox”: a concentration high enough to disinfect is unbearable for people, and a concentration people can bear has no claimed effect.

Tests of the cards’ disinfection effect show that each card contains between 3 and 15 grams of chlorine-dioxide-generating agent, which in most everyday environments cannot reach an effective disinfecting concentration. Marketing the product as providing “portable disinfection anytime, anywhere” does not match real conditions.