Please Don’t Share

by Compass Cleaning Solutions • September 07, 2016
Commercial cleaning to prepare for flu season
This time of year we start thinking about back to school and right behind that is the dreaded Flu season. Sniffles, shots, chills and some times hospitalization. School is one thing but the workplace is another. How many adults just ‘tough it out’ and go to work anyway. I confess I have done this like many others. Here is the thing, when we go to work with a virus we ‘share’ it with a lot of people. Everything we touch, every time we sneeze, we are passing the fun little experience to everyone around us. No, we can’t make it mandatory that sick people stay home from work but we can take some steps to protect ourselves.

Best Practices at Work and Home

If you are the one who is sick, stay home if you can. This is one place where sharing is not cool. If you can’t stay home limit your contact with others as much as possible.
Wash your hands and sneeze into a sleeve (preferably your own) or a tissue.

Hand sanitizers are great but here are some details you may not know. In order for a sanitizer to be effective it must have at minimum of 60% Alcohol to kill bacteria. Hand sanitizers remove oils from your skin and this prevents bacteria from coming to the surface, but this bacteria is not the flu virus and the oils are important for good skin health to boot. Many health professionals and the FDA only recommend sanitizers as a supplement to good old fashion soap and water.Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water. 

Thoroughly, being the key word. Running your hands under water and wiping them on a towel is not adequate. Rubbing your hands in lather for at least 30 seconds is a standard that many health professionals recommend for normal applications. Your mom was right, go wash your hands.There are commercial grade disinfecting wipes available that can be used to regularly wipe down phones, keyboards, door handles and any area that can be considered a touch surface. Your Janitorial Service Provider should be able to give you some options.

Shouldn’t our Janitorial Service Provider be taking care of this?

The short answer is yes, and they probably are doing their part. If you have concerns you should ask them what steps and what products they are using to disinfect your building. You will want to hear terms like ‘quat cleanser’, ‘quaternary’ cleaner or hydrogen peroxide which will clue you into a JSP that understands disinfection procedures and products.

While your JSP can do a great deal and can provide great products they do not operate in your building every day, during the day. This is where you have to be diligent. Take a minute and think about how many things people touch in a day. Not just the kitchens and restrooms but throughout the building. Fore warned is fore armed.

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