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Importance of Disinfecting “High-Touch” Areas During Cold & Flu Season

It’s that time of year again; Cold and Flu season. It seems like no matter where you turn, there is someone sneezing, coughing, and sniffling. It may seem inevitable that illness will seek you out in densely populated indoor areas like work or school, but hold on hope! If your janitorial program is prepared, they can help to reduce the risk of spreading illness throughout your facility. Image result for cleaning door handles

Every building has those “high-touch” areas that a janitorial professional should take extra care to clean and disinfect daily, year-round. These areas can include but are not limited to: water fountains, door handles, faucet knobs, and even shared office equipment, furniture, and supplies. According to Bill Balek of ISSA, high-touch surfaces should be cleaned and disinfected at least two times per day during peak Cold and Flu season. As the weather gets colder, our highly trained staff at C.M. Cleaning know to target these areas specifically. In doing so, we can help to reduce the spread of germs and bacteria that contribute to Cold and Flu. Additionally, C.M. Cleaning utilizes a program to minimize cross contamination. For example, by utilizing color coded micro fiber cloths for different surfaces throughout your facility, and different wet mops for different areas of flooring, we ensure that the same germs found on a bathroom floor are not being spread to your building’s cafeteria by the same wet mop. By tailoring a program like this to your facility, we can ensure that high-touch areas are properly cleaned multiple times during your work day.

 

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Prevent Viruses: Disinfect Or Sanitize?

Concern about the spread of Ebola has been a hot topic throughout the U.S. since the positive testing of Thomas Duncan on September 28. Duncan died a mere 11 days later in a Dallas hospital from the virus.

To be clear, Ebola is not an airborne organism, but is very contagious when transmitted via contact with bodily fluids – including sweat, saliva and blood. Today the CDC is recommending hospitals to use an EPA-registered hospital disinfectant with a label claim for a non-enveloped virus (e.g., norovirus, rotavirus, adenovirus, poliovirus) to disinfect environmental surfaces in rooms of patients with suspected or confirmed Ebola virus infection. Ebola is the extreme when it comes to deadly viruses, but you can still take precautions to protect your staff from contagious viruses like Ebola!Cleaning table service

First you should know the basic differences between sanitizing and disinfecting surfaces the surfaces in your facility. As stated by the ISSA, “A disinfectant is a chemical that completely destroys all organisms listed on its label and reduce the level of pathogenic bacteria by 99.999 percent during a time frame greater than 5 minutes but custom writing essay service less than 10 minutes.” On the other hand, a sanitizer is listed by the ISSA as “a chemical that reduces the number of microorganisms to a safe level. It doesn’t need to eliminate 100 percent of all organisms to be effective.”

So go ahead and remember to disinfect hard surfaces when trying to rid your workplace or household of a virus or infectious disease. However, always sanitize around surfaces in which food prep takes place to avoid the risk of the harmful chemicals in disinfectants. If you have hired a company like C.M. Cleaning, there’s no need for concern- we’re ontop of it!