Running Water, Soap And 20 Seconds Simple steps to help cleaning operations prevent common illness outbreaks. By: Phillip Lawless T Phillip Lawless is Editor of Cleaning & Maintenance Management magazine; he can be reached at PLawless@ GrandViewMedia.com. A graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Lawless has over 13 years of professional writing and editing experience. The experience is universal. When someone realizes sickness is setting in — a sudden sore throat or the first unsettling signs of the flu — he or she will frequently say, “I don’t want to be sick. I wish I knew how to prevent it!” While there are no magic spells or effective an-cient herbs, one important step every person can take to stop infection and prevent illness is actually quite simple: Wash your hands. Hand hygiene programs and their inclusion in public buildings are especially important for clean-ing and maintenance personnel due to the nature of their work. Crowded public buildings and high-traffic re-strooms are the perfect incubators where illness-causing bacteria and viruses can thrive. By assisting with a handwashing program — and actively encouraging employees and building oc-cupants to participate — managers and building service contractors (BSCs) can positively affect illness rates and productivity in their facilities and communities. onds and finishing up by rinsing and drying. For safety, the CDC recommends washing hands before and after a number of activities, but the in-stances most applicable to JanSan workers and maintenance personnel are: ■ Before and after caring for someone who is sick. ■ After using the toilet. ■ After touching garbage. If soap and water are not available, the CDC in-stead suggests using an alcohol-based hand sani-tizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol. While sanitizers will quickly reduce the number of germs on hands in some situations, they generally do not eliminate all types of germs, and they are not as effective when hands are visibly dirty. Finally, the CDC’s list of good health habits meant to stop the spread of germs recommends cleaning and disinfecting frequently-touched surfaces, espe-cially when someone is ill. Survey Says Bradley Corporation, a company that designs and manufactures handwashing products, has con-ducted a yearly Healthy Hand Washing Survey for the past five years. “We like to keep a pulse on Amercia’s handwash-ing beliefs, behaviors and preferences,” says Jon Dommisse, Bradley’s director of global marketing and strategic development. The company uses the collected data to make their products and technologies more customer fo-cused, Dommisse notes. This year’s survey asked 1,015 American adults about their handwashing habits in their workplace and public restrooms; participants were from around the U.S., were aged from 18 to 65 and were almost evenly split between men and women. “Our survey indentified that, although the vast majority — 95 percent — of Americans knows they should wash their hands after using a public Covering The Basics The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preven-tion (CDC) is the go-to resource for handwashing facts, programs, materials and ideas. The CDC publicizes and promotes the impor-tance of handwashing in number of ways. In fact, the agency’s Global Handwashing Day on October 15, 2013, included a Guinness Book of World Records handwashing attempt, the Golden Poo video awards in the United Kingdom and hand-washing lessons and events for 65,000 students across the state of Georgia. According to CDC materials, the proper hand-washing process requires only three ingredients: running water, soap and a way to dry hands. A thorough handwashing includes wetting hands with running water, applying soap, washing the en-tire hand, rubbing soapy hands for at least 20 sec-for more info Visit www.cmmonline.com and type in search keyword: Infection Control. For more information on related products, visit www.cmmonline.com , select BUYERS’ GUIDE from the main navigation bar, and enter keyword: Hands. 14 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • November 2013
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