CM/Spotlight: Restroom Care Who Is Really At Risk In Public Restrooms? The inherent risks for infections from unclean public restrooms make proper procedure and protection paramount. By: Dawn Shoemaker Dawn Shoemaker is a writer for the professional cleaning and buildings industries. M for more info Visit www.cmmonline.com and type in search keyword: Restroom Care . For more information on related products, visit www.cmmonline.com , select BUYERS’ GUIDE from the main navigation bar, and enter keyword: Disinfection. Most of us now know that the focus of the profes-sional cleaning industry is protecting human health. Nowhere is this more important than in the clean-ing and maintenance of public restrooms. According to some reports, micrococacceae , which can cause skin infections, can be found in varying degrees on nearly all public restroom toilet seats. Other bacteria found in varying degrees on toilet seats include: ■ Coryneform , found on over 80 percent of all toilets tested, which can cause diphtheria and hepatitis ■ Streptococcaceae , found on 39 percent of all toilet seats tested, which can result in sore throat and bronchial pneumonia ■ Pseudomonadaceae , found on 22 percent of toilet seats, which can cause urinary tract infections and blood poisoning ■ Enterobacteriaceae , found on 19 percent of toilet seats, which is associated with kidney infections, salmonella and shigellosis. 1 Even small amounts of urine left on a toilet seat for up to 45 minutes can result in cross contami-nation. The good news is that restroom users are unlikely to contract a disease merely by sitting on a patho-gen-covered toilet. Still, many people avoid touching toilet seats — or even all restroom surfaces — in order to mini-Restrooms can be breeding grounds for bac-teria, making it of the utmost importance for cleaning professionals to know the proper way to clean and protect themselves. 16 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • October 2013 Banner Image courtesy of mattjeacock/iStockphoto/Thinkstock Bathroom Image courtesy of Elnur Amikishiyev/iStockphoto/Thinkstock
CMM – Archives October 2013: 16
