The Choice of Cleaning Investments

BY BARRY COLPITTS, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, WOOD WYANT

When it comes to investing, consistent contributions are well regarded as the best manner to ensure long-term financial strength. A regular, regimented plan (as opposed to an annual lump sum) takes advantage of periodic improvements, and provides building blocks for exponential growth.

In an educational setting, our key investments are twelve years in the making.

CLEANING WITH OUR “EDUCATIONAL INVESTMENTS” IN MIND

Although most of the talk these days is focused on either pandemic preparedness or green cleaning, to ensure the highest return on our key investments, our cleaning dollars and procedures need to be focused on the student, the teachers and the persons who clean. This type of thinking starts with understanding how much these three groups are interconnected.

VISIBLE CLEANING

I love to use the term “visible cleaning” because it leaves so much room for interpretation. The most fun place to demo a machine is in an elementary school because the students watch to see what is happening.

By bringing the cleaning of our facilities to the forefront of student education – from hand-washing to classroom cleaning, recycling to green cleaning – children learn from what they observe others doing.

Placement of signage, recycling bins, soap and sanitizer dispensers and custodial offices all influence the perceived importance students and staff give to their role in supporting proper cleaning for health initiatives. In most cases, this simply means changing locations, not significantly increased investments.

Cleaning our schools affects, and will continue to affect, our future generations, whether we are planning on it or not.

CROSS-CONTAMINATION

In a healthcare facility, cleaning is focused on breaking the chain of infection, ensuring patients do not make other patients more ill. In schools, the chain links together children making other children ill and then on to others (teachers, staff, family members). The risks associated with contamination involve understanding that we cannot disinfect all areas and provide a germ-free environment, but we can better understand the traffic flow and risk areas based on controlling infections. There are countless studies showing how cleaning helps to reduce absenteeism rates for both students and teachers. The principal point is that the educational cost of lost learning days far outweighs the investment in the proper procedures and cleaning of utensils, cloths, mops and equipment that come in contact with common surfaces.

Eighty per cent of all common infections (colds, flu, and diarrhea) are spread through the environment (air, water, food, fomites [inanimate surfaces])1. The sharing of these common surfaces such as washrooms, desks, computers, pencils, cell phones and I-pods all play key roles in the spreading of pathogens.

CLASSROOMS AND LIBRARIES

In a recent study, an elementary school teacher’s desk ranked number one as the “germiest” office space, while some of the most bacteria-contaminated classroom areas included pencil sharpener, desk top, computer and sink1 .

The use of a colour-coded microfiber hand cloth system and water can provide effective cleaning of classroom surfaces throughout the day, and should especially be considered prior to and after eating lunches, along with periodic wiping of common teaching areas such as desks and computer tables.

Ensuring the classroom is “ready-to-clean” at the end of the day is an important time saver for custodial staff and will provide increased time to help augment the “level of clean” within the common classroom setting. Removal of shoes and items from the top and underneath of desks and main floor areas will provide efficiency to the cleaning staff and enable easier implementation of microfiber flat mop system for endof-day classroom cleaning.

Removal of furniture, such as couches, from the classroom should also take high consideration due to bacteria present and the high potential for contamination.

WASHROOM

Studies have shown that bacteria and viruses are released into the air when toilets are flushed. The droplets settle out and contaminate the restroom with fecal microorganisms1.

With new technology comes adaptation. The use of latest microbial-based cleaning chemicals (such as Wood Wyant’s Vert-2-Go BIO line) attack problems at the source by outcompeting harmful bacteria for the organic soils (food). Controlling sources of odours and bacteria replication by eliminating the food from harmful bacteria will lead to a cleaner, healthier washroom environment. More frequent damp/spot cleaning of key hot spots and flooring during the day will remove unwanted smells and organic soils. Cleaner, non-odour facilities promote improved student, staff and visitor hygiene perceptions.

PLANNING THE CLEAN

The use of proper tools, microfibers and equipment are all

By bringing the cleaning of our facilities to the forefront of student education –from hand-washing to classroom cleaning, recycling to green cleaning –children learn from what they observe others doing.

great steps in cleaning but will have little or no net gain on creating a healthier environment if surfaces are not cleaned properly. The cleaning and changing of vacuum filters and brushes on a regular basis will help reduce the movement of bacteria harbored in the vacuums from being spread from one area of the building to another. Dr. Gerba found E. coli on 50 per cent of the sampled vacuum cleaner brushes1, of which pose a hazard of unwittingly spreading airborne contaminants during the cleaning procedures. Airborne contaminants lead to asthma2, one of the highest causes of absenteeism in schools.

Proper washing of microfibers with a thermal disinfection process ensures that when the cloths are returned to the cleaning program, they are not causing contamination issues. Preventing the transfer of organisms is as good as disinfecting/hand washing in reducing risks1. Improperly cleaned cloths and mops for highly congested areas such as classrooms and washrooms can lend to lower cleaning standards.

Proper procedures and following the chain of infection has been a constant in the healthcare field for a number of years. Ensuring proper cleaning programs for the school environment requires knowledge of the locations, the soils, the hazards and the planning required to maintain a healthy school, all within a restricted budget.

With consistent, interconnected planning of procedures and investments, we can ensure that the school environment, employees, students and the community they impact will all live healthier lives.

For more information on Wood Wyant, including our programs such as “School of Sanitation” (SOS) and Vert-2-Go Bio, or to learn more about the quoted articles and evolving cleaning technologies , please feel free to drop me a line at barry.colpitts@woodwyant.com

References: 1 Dr. Charles P. Gerba, Infection Control at Work: Reducing the Risk, University of Arizona. 2 Carol Westinghouse, Strategies for a Better Environment: The Plain Facts, INFORM, Inc., New York. ❏

Gerald Fudge AMP NETCONNECT

Sales Engineer gfudge@tycoelectronics.com Tyco Electronics Canada Ltd. 1485 Lindsey Place Annacis Island Delta, BC CAN V3M 6V1 604-515-8949 tel 604-519-1477 fax 604-340-2605 cell www.ampnetconnect.com www.tycoelectronics.com

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