Recently, one of our accounts had a run-in with three members of their staff contracting Covid-19.  The situation played out something like this: An employee came in without symptoms.  While working, he aimed a few small portable fans directly at his face.  What followed were two other employees contracting Covid-19: incidentally right in the trajectory of the fans’ air current.  What he posited was, do fans aid in the transmission of Covid?  The answer seems obvious: it’s a droplet-born disease and fans propel air.  But fans and forced air heating and cooling are so ubiquitous; it’s not something that really crosses our minds.

According to an article published on the Nursing Center website, “the infection control concern is the potential for a fan to spread aerosolized human pathogens from biofilms and re-suspension of dust that may settle onto the patient or environmental surfaces in the immediate vicinity of the patient.”  Box and floor fans are the biggest culprit, but ceiling fans don’t limit the spread of the virus unless they are working completely and properly and are paired with an adequate HVAC system.  Forced air and AC window units also potentially play a role in the spread.  A recent study conducted by the CDC looks at an outbreak in China.  ​This study looks at a woman in China who attended a restaurant before showing symptoms. The four people sitting behind her in the restaurant started showing symptoms shortly after she did.  It is speculated that the air conditioning window unit spread droplets from her speech to the tables behind her. 

There are times, if utilized properly; fans can decrease likelyhood of coronavirus cases by increasing ventilation.  According to the EPA website, fans can increase airflow from outside and decrease the stagnant air that allows Covid-19 droplets to linger for longer times when placed in front of a window.  The fans can face toward the window to blow the inside air out, or vice versa. 

If window ventilation is not possible, forced air systems should be replaced with filtered air systems.  The installation process for this isn’t immediate, but a portable HEPA unit can be used until the process is completed.  Proper heating and cooling is important to keep staff and patrons safe.  Keep air well ventilated, but remember that no one is a "fan" of viral droplets being blown onto their face.  

Within a year, all standards of living have changed.  The enthusiasm of preparing our children for the back to school process is now overshadowed by dread.  In addition to notebooks and pencils, face masks and hand sanitizer have become an essential school supply.  To prepare for the return, parents and school staff need to work together.  

Prior to reopening, it is best for school administrators to create a new cleaning routine.  To know what needs to be done, it’s best to collaborate with the janitorial staff.  The first thing to know is the difference between cleaning and disinfecting.  As the CDC points out, cleaning does not kill germs but removes them, minimizing the quantity.  To kill them, you must also disinfect.  So knowing this, the new cleaning routine should involve a two step process.  The best way to ensure that your cleaning routine is effectively followed is to make a cleaning checklist.  This will vary by facility, but you can follow this general checklist provided by Janitorial Manager. 

Parents should support the efforts of faculty through reinforcing healthy habits like covering nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, hand washing, and not sharing cups, utensils and school supplies.  Make sure you wash face masks and backpacks regularly and minimize fomites like toys or school supplies going to and from school.  Maintain good communication with the teachers, faculty and other parents to be alerted on new cases.  You can also help your children strengthen their immune system through stress reduction tactics and healthy dietary choices.  

Many schools are implementing new physical distancing strategies like adding more lunch and recess periods as well as opening more building entrances to minimize congregation and increase physical distancing at the beginning and end of school days.  If your child is a bus rider, try to drive them to school more frequently, if you are able.  District buses should also be following a frequent cleaning schedule like this one.  Some schools are even implementing a rotation of virtual and classroom learning to maintain social distancing.  Kansas City schools are among many in taking these precautions .   If as a parent, you still aren’t comfortable with in person learning, talk to your school’s administrators to see what accommodations can be made.  And remember, the pandemic is affecting mental health as well.  Ensure that both you and your children are practicing self-care.

​Be well,

,As children return to school, keeping children safe and healthy is always on parents’ (and teachers’) minds.  In the classroom, many teachers will be prepared with Lysol wipes to wipe down surfaces like clockwork.  But what about outdoor surfaces like playground equipment?  It’s not always thought of as a vector for germs, but a study from HomeAdvisor found that a playground’s high traffic areas, such as rock walls, baby swings and seesaws have approximately 9 million colony-forming units (CFUs) per square inch.  To put that in perspective, that is 52 thousand times more bacteria than the standard household toilet seat.  

Covid-19 and other coronaviruses (including the common cold) are no different and can be found lurking in swings and slides.  Now that we are in the heat of summer, there’s a good chance high temperatures will destroy the virus.  However, you can never be too sure, and, as discussed in my previous blog post, different surface materials have different dwell times.  Plastic equipment like swings and tunnels take between 2-3 days without activity for all Covid-19 pathogens to die.  Metal varies based off its type: lasting 4 hours on copper and only 2-3 hours on aluminum.  Stainless steel, on the other hand, has a similar dwell time to plastic (~2-3 days).  Wood surfaces are safest, as there absorptive abilities dry out microbes.  However, as a hospital conducted research study indicated, the previous SARS virus (SARS-CoV-1), lasted up to four days in wooden surfaces.

So now that I have you worried, let’s talk about disinfection solutions.  Prior to disinfection, you should always clean the equipment with soup and low pressure water from a garden hose, as pressure washers can damage the equipment's paint and surfaces.  Prepared solutions of unexpired household bleach (the dilution ratio is here) or solutions of at least 70% EPA approved alcohol (as well as other EPA-registered household disinfectants) will get the job done.  Be sure to wear PPE to prevent the spread of covid-19 and to protect yourself from inhalation of bleach solution.  Never mix ammonia solutions with bleach, as this produces toxic chlorine gas).  Ensure the solution maintains contact with the equipment for at least one minute. Then rinse with the low pressure hose and let it air dry prior to children playing on it.  

Some communities have members or groups who volunteered their time to playground disinfecting initiatives.  If you have the time and resources, this is something you might consider joining (or even spearheading).  If you are as busy as many parents are, continue practicing social distancing precautions.  Bring along disinfecting towelettes or hand sanitizer to the playground.  It’s even a good idea to bring along a first aid kit to take care of any potential scrapes.  Encourage children to wash their hands with soap and water after playing.  This should occur for at least 15 seconds to be effective.  Tell them to practice this in school as well, as should the practice of using only their own school supplies.  Don’t be afraid to communicate with their teachers to ensure these proper hygiene practices are implemented.  

There is a lot of unknown with coronavirus that parents and teachers have to be concerned about.  But don’t fret: with playground equipment, there is an easy solution (pun intended).  

In the Covid-19 world, the paradigm is always shifting: its severity, how it’s spread and disinfection methods seem to be updated on an almost weekly basis.  Although modern disinfection is a science that has been in practice in the medical and microbiology field for nearly two centuries, the methods are not widely known to the general public.

​​In fact, there are a lot of variables when it comes to proper disinfecting, including chemicals, dwell times, surface material, and the infecting pathogen.  Covid-19 [SARS-CoV-2] is an enveloped virus, which means “[It] has an outer protective lipid coat.  Anything that effectively disrupts this outer membrane, in turn, can kill the virus,” says Brendaliz Santiago-Narvaez, PhD, an assistant professor of biology at Rollins College in Florida.  Although this makes the virus sound impermeable, it is actually the easiest type of virus to kill.  Regular soap and water is effective in killing Covid-19 on hands as long as hand washing is done properly.  It’s also beneficial to understand which chemicals are effective in killing the disease.  The Rotavirus, Rhinovirus, and Norovirus are harder to kill than the Coronavirus.  This means that if a product is effective in killing these pathogens, it will be effective against Covid-19 as well.  Even milder chemicals, such as a concentration of >70% isopropyl alcohol, can be used to kill the Coronavirus on glass surfaces.

Maintaining a disinfected home is difficult enough, but what about commercial space?  If you are concerned about your office or warehouse being effectively disinfected, it’s best to contact a reputable cleaning service in your local area.  This way you can rest assured that the proper chemicals are being applied and that the correct dwell times are observed.  Professional cleaners adhere to the CDC’s list of chemicals that are effective against Covid-19, as well as their ratio approved by the EPA.   ​They also have the knowhow on rag-cleaning without cross contamination and the frequency in changing out the cleaning cloths.  Many times, they have improved disinfecting technology that enables them to disinfect large areas at a time and update the technology as new discoveries of the disease are being made.  ​For example, many companies have moved past foggers, which only create droplets in the air to disinfect where they are directly sprayed; and are now implementing electrostatic sprayers.  These create an electrostatic charge of EPA-approved cleaning solution droplets that are attracted to surfaces, allowing them to disinfect 360° of the object they’re disinfecting (as long as they’re within six feet of it).

As mentioned in my previous blog post, there are steps that can be taken in the office or warehouse that can decrease the spread of Covid-19.  ​One method that is completely fail proof is maintaining the air quality through a lower air temperature and through the installation of either stand-alone air purifiers or of HEPA filters in the HVAC system.  However, deep disinfecting of the office should be left in the hands of a professional cleaning company to ensure it is done right.  

We are super excited that we finally got our hands on one of these electrostatic sprayers.  Country Club Janitorial has the advantage of implementing this top of the line cleaning technology.

You can never be too clean right?  Well, that depends on how you’re cleaning.  When thinking of disinfecting, we think we should do it as frequently as possible and with a strong, high pH disinfectant like bleach.  This may be appropriate for non-porous surfaces like ceramic or metal, but it should definitely not be used on finished floors.  

This goes for medical clinics as well, most of which use vinyl or laminate floors.  Why?  Because abrasive cleaners and ammonia or chlorine based cleaners strip the finish off flooring.  Floor finish has a neutral pH of ~7.5, which requires a pH neutral disinfectant to effectively clean.  Once this finish is stripped, it can’t be buffed away.  Not only do caustic and abrasive chemicals reduce the glossy finish of flooring, they also increase porosity: forming crevices that increase the harboring and growth of pathogens.  In short, cleaning too frequently with too strong of chemicals actually has the opposite effect of what’s desired.  

Furthermore, steam mopping and excessive wet mopping can have a similar effect.  Steam and excess water can seep into spaces between laminate flooring, causing it to buckle.  On hardwood, too much water will cause expansion which can lead to cracking at the seams, hence creating new homes for pathogens and making your flooring look bad.  Oil-based soap is not recommended for any type of finished floor either.  Although it makes them look shiny, it has a sticky finish that traps dirt and germs.

So we know we can’t use oil-based detergent, too much water, ​ammonia or chlorine-based cleaners, so what CAN we use?  Well, frequent sweeping, dust mopping, and vacuuming is the first step to disinfecting.  The second step is applying a proper dilution of a pH neutral floor cleaner (find one here on the EPA registry).  Some might tell you to dilute vinegar to clean finished floors, but this is not recommended for hardwood.  The best choice is to find a professional-grade, floor-specific cleaner.  The even better choice is to leave your commercial disinfecting to the professionals.  

To our great relief, businesses are starting to reopen after the Coronavirus quarantine.  Our cabin fever and anxiety of the unknown have finally subsided, but we might still feel hesitant to return to work.  We’ve adjusted to working remotely and the commute is not something we have missed.  But commutes are not the only thing to worry about in this post-Covid world.  Things may seem like they are returning to “normal,” but it is best to proceed into the workplace gingerly.  As many office workers know, infectious illnesses spread like wild fire.

Contributing Factors to Germ Spread
The most obvious factor is many people in close quarters breathing each other’s air and touching the same surfaces.  If your company is able to maintain remote work partially, this is a good idea to limit the amount of people in the office.  Think about staggering the use of cubicles.  It may also help to add or extend existing partitions to keep the spread of droplets more isolated.  But air quality and surface material also play a significant role.  For example, air temperature can determine how long those germs are living.  Generally speaking, cold air kills infectious germs whereas warm air incubates them.  This considered it might be advantageous to keep the office on the cooler side, even during the winter (a.k.a. cold and flu season).  Improve ventilation by opening windows during the pleasant months if you are able to do so.  It is suggested to use a commercial-grade self-contained air purification system in lieu of HEPA filters in the HVAC system.  Surface material is another determining factor in how long germs live.  It is not widely known that plastic surfaces harbor germs for significantly longer than metal ones.  It may be a good idea to update your office equipment with metal surfaces in any place this can be done.  For spaces that are almost always exclusively plastic (such as the keyboard and mouse), it is a good practice to disinfect at the beginning and end of the shift. 

Stopping individual spread
Hand hygiene is probably the best and easiest way to prevent the spread of pathogens.  Providing hand sanitizing stations around entrances and other high traffic areas encourages hand hygiene.  We know that germs linger on desks and keyboards, but fridges, fax machines, mugs and door handles are also havens for pathogens.  Stock disinfectant wipes at all desks and common areas to promote use by employees.  Post hand washing how-to’s anywhere there is a sink.  This may seem silly and patronizing, but there is a wrong and right way to wash your hands.  Provide PPE for your staff, including face masks and gloves.  According to the CDC, it is a good practice to swap out PPE every 30 minutes.  Encourage healthy lifestyle among employees, including eating healthy, exercising, reducing stress, getting enough sleep, and yes, even staying home from work when they are sick.  Don't penalize them and offer them sick pay if it is something your company provides.  

Increase Quantity and Quality of cleaning

• Clean and disinfect all surfaces and handles in common areas daily using a disinfecting chemical.   We use ReJuvNal, a pH neutral, ammonium chloride-based cleaner that disinfects and deodorizes.  If your office kitchen has a dishwasher, run any reusable mugs, flat wear and cutlery through it daily. 
• Take out the trash daily and wash out waste baskets.   Garbage cans are an ideal place for pathogens to hang out.  Spray down the outside and inside of them after disposing of the contents.  Make sure to use gloves if available and wash hands thoroughly afterward. 
• Dust the more neglected areas like window ledges and vents.  Dust particles may still carry diseases. 
• Increase the frequency of vacuuming and use a vacuum with a HEPA filter.  This will help promote clean air around the facility. 

 
Takeaway
The post covid-19 era is a strange and daunting time for all of us.  Just remember we can all do our part by avoiding direct contact with others, wearing PPE, practicing good hand hygiene, and most importantly, cleaning and disinfecting our facilities frequently and thoroughly.  Just make sure you use the right chemicals.  

Good afternoon and welcome to Country Club Janitorial​'s blog page.  Here we will talk about a wide range of topics about our business and the commercial cleaning industry; be it disinfection, sanitation, floor care, products, technology or anything between.  We will be posting weekly, so drop us a line in the comments.  We want no question to go unanswered.  you can subscribe to our blog feed and follow us on Facebook.  Enjoy our articles, we look forward to your feedback!