The Janitors' Closet

Restroom Cross-contamination

Yesterday morning, I presented a quote to a multi-purpose facility just down the street .  The prospect asked me about keeping separate the cleaning cloths to be used in restrooms from those to be used in the rest of the facility.  I believe this is the first time a prospective client has been well enough informed to bring up the topic.

Industry best practice in damp cleaning/sanitizing, to avoid cross contamination, uses different colored microfiber cloth wipes for different areas - say, green for general office, red for restrooms, blue for glass - to avoid using the same cloth on the toilet and the desk.  Good idea.

My concern (at least this morning) is within the restrooms.  Using one cloth for the entire restroom - toilets, stall walls, sinks, counters and door knobs - allows cross contamination among all these surfaces. One might use one cloth for toilets, another for sinks, a third for stall walls, a forth for door knobs, and so on, but still transfer contaminates from one toilet to another - and have to differentiate between a lot of cloths (and they don't make them in that many colors).

Therefore, we do not use cloths in restrooms at all.  Instead, we use paper towels, disposing them between fixtures, or between areas (then applying disinfectant).  While I'm not happy about "wasting" towels, I think it preferable to spreading pathogens.   Until a better idea comes along.

More on Swine Flu, and Pathogen Control in General

Participating in ongoing discussion, regarding swine flu preparedness, on myfacilitiesnet, a site frequented by facility managers.  To help define terms, and real-world possibilities, I submitted the following:

    In restrooms, lunch areas, shower rooms, etc., we use a quat based hospital grade disinfectant (Johnson's Virex); after cleaning all areas, we mist the quat on, heavily, and leave to air dry - generally getting the required 10-minute dwell time.  In most restrooms, etc., with tiled walls, and floors designed to flood rinse, we can leave surfaces wet for 10 minutes without damaging anything.

Office touch points present different challenges.  Some surfaces - drywall, unsealed wood - ought not be left wet for very long.  Vertical surfaces - doors & jambs, light switches, glass - are difficult to keep wet, especially in Phoenix's dry climate, without standing by the surface with a spray bottle for the 10 minutes - so achieving (or claiming) effective disinfection is unworkable.

Therefore, for touch-points around the office, we use a hydrogen-peroxide product, Johnson's Alpha HP.  At least according to the research lab that developed the product, it achieves effective sanitation in 30 to 60 seconds, depending on the pathogen; this is much more easily achieved, with a sanitizer-saturated cloth (microfiber, so you physically remove most of the germs in addition to killing them).  The product is also a better cleaner than the neutral cleaner it replaces in our system, so we remove grime and prints at the same time.  Being mostly HP (with trace amounts of surfactant, chelating agent, etc.), the product residue is environmentally and personally friendly.

Naturally, we've squirreled away a supply of gloves and face masks (in addition to usual requirements), just in case, and offer to provide clients with sanitizing wipes for daytime use.

Green (?) trash liners...

Just finished an article, in today's on-line "Contracting Profits" magazine, by environmental guru Stephen Ashkin (of The Ashkin Group), on the related topics of environmentally responsible restroom paper products, and trash can liners.

We already use a Scott line of 100% recycled material in paper products, so Stephen's recommendation on paper is a no-brainer.

Trash can liners are a bit more interesting, as Stephen points out.  Two environmentally preferable options exist:

   1) Cornstarch based liners, which biodegrade, but only in compost set-ups, not regular landfills.  Not available, commercially, in Phoenix.

    2) Plastic liners containing 10% recycled material (to meet EPA's procurement guidelines).  Problem is, the recycled material creates weak spots in the plastic, leading to tears; the manufacturer uses thicker material to compensate, thus using more virgin material than in a stronger, 100% virgin bag.  Go figure.

We're exploring the option of not using liners at all, in those cans that generally receive only dry material (office paper, etc.).  It'll be interesting, seeing what the customers think...

Cleaning for Health

We've been "Cleaning for Health" for well over 20 years.

Since DuPont introduced Hysurf vacuum bags, the first generation of commercially viable vacuum cleaner filtration technology (filtering particles down to one micron, and thus capturing most allergens), we've figured that improving a client's indoor air quality is, after basic sanitation, the most significant contribution we can make toward a client's health.  (Naturally, we've upgraded with the several generations of equipment and filtration technology since.)

Studies of school absenteeism rates and cleaning methodology point to much more illness caused by what folks breathe than by what they touch (even given what a lot of grade schoolers seem to touch...)

Further, we clean facilities at most once per day.  Our best efforts at restroom and touch-point disinfection, while certainly important, last only until the first swine flu carrier uses the restroom, touches the door push plate, or coughs next to a co-worker.  Fine dust, including airborne bacteria, dust mite droppings, spores and pollen, and other allergens, can remain in the building, mostly in the carpet, forever - or until  someone inhales them and thereby removes them from the building.

Standard paper vacuum bags or, worse, dumpable cloth bags, filter out particles down to about 10 microns in diameter - larger than most allergens and other dangerous particles.  Smaller particles can remain airborne for up to 8 hours after being vacuumed out of the carpet (or stirred up by foot traffic, or by your dependable feather duster or dust mop) - and inhaled throughout the working day.

HEPA vacuum filters, microfiber dust wipes, microfiber damp mops, and attachments to vacuum rather than dust-mop tile floors, are inexpensive; in fact, they are cheap enough that their cost is usually more than covered by the labor saved in dusting (the cleaner I leave the building tonight, the less work I need to do in it tomorrow).

Cost saving technology, healthier clients, healthier crews - you can't ask for much more (at least that's not either immoral or fattening).

Green is different from Healthy

Caught an article on CleanLink (also on SchoolFacilities.com) quoting Dr. Marilyn Black, founder of Greenguard Environmental Institute (GEI) titled "A Green Building is Different Than a Healthy Building".

Dr. Black points out that building components and finishes (and office equipment) may be friendly to the environment, but still off-gas a wide array of chemicals, such as formaldehyde, that are not particularly people-friendly.  All true.

Note, however, that as the building and its contents mature, less and less chemical is off-gassed, so indoor air quality concerns ought to focus on airborne particles (bacteria, spores & pollen, dust mite droppings, etc.) rather than gases.  An inadequately cleaned building will accumulate these fine particles — mostly hidden in the carpet.  Foot traffic and air circulation will keep some of those particles airborne.  As particles accumulate, the building will become progressively less healthy for the people breathing its air.

One can counter this trend by proper cleaning: HEPA filters on the vacuums, vacuuming rather than dust mopping hard floors, microfiber wiping rather than feather-dusting, and microfiber damp mops rather than traditional string mops.  One can also measure indoor air quality (airborne particle count) ongoing, to monitor the effectiveness of one's program, and for the edification of one's clients.

Easy and inexpensive to do, and a great way to keep your green building (or even your off-color one) healthy for staff, and for the "breathing public".

Develop Competence and Credibility

I'm asked, from time to time, what the owner of a new janitorial firm ought do to both gain technical competence in his chosen field, and to demonstrate to his potential clients both his bona-fides, and that technical competence.   

Besides joining and participating in his local BBB and Chamber of Commerce (covered earlier), I suggest:

• Building Service Contractors Association International - great seminars and conventions, links to member firms from their website, accreditation programs, industry contacts and a monthly magazine

• American Indoor Air Quality Council- local champers give workshops, good contacts in the HVAC and mold remediation industries, and a monthly publication

• U. S. Green Building Council - knowledge you need should you have a client looking at LEED certification; local chapters can train in LEED criteria

• IMAGE- a new Immigration & Customs program, allowing firms to partner with the Feds to better control one's hiring and screening procedures.

Try it - you'll be more competent, more legitimate, and can demonstrate it.

CMM magazine article "Measuring and Improving the Air".

Cleaning & Maintenance Management Magazine, our premier building maintenance periodical, published in its September 2009 issue an article by yours truly entitled "Measuring and Improving the Air".

I discuss in some depth topics I've touched on in various blog posts (see Health and Indoor Air Quality categories), including health issues and indoor air quality, our HEPA and microfiber technologies, how we measure our clients' indoor air pollutant level, and the results we've had over the years.

Here's a link to the article or, better, you could subscribe to the magazine (866-721-4807); the on-line magazine is found at www.cmmonline.com.  (Editor Rich DiPaolo did NOT ask me for the plug, but I kind of thought I should.)

Enjoy!

Sunshine Cleaning

Picked up a video of "Sunshine Cleaning", long gone from the movie theaters.  It follows the adventures of a couple of gals who realize that there is "big money" to be had in crime scene clean-up; they jump into it with no conception of biohazards, personal protective gear, appropriate chemicals, OSHA, liability insurance, or even ventilation.  Hilarious.

Though it deals with a somewhat more intense level of issues than does janitorial service, it's a great introduction, to a new employee, of why he ought follow the rules.  Might be fun as well to introduce to the folks who figure they can become "cleaning professionals" with $25.00 and a used vacuum.

Great Alan Arkin role as well, demonstrating the perils of marketing slightly aging seafood out of the trunk of one's car.

Is "Best Service No Service"?

Spent Sunday evening browsing my favorite bookstore (I know, I need to get our more often...).

Picked up Price & Jaffe's "The Best Service is No Service".  Many good points; what most resonates, at least today, is that any time a client calls - for poor quality performance, late delivery, billing problems, lack of information (as provided by us) on what we do & how we do it - it is an indication of failure on our part.  Other than (hopefully) asking to add services, the client should never have to call.  So typical

customer service "call centers" should mostly go away.

We' try to be pro-active on what we provide, and when we provide it, so the client always knows what's going on.

We also inspect aggressively, to find performance faults before the client notices, and then track quality reports to insure that faults are corrected and, often more importantly, stay corrected.  We base our monthly crew re-training on those reports, looking particularly for repeating faults and for patterns across various facilities.  We work to avoid "snowballing" problems; once something is fixed, it ought stay fixed.

"No Service" means the client should never have to worry about us - and never call except to invite us to the Christmas party.

A Quickie Social Security Number Check

From time to time, I hear folks in the janitorial industry, or in similar "high-turnover" fields, bemoan

the difficulties of verifying social security numbers, and the screening (and sometimes training) expense incurred while waiting for the anticipated "no-match" letter. 

Here is a site we use, early on, to instantaneously verify, for free, if the proffered number has in fact been issued, and in what year and state it was issued.  Should the number in question have never been issued, or was issued years before the applicant's date of birth, or in a state he claims to have never visited, we can point the job interview in a more appropriate direction...