Touchpoint Sanitation

Touch-points (door knobs, jambs and push bars, elevator buttons, stair rails, counters, phone hand sets, light switches) have long been an issue.  Since the client sees dirt and grubby fingerprints, but not germs, most janitors "clean" for appearance - remove the visible dirt, ignore the pathogens.

Further, as standard disinfectants demand 10 minutes dwell time (wet), disinfection is impractical - it's hard to stand by the door jamb or light switch, spraying every minute or two, just to keep it wet.  Also, most disinfectants do not clean well, and most cleaners do not disinfect, so you need a time consuming two step process.  Cleaning in a dusty area is a biggie, as well - we provide janitorial services in Phoenix AZ.

Solved the problem.  Diversey came out with a hydrogen peroxide based product - AlphaHP - that cleans well, and gives adequate sanitation (not quite disinfection, but close) in 60 seconds.  So we can clean, and leave the touch-point wet enough to meet the dwell time requirement.  Use a microfiber cloth, with the sanitizer applied to it rather than directly to the touch-point, and you avoid overspray, and pick up both the dirt and the (soon to be dead) germs at the same time.  The sanitizer-saturated microfiber cloth is inhospitable enough to the germs that cross contamination is minimized.

Most folks in the cleaning industry still use the old, clean/don't sanitize/cross-contaminate method.  There is progress in the world - if you take advantage of it.

A bit about us:

My firm, CBN Building Maintenance, provides commercial cleaning services in Phoenix AZ and the wider metro area.  We've been in business since 1974; hold the BBB's A-plus rating; and have long been in the forefront of the industry in environmentally sensitive cleaning for health, safety and security.  Our program can generally improve Indoor Air Quality, in the size range of most allergens, by a factor of 50%, as reflected in our ongoing IAQ sampling.

Comments

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[micek]

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[Bob]

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