Disinfecting for Health and Safety

Cleaning and disinfecting in a workplace or school environment is really about protecting the health and safety of employees, customers, students and teachers. First, it’s important to understand the area within your facility to be maintained. Consider all hard surfaces to include floors, walls, desks, chairs, tables, phones, doorknobs, handrails, sinks faucets, urinals, toilets, showers and all other touchable surfaces. Second, remember the process involves first cleaning and then disinfecting each surface. Why is it important to clean a surface before disinfecting? Dirt and other foreign material can act as a buffer preventing the disinfectant from contacting viruses and bacteria that live on surfaces. By cleaning the surface first, you remove the soils so the disinfectant can do its job!

The next step is to determine (based on your facilities maintenance budget) the number of manpower hours you have available on a daily basis. Use this as a guideline to decide how often you’ll clean and disinfect the various surface mentioned above. During a time when you have an existing virus like Covid-19 still present in the environment around you, the most touchable surfaces in your facility should be cleaned once a day and disinfected a least twice a day. This, again, will depend on the amount of traffic going through any one area of your facility. Once you know the areas to be maintained and the hours available, you can develop a weekly program and select the best products for the job. For cleaning, you can use a good, low pH all purpose cleaner. For disinfecting, you want to use an EPA registered disinfectant with a broad spectrum of kill claims for viruses and bacteria. There are very effective ready to use and concentrated products available that will provide disinfecting properties you require.

Whether you’re cleaning and disinfecting a workplace or school environment, remember to always be transparent with your maintenance procedures. Let your employees, customers, students and teachers see what you’re doing and the effort being put forth to ensure their health and safety. This will reassure people they can feel comfortable in your facility!

Contact Flo-Kem to learn more about the available products that best fit your requirements for cleaning and disinfecting!