Commercial Cleaning

Corvus Guide to Reopening: Cleaning & Disinfecting Your Medical Office

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With more and more states lifting, or planning to lift, stay-at-home orders, business owners and office managers across the country are exploring the safest – and most practical – measures to reopen their facilities to employees and customers alike. Medical offices, such as doctor’s offices, dental facilities, and specialty clinics, should begin to see an uptick in foot traffic as in-person visits start to increase and elective procedures resume. It is critical that these facilities implement cleaning and disinfecting regimens that go above and beyond the pre-coronavirus standard.

As medical offices begin the process of reopening their operations, decision makers must determine how they can create the safest environment for their staff and for their patients. At Corvus Janitorial, we understand the vital role medical professionals play – both during this pandemic and outside of it – to ensuring that our communities are healthy, happy, and safe. With that in mind, we are here to provide advice on procedures that should be implemented in medical offices and facilities in order to successfully reopen in the safest, most sanitary way.

Perform a Deep Clean and Disinfection Before Opening the Office

According to Tommy Petagna of Corvus of New Orleans, “Before opening the office to staff and patients, both a thorough, deep clean and facility-wide disinfection should be performed. We’re seeing more and more of our medical office clients ask for this type of deep clean even before we recommend it”. Though they are often thought of as the same, cleaning and disinfecting are two distinct processes. During a general clean, the intent is to remove dirt and dust. This step must be completed before disinfection because germs can lurk in grime and soiled areas. Once an area is clean, it must then be disinfected.

Disinfection can be done in numerous ways. With COVID-19, the disinfection of all areas using commercial grade chemicals is critical. Typical disinfecting is done using EPA approved medical grade chemicals that are applied to a surface using a spray bottle (or as a mop solution for floors). The disinfectant is then given “dwell time”, which is time to sit on the surface and kill microorganisms. Though this method is effective at killing germs, it can be a time-consuming task to disinfect every surface in a facility, and hard to reach areas are often missed.

Disinfecting Techniques to Combat COVID-19

To address the issues with common disinfection methods, it is advisable to use a machine, such as an electrostatic sprayer or an ultra-low volume (ULV) fogger. This will ensure maximum coverage and effectiveness.

Electrostatic sprayers work by giving the disinfectant solution a positive electric charge. Because surfaces typically carry a negative or neutral charge, once the disinfectant is sprayed, the positively charged chemicals are attracted to the negatively charged surfaces and will bind to them. The droplets will cover the entire visible area, including the underside and backside of surfaces. Surfaces that have already been covered by the disinfectant will repel additional spray, maximizing the efficiency of delivery.

ULV fog machines work in a similar manner to electrostatic sprayers. ULV fogging works by compressing disinfectants through a nozzle that produces a fine mist or aerosol. The droplets that are produced are incredibly small and concentrated, therefore fewer chemicals need to be used. These droplets will linger in the air for approximately ten minutes, allowing them to bind to any visible surface area.

At Corvus, we have begun utilizing both electrostatic sprayers and ULV foggers in our service offering to customers. We believe these methods are both effective at eradicating viral pathogens as well as safe for use in our customer’s facilities and for our franchise owners. We are happy to provide a free quote for these services as either a one-time work or as a part of a routine, recurring service offering.

Routine Cleaning is Not So Routine Anymore

Though businesses are beginning to open back up, we are still nowhere close to “business as usual”. With stay-at-home orders being replaced with safer-at-home guidance, there is still the looming threat of COVID-19 community spread. Additionally, a high rate of asymptomatic carriers means that an individual who shows no signs of infection could visit your office during a routine checkup. Thus, inadvertently exposing your facility to risks. Because of the virus’s high infection rate and the number of potentially asymptomatic carriers, decision makers must account for this risk and take preventative, precautionary steps in their facilities.

Was your medical office being cleaned twice a week before the coronavirus pandemic? If so, it may be a good idea to increase that frequency to three, four, maybe even five times per week. In medical facilities, it is never a bad idea to be overly cautious. As these facilities are more likely to interface with individuals at a greater risk of developing severe COVID-19 symptoms, they must be even more proactive in their cleaning procedures than any other businesses. As society adjusts to a “new normal”, cleaning and disinfecting are more important now than ever before.

Reopening Reminders and Checklist

Your cleaning regimen is not the only facet of your office that is likely to change once you reopen. For example, some states and localities are requiring reduced on-premise staff, alternating work schedules for at-risk workers, or other social distancing procedures in the workplace. Below, we highlight some important items that all facility managers and decision makers should account for as they get back to business:

1. Prepare a list of obvious and overlooked high touch objects such as appliances in break rooms, telephone handles, sinks and basins, trash cans, and communal printers.

2. Thoroughly clean AND disinfect those high touch points with an EPA certified disinfectant allowing for a proper dwell time of the chemical (click here for additional resources)

3. Engage with your team to comply with an appropriate headcount for your office space as well as discussing protocol for potential distancing in office. Some states are mandating reduced concentration of personnel or alternating schedules, and it’s important to stay up-to-date on these regulations.

4. Engage an outside cleaning company or delegate your own personnel to provide a thorough top to bottom clean and disinfection regime prior to re-opening.

5. Prepare to have appropriate cleaning tools, supplies, and equipment such as clean rags or wipes, proper chemicals and clean, and well-working vacuum cleaners.

During these unprecedented times, it is crucial that we take unprecedented precautions to maintain the health and safety of everyone. When it comes to reopening medical offices, we, at Corvus Janitorial, strongly urge you to take the right measures in cleaning and disinfecting your office. Doing so will ensure the safety of your staff, your patients, and their families. If you are interested in a free quote or would like more information about the appropriate cleaning and disinfection of your medical office in preparation for reopening, please feel free to contact us today!

This piece is meant simply to inform, not to provide any legal or medical advice.

About Corvus Janitorial Systems

Founded in 2004 to make people’s lives better, Corvus is a full-service commercial cleaning franchisor that offers cleaning services through reputable local Franchisees. Corvus has been guided by its mission to transform people and transform places by consistently delivering independence, security, and freedom to Franchisees who deliver high-quality cleaning to offices, educational buildings, medical buildings/offices, recreational centers, industrial parks, and other spaces. The company has 17 regional support offices across the United States with nearly 900 Franchisees. For more information regarding Corvus, visit www.corvusjanitorial.com or www.corvusjanitorial.com/franchise for franchise information.

Disinfecting and Cleaning to Open Your Daycare Facility

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As we inch toward the end of shelter-in-place orders, it’s important to be ready when our businesses open back up. We don’t want to be left scrambling when the time comes. For businesses that focus on the young and old, such as daycare and childcare centers, keeping things clean is particularly important. And that’s true now more than ever before. Following compliant, safe, and healthy cleaning practices will help us avoid preventable illnesses while we work on getting back to normal.

These practices will keep you, your staff, and the kids you care for healthy. If you’re not sure where to get started with disinfecting and cleaning to open your daycare, here are some tips from the friendly experts at Corvus Janitorial:

Give Everything an Initial Deep Clean

Before you open back up, it’s important to give everything a thorough, deep clean. This helps remove dirt, germs, and debris before you sanitize. This can be done with regular soap and water. Just scrub all of the surfaces, wash, and rinse. Make sure you hit all of the high-touch surfaces like bathroom fixtures, light switches, desks, and cubbies. Any toys or teaching tools that are shared should be cleaned, too. This will make sanitizing and disinfecting much more effective when you get there.

Give High-Touch Surfaces Some Extra Attention Moving Forward

The words cleaning and sanitizing are often used interchangeably, but they mean two different things. When you clean, you remove surface dirt, debris, and some germs. When you sanitize, you use a product that will kill 99.9% or more of the germs on these surfaces. Both cleaning and sanitizing are important when you want to keep your daycare truly clean, healthy, and safe. You’ll want to give those high-touch surfaces we mentioned earlier more attention than you used to. Any other areas that are handled a lot or shared should get extra attention.

When you’re dealing with kids, things can get messy. You’ll want to clean and sanitize throughout the day if you can. Durable, plastic toys that have been chewed on can be run through the dishwasher when you can sneak them away. Other toys can be disinfected and left to air dry. Instead of chasing children around to sanitize their toys during the day, it may be easier to sanitize these after pickup and focus on surfaces, counters, and cubbies during the day instead.

Look at the number of children you care for, the number of staff members you employ, and the number of high-touch surfaces you have, then use your best judgment to determine the right cleaning schedule for you. You can also build off of your old cleaning schedule – use it as a baseline and add additional steps from there. Once open, daycare facilities should be cleaned and sanitized at least once per day moving forward.

Use the Right Cleaning Supplies, In the Right Ways

Whether you’re gearing up for your initial clean before you open or you’re looking for ongoing cleaning practices to follow, it’s important to use the right products. Using them the right way is important, too. Before all of this happened, casual home cleaners might wipe a counter with a watery paper towel and call it a day. This won’t be enough anymore. Using an EPA approved disinfectant and following the proper dwell time is key to keeping things truly clean.

Read the label of your preferred cleaning products or check the EPA’s website to see if they’re approved. You can also find the answer to how long you should let the product dwell on a surface before you wipe it away. Many cleaning supplies have a 10-minute dwell time for maximum efficiency. For others, it might be two minutes or five. Follow the instructions on the label for the best results.

Create an Efficient and Safe Cleaning System

Many daycares are dealing with baby colds and shared toys, so you may already have a cleaning system you prefer. But with everything going on right now, it’s a good time to revisit it; there are ways to make it safer that you may not have thought of before it was a necessity. First, try to limit cross-contamination. This means keeping the mop you use for the bathroom in the bathroom and using a separate one in the hallway or playroom. If you use cleaning rags or dish towels, keep these separate, too. Limit exposure wherever you can.

With some extra effort, the right supplies, and an effective routine, we can keep our daycares and other businesses safe. We’re all in this together. And when it starts to feel overwhelming, give the experts at Corvus Janitorial a call. We’re always available to help. For ongoing cleaning once centers reopen, we’ve got our own updated practices in place. Just keep in mind that the process may have changed a bit since we last visited your facility. We’ll need a bit more time to sufficiently clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces to keep everyone safe. We’re also focusing more on power-scrubbing bathrooms and ceramic floors, and carpet cleaning. These areas harbor germs and could benefit from a slightly more aggressive scope of service.

How Corvus Can Help Your Childcare Facility Reopen

At Corvus, we understand the pressure and uncertainty that has arisen from the coronavirus pandemic. Thorough cleaning and disinfecting procedures matter now more than ever. To that end, our dedicated franchise owners and teammates have added new tools to our cleaning arsenal. These tools include electrostatic disinfectant sprayers and disinfectant fogger machines. Both tools enable Corvus professionals to sanitize and disinfect large spaces and areas that are often missed with standard disinfection practices, such as the underside of tables and chairs.

The Corvus Janitorial Systems team is here to help as America begins the process of reopening businesses and facilities. Cleaning and disinfecting are critical to open up daycare centers. If your daycare or childcare facility is in need of a professional cleaning partner, or if you simply require a deep clean and disinfection before opening up, inquire here for a free quote or give us a call at (855) 919-1346. We are happy to help!

This piece is meant simply to inform, not to provide any legal or medical advice.

About Corvus Janitorial Systems

Founded in 2004 to make people’s lives better, Corvus is a full-service commercial cleaning franchisor that offers cleaning services through reputable local Franchisees. Corvus has been guided by its mission to transform people and transform places by consistently delivering independence, security, and freedom to Franchisees who deliver high-quality cleaning to offices, educational buildings, medical buildings/offices, recreational centers, industrial parks, and other spaces. The company has 17 regional support offices across the United States with nearly 900 Franchisees. For more information regarding Corvus, visit www.corvusjanitorial.com or www.corvusjanitorial.com/franchise for franchise information.

How to Safely Disinfect Your Phone and Electronics

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In recent weeks, the Coronavirus Pandemic has brought a lot of attention to the importance of cleanliness and the prevention of spreading germs. From wearing masks in public to sanitizing our groceries, we are doing more and more to eliminate our chances of potentially spreading or contracting this disease. You may be surprised to learn that one of the biggest germ distributors is, actually, our phones. Did you know that studies show that your phone is approximately seven times dirtier than a toilet on any given day?

When you think about it, it does make sense. We are constantly checking it and taking it everywhere we go. The germs on every surface we touch are ultimately shared on our devices when we check the time, a notification, or make a phone call.

During this pandemic, the CDC suggests that we disinfect our daily used items, such as our phones and electronics, regularly. Corvus Janitorial Systems would like to share some of our tips to safely disinfect your high-touch, everyday devices.

Follow Manufacturer’s Guidelines

First and foremost, make sure that you are following your specific devices’ manufacturer’s recommendation. For example, Apple specifically says for its users to not use any type of cleaning products on its devices’ surfaces.

Utilize a Wipeable Cover

If the specific phone or electronic that you have does not allow any types of soaps or cleaners to be used, the next best option is to get a cover that does.

If you cannot afford a phone cover that will allow you to disinfect your phone properly, we’d suggest placing your device in a sandwich bag if you are going out of the house. Let’s say you are going to the grocery store. Before leaving your home, you can put your phone in a resealable sandwich bag. While you are at the store, you can still use your phone, but the germs from your hands will not be transferred to it. Then, when you arrive back home, wash your hands thoroughly, then retrieve the phone from the bag. It’ll be like you never left!

Wipes and Sprays

If your device’s manufacturer’s guideline allows you to utilize disinfectant or a cleaner (or if you have a wipeable cover), then the CDC suggests that the safest way to keep your phone and electronics disinfected is to use wipes or sprays that have a minimum of 70% alcohol.

Fears of spreading COVID-19 have led to a shortage of disinfectant wipes. If you can’t get your hand on any of those, here are some other suggestions:

● Use a damp paper towel with gentle soap
● Try a damp paper towel with rubbing alcohol and water
● Dampen a paper towel with any disinfectant spray cleaner

Use the paper towel or wipe to disinfect all surfaces of your device or phone. Make sure you are careful not to get any on the open surfaces (headphone jack, etc.). Once you have finished, dry devices thoroughly.

In Conclusion…

The thought of potentially spreading or contracting COVID-19 can be really scary. These are unprecedented times that have us taking unprecedented measures. Keeping your phone and devices clean can truly make a huge impact on the spreading of germs. Ultimately, this will bring us one step closer to flattening the curve and getting us through this difficult time. While this isn’t a comprehensive list of all the ways to disinfect your phone and electronics, we hope we’ve provided you with a great starting point for keeping germs at bay.

This piece is meant simply to inform, not to provide any legal or medical advice.

About Corvus Janitorial Systems

Founded in 2004 to make people’s lives better, Corvus is a full-service commercial cleaning franchisor that offers cleaning services through reputable local Franchisees. Corvus has been guided by its mission to transform people and transform places by consistently delivering independence, security, and freedom to Franchisees who deliver high-quality cleaning to offices, educational buildings, medical buildings/offices, recreational centers, industrial parks, and other spaces. The company has 17 regional support offices across the United States with nearly 900 Franchisees. For more information regarding Corvus, visit www.corvusjanitorial.com or www.corvusjanitorial.com/franchise for franchise information.

Disinfecting the Home: Best Practices & Homemade Disinfectant Remedies

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While we know that the coronavirus is most frequently passed from person to person, we also know that the virus can live on surfaces for up to a few days. With that in mind, keeping up on cleaning and sanitizing can lower the chance that we get sick or that we get someone else sick. But where do we start? Corvus Janitorial Systems is here to provide answers. Here’s everything you need to know about disinfecting your home from best practices to homemade disinfectant remedies:

Wash Your Hands and Be Extra Careful About What You Touch

We get it, we’re all starting to sound like broken records already, but this really can’t be stressed enough. The most common transmission is person-to-person, so the best way to stop the spread is for all of us to be extra cautious and hygienic. When you cough or sneeze, aim for your shoulder or the crook of your elbow instead of out into open air or in your palm. If your hand is your only option, wash with soap and water for at least 20 seconds after.

Wash your hands after you use the restroom, avoid touching your face, and keep a distance of at least six feet from others when you’re out in public. If you’re out and you can’t wash your hands after touching something, use hand sanitizer for now. The CDC recommends alcohol-based hand sanitizers with more than 60% ethanol or 70% isopropanol.

Clean and Disinfect, Even if No One at Home is Sick

The words cleaning and disinfecting are often used interchangeably, but they do have different meanings. When you clean, you’re often just removing the contaminants (like dust and dirt and crumbs) from the surface. This is what we all often focus on during normal circumstances, but disinfecting is the part that kills the pathogens, so it’s even more important right now.

Use approved disinfectant sprays, wipes, or solutions you’ve concocted at home to disinfect after you’ve wiped everything down with soapy water or a general cleaning spray. If you or anyone else you live with is still coming and going or has had any contact with outside individuals, it’s important to clean and disinfect at least once per day. And don’t forget to wipe your phone and laptop with a disinfectant wipe, too.

Pay Extra Attention to Shared High-Touch Surfaces

By now you know that the coronavirus can live on various surfaces. New research has revealed that it can survive on cardboard for one day and plastic, metal, and stainless steel for up to three. To keep your home’s surfaces safe and virus-free, clean and disinfect things that everyone touches. In the kitchen, high-touch surfaces would be doorknobs (clean and disinfect the ones in other rooms, too), the counter, the faucet, and the refrigerator handle.

High-touch surfaces in other rooms might include tables, desks, dining room chairs, the counter in the bathroom, all other faucets, toilet components, remotes, and light switches. This list might look slightly different for everyone. Use your best judgment to identify high-touch surfaces in your home and then clean and disinfect it accordingly. If you’re moving in and out of the house regularly, you may want to increase how often you wash your clothes.

Use the Right Disinfectants

The Environmental Protection Agency has come out with a full list of disinfectants that are known to effectively kill coronavirus germs. Most will come with information on the label that tells you what it works for and COVID-19 is often included but in a slightly less direct away. Generally speaking, if a product says that it effectively kills influenza, SARS, or RSB, it should work for the novel coronavirus, too.

Clorox, Lysol, and Purell are a few of the more common names on the list, but many store name brands are also approved. Once you’ve picked your product, follow the instructions on the label to get the best results. No disinfectant work immediately. Each requires being left on the surface for a certain amount of time (dwell time) before they’re wiped away.

Make Your Own Disinfectants

The only problem with traditional disinfectant products is that they may be hard to come by right now. If you don’t have any at home, you can’t wait weeks for an online order. Your local store is likely out. You need to disinfect your home now; homemade remedies can help. The CDC recently released a simple and handy diluted bleach solution recipe for all of us to take advantage of.

All you need is four teaspoons of household bleach and one quart of water. Pour these ingredients into a bottle, shake, and spray. Leave the solution to work for 10 minutes before wiping away with a wet cloth. When you’re working with bleach, it’s important to remember to wear gloves, be cautious with materials that may be damaged, never mix it with other chemicals, and take advantage of ventilation. Isopropyl alcohol and hydrogen peroxide are two other common household disinfectants.

How Disinfectants Work

Before the coronavirus outbreak, many of us just knew that we had disinfectants on hand whenever we needed them. They sat under the sink or in a closet or cabinet and they’ve never been valued as much as they are right now. But most of us still don’t know the science behind common disinfectants or how they kill germs. We just know that they do.

Disinfectants are chemical agents that can either inhibit microbial activities and growth or are lethal to microorganisms. Disinfectants work to kill germs and viruses by destroying the cell wall of microbes or interfering with their metabolism.

In man’s struggle to control the microbes responsible for disease and illness many organic and inorganic chemicals have been found to be toxic to microorganisms. In case you’re wondering, here are some of the active ingredients in disinfectants and how they work:

Alcohol – causes cell proteins to glob together, which disrupts and collapses their structure (denaturation)

Chlorine – targets certain metabolic enzymes in the bacterial cell and destroys them

Peroxygen – collapses bacterial cell components like the membrane

Phenol – disrupts the wall of the bacterial cell, damaging it to the point that it can no longer ward off an attack

Quaternary ammonium compounds – denature the bacterial cell’s proteins and cause a leak of vital substances that leads to death

 

For more information and resources relating to COVID-19, visit our coronavirus response page here.

This piece is meant simply to inform, not to provide any legal or medical advice.

About Corvus Janitorial Systems

Founded in 2004 to make people’s lives better, Corvus is a full-service commercial cleaning franchisor that offers cleaning services through reputable local Franchisees. Corvus has been guided by its mission to transform people and transform places by consistently delivering independence, security, and freedom to Franchisees who deliver high-quality cleaning to offices, educational buildings, medical buildings/offices, recreational centers, industrial parks, and other spaces. The company has 17 regional support offices across the United States with nearly 900 Franchisees. For more information regarding Corvus, visit corvusjanitorial.com or corvusjanitorial.com/franchise/ for franchise information.

Home Cleaning and Disinfecting: 6 Overlooked Touchpoints

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As a result of the rapid and unsettling spread of COVID-19, Corvus Janitorial Systems – a national franchisor of office and workplace cleaning services – will be making an effort to pivot towards providing tips and best practices on how to ensure a safe, clean and sanitized home office area. Because so many Americans are working from home, obeying shelter-in-place requirements, all while doing their best to make America run, we aim to repurpose office and workspace cleaning and disinfecting tips to use in home offices and general home cleaning purposes.

In this post, we highlight often overlooked but critical TOUCHPOINTS that families and home office workers should ensure become a part of their cleaning regimes. Corvus of Little Rock and Northwest Arkansas teammate Justin Simmering shared his own insights on keeping the home office clean in this short video.

1. Refrigerator Doors

Now that we are all quarantined at home, we’re eating our meals at home, snacking and generally putting our hands on the home refrigerator far more than ever before. And yet how often do we wipe down and disinfect the refrigerator door handle? Stationing disinfecting wipes or some other visual queue by the refrigerator door handle is a great and effective way to remind yourself and members of your family to disinfect and clean frequently handled doors and handles.

2. Dumpster Handles or Trash Cans

You’ve done a great job disinfecting and cleaning the indoor parts of your home and the high touchpoints, but when we step outside do we get complacent or find a false sense of security? Essential services like trash collection are still operating, and every time your trash collector picks up or handles your refuse, he or she might be leaving germs or worse behind. Make a habit of disinfecting and sanitizing the lids and handles of trash bins.

3. Car Door Handles and Steering Wheel

This is an often-overlooked touchpoint; however, it is a critical one to address during the coronavirus pandemic. Whether you are under state, county, or city-mandated shelter-in-place or stay-at-home orders, or simply practicing your own social distancing measures, individuals and families still need essential items that require a ride in the car. High traffic locations such as grocery stores and gas stations can potentially carry the virus. Because of this, it is imperative to clean and disinfect your car door handles as well as your steering wheel. Doing so can help prevent the virus from entering your household from outside sources and keep your family safe.

4. Remotes, Gadgets, Chargers, and Toys

With a majority of Americans staying home, devices are being used at a rate never seen before. From binge-watching Netflix to tuning into daily state and national briefings to video chatting with friends and coworkers on our cellphones, we are more attached to our electronics and toys than ever before. Due to this, keeping frequently touched items in our homes germ-free is more important than ever. Make it part of your daily cleaning routine to wipe down and disinfect any TV remotes, game console controllers, chargers, cellphones, children’s toys, and any other devices or objects that are being frequently handled in the home.

5. Light Switches, Keys Doorknobs, and Door Handles

These specific touchpoints are unavoidable in daily life at home. Therefore, they require cleaning and disinfecting on a consistent and frequent cadence. If you can, avoid directly touching these surfaces. Use a sleeve, a napkin, or another method to create a barrier between your skin and the touchpoint you are interacting with. Even if all direct skin contact can be avoided, you should still frequently clean and disinfect these touchpoints as a precautionary action.

6. Computers, Keyboards, and Mouse

With many people working from home, either for their job or for school, home desktops and laptops are critical to the continued productivity of our society during this prolonged period of shelter-in-place. With that said, make sure that you are routinely wiping down and disinfecting your keyboard, mouse, and computer screen.

Disinfecting and Cleaning Protocols

It is important to highlight the difference between general cleaning and disinfecting. During a general clean the intent is to remove dirt and dust. This step must be completed before disinfection because germs can lurk in grime and soiled areas. Once an area is clean, it can then be disinfected. Typically, disinfecting happens only in restrooms and dining areas, but with COVID-19, disinfection of all areas using EPA approved commercial-grade chemicals is a critical factor in helping to curb the spread of the virus in our communities. The EPA recently released List N: Disinfectants for Use Against SARS-CoV-2, which can be found here.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the critical touchpoints in your home. However, we believe it is a good starting point for individuals and families looking to ensure their homes are clean and safe during the novel coronavirus pandemic. For more information and resources relating to COVID-19, visit our coronavirus response page here.

This piece is meant simply to inform, not to provide any legal or medical advice.

Are your household cleaning products working to fight coronavirus?

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By Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas
Chicago Tribune
Apr 02, 2020

click to read article on Chicago Tribune website

With Americans more focused than ever on keeping their homes safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a key to success is knowing the difference between cleaning and disinfecting.

The words aren’t synonymous, rather, they’re more akin to two steps in one process, such as sweeping your floor before mopping it, explained Justin Douglas, CEO of Corvus Janitorial Systems.

“That’s how I explain it when we train new employees,” Douglas said. “Or, I use the example of picking up the clothes off the floor of your kid’s room before you can do anything else. Cleaning and disinfecting aren’t interchangeable words.”

It’s easy to think there’s no wrong way to clean. And while it doesn’t take a microbiologist to do it correctly, a basic understanding of something referred to as “dwell time,” also sometimes called “contact time” or “kill time,” is necessary, Douglas and other experts say.

Luckily, information about contact time is available on every cleaning product mass-produced in the United States. To achieve the efficacy of claims such as “kills 99.9% of germs,” just one frequently overlooked step is crucial: Read the instructions, said Todd Clements, chief operating officer for UNX Industries, a chemical manufacturer that supplies nursing homes and hotels with cleaning products.

“All of us are guilty of not reading the backs of the labels,” Clements said.

“As far as I know, there’s no EPA-registered product with specific kill claims against COVID-19 because it’s so new, but it falls under human coronaviruses, so look for the contact time listed for those,” he said.

Clements and Travis FormyDuval, also with UNX, said people may be surprised to learn just how long many top cleaning products must sit — five or 10 minutes is not uncommon. But consumers should be reassured that if they allow a chemical to sit according to instructions, the claim on the front of a product bottle should be achieved. Each product is tested by the Environmental Protection Agency to ensure it does what it says and the instructions have been vetted for accuracy.

“We can’t even change the font on the label unless the EPA approves it,” Clements said.

Joe Rubino, a microbiologist and the director of research and development for Reckitt Benckiser, the parent company of the brand that makes Lysol products, said “sanitize” is another term people also often use incorrectly.

“Cleaning is basically removing dirt and soil. You’re going to remove some of the bacteria but not all of them,” he said. “Disinfecting is a very high level of germ kill, or greater than 99.99%, and you’d really need a few more 9s. Sanitization is another level, the somewhat lower level of 99.9%.”

FormyDuval, who teaches hotel housekeepers best practices, said people can wrongly assume if they use a product for any length of time, they’re going to achieve the efficacy advertised.

When teaching, FormyDuval said he talks about the elements needed to disinfect, which include time, agitation and heat. Agitation is how hard a person must scrub to remove soap stains or grime from surfaces.

“I tell them that just by changing up the routine a little, starting by spraying your chemicals in the bathroom, you can move on to the living portion of the room while you let it sit. When you come back to the shower, it takes less elbow grease, less physical activity to remove any scum, so you’re actually saving time,” FormyDuval said.

Using the same principle at home, he suggested residents spray a chemical in the kitchen, then spray a chemical in the bathroom, select separate towels for each space and head back to the kitchen, leaving each product to sit for the appropriate time. The different rags are so you don’t introduce bathroom germs into the kitchen, or vice versa. Likewise, in the bathroom, it’s best to start at the top and work your way down to the floor.

Erica Marie Hartmann, an assistant professor at Northwestern University, said not every surface needs to be disinfected every time, but it’s a good idea for frequently touched spaces, particularly if sharing a home with someone displaying COVID-19 symptoms.

“People who are symptomatic, if they’re touching things or coughing on things, those are the things that you want to disinfect more regularly, such as the nightstand, the door handle or whatever they’re commonly interacting with,” Hartmann said. “There are, depending on the surface, tens of billions of microbes.”

When they’re done using cleaning chemicals, people may be tempted to “wipe away” residue with a wet rag, which is unnecessary because the EPA has determined the chemical is safe to leave behind. But it also won’t prevent or undo disinfection, Rubino said.

“There are a lot of additives to cleaners that can be harmful to health, including endocrine disruptors,” said Dr. Susan Buchanan, a University of Illinois at Chicago environmental medicine specialist. “At this time when we’re trying to fight an outbreak, though, those concerns tend to take a back burner.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has a list of recommended products to disinfect against COVID-19, as well as the necessary contact time for each product.

kdouglas@chicagotribune.com