How can I reduce the chances of viruses or bacterial infections in my business or get up and going quickly if someone tests positive?
Let’s be honest, if you run a business and one of your staff tests positive, it’s not just the cleaning that’s an issue but staff and customer confidence.
So, what do you do?
Well, you need to convince everybody that you have made the area safe again and this will need to be done by using a solution including enhanced products and enhanced procedure. Which could be very time consuming and may or may not establish that consumer confidence you want. We offer a fogging solution that may work for you.
Cleaning solution
Vacuums must be HEPA filtered (Dyson Type) to prevent the dust and particles being drawn into the vacuum and then passed out back into the room atmosphere.
To effectively vacuum the areas, vacuuming must be undertaken using access tools to reach at the highest points in the area.
Once vacuumed cleaning disinfection and sanitisation can commence.
1. The cleaning process must be done working from the highest point through to the lowest point and finally the floor as the person retreats from the room or area. This ensures that areas are not re-contaminated by re-visiting surfaces or walking over floor surfaces that have been cleaned.
2. Please note that the room surfaces and especially high contact surfaces like door handles, light switches, stairwell handrails, windowsills, windows, etc. and any other surfaces that people have made contact with on numerous occasions, need extra attention.
3. All the surfaces require the following steps:
A. Wipe all the surfaces with disinfectant/biocide wipes, these wipes should only be used for cleaning one main surface and then be discarded by placing them into a disposable bin bag placed near the exit or in the bin in the kitchen. Wipes become contaminated quite quickly and therefor need to be discarded, wipe a main area, then discard.
B. Once all the high contact surfaces are wiped, then spray these surfaces with disinfectant and leave the disinfectant/biocide for at least one minute to effectively kill off any contamination. If the disinfectant is immediately wiped off then it will not be effective, you can leave it on and not wipe it off and it will continue to be effective.
C. Flat surfaces like the kitchen worktops and other flat surfaces require vacuuming then spraying with disinfectant, then wiping down
D. The last operation is the floor surfaces, which must be cleaned from the farthest point in the room working back to the exit door.
For hard surface floors, as you are cleaning the floor and working towards the door spay the floor with disinfectant/biocide as you retreat.
For carpet floors after vacuuming spray the carpet with disinfectant/biocide as you retreat.
The fogging option
There is an anti-viral product out there that is more effective than other disinfectants that is virtually harmless to people and yet is known to kill all Coronaviruses. It has been approved for use as a fogging product as well as an enhanced cleaning product and hand sanitiser.
This is called Hypochlorous Acid (HOCl).
Fogging comes from a specialist humidifier type of equipment, delivering a mist of anti-viral that hangs in the air, allowing it to penetrate all areas of the space, including cracks and holes that standard cleaning can’t reach. The anti-viral then kills the virus on contact.
What is HOCl
· HOCl is one of the most natural and effective known biocides known to man. It eradicates all bacteria, mycobacteria, spores, fungi, viruses – even the tough Clostridium difficile – within 15 seconds. It disinfects 200 to 300 times better than bleach and is 100% safe.
· HOCl oxidises (explodes) the cell wall of all pathogens causing necrosis (rupturing of the cell) or apoptosis (programmed cell death) and destroys them. Though viruses are not technically living organisms, they too are destroyed by hypochlorous acid.
· Despite this destructive potential, our bodies use this defence throughout life.
HOCl is naturally produced by our white blood cells and is an essential part of our immune system. This process is called phagocytosis and is one of humans most symbiotic actions – eliminating pathogens yet being inherently harmless, unlike most other disinfectants which are toxic.
· You can use HOCl for surface disinfection! Cardiff University found that wet wipes spread deadly superbugs because most wipes dry out before the solution has had the necessary contact time. However, hypochlorous can be sprayed liberally on all surface types and pathogens are neutralised within seconds.
· The beauty of HOCl is that following a normal clean, removing any grease from surfaces, fogging with the product is quick and easy and you can allow the area to re-open within 10 minutes. It will reach all the inaccessible areas and is fantastic for textiles.
These are the findings from the scientific community:
1. US Environmental Protection Agency has already approved use of HOCl as a disinfecting agent for COVID-19 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7315945/
2. HSE thoughts as a sanitiser here.
Health and Fire Safety can help with both the fogging and misting options, we are ready to go to assist you.
For piece of mind for your clients, if you have a positive case in your business, following a thorough clean of the premises we come in and fog your premises with a heavier concentration of anti-virus that will very quickly get into all areas including the cracks and crevices that a cleaner can’t reach and all textiles to completely sanitise your premises, without you needing to close down.
What are the benefits
Fogging works quickly
Very little disruption to your business, if any.
Fogging decontaminates, preventing any potential outbreaks
Fogging reduces the risk of infectious diseases being transmitted, including coronavirus Salmonella and the flu virus
Can help reduce the level of staff sickness
Gives confidence to your clients
We are helping where we can
As I discussed in a previous blog, the biggest difficulty for employers is that people have widely differing views about how seriously to take this pandemic, from social distancing, to wearing a face covering. From Government conspiracies to genuine fears for themselves and their families. A recent positive case at a local school created very passionate responses from people on social media, with some parents immediately pulling their children out, demanding the whole school be deep cleaned. Do you think that is a proportionate cleaning response? Would fogging have assisted here? If you run a hospitality business, would fogging assist to keep your business open?
This makes putting the right controls in place a nightmare for employers but they have to put a suitable and sufficient management system in place.
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