Category: The Safety Blog

Go Safely Back to School

Posted on by 4M-Mark

School districts could never have imagined a year ago that a virus could and would become a deadly risk for students and staff. The coronavirus came with little warning and quickly overwhelmed our health care system. As infection rates soared, schools and businesses shut down, and people hunkered down at home. Supplies of personal protective equipment and disinfectants became scarce and demand for school disinfection skyrocketed.

Developing and implementing plans to reduce the risk of contracting – and spreading – the coronavirus became and continues to be a top priority. But the spread of misinformation about disinfection products has made it confusing, if not risky, to choose the most effective products. Many companies have taken advantage of consumers and organizations by peddling information and disinfection products that are ineffective and potentially harmful if not used correctly.   

So what’s the solution to providing a safe environment for students and staff? It starts with consulting with a reputable company that can help you develop the most effective school disinfection plan. Reducing the risk of contracting and spreading a virus within schools and district facilities also takes a comprehensive approach: disinfection that tackles hard surfaces, air purification, hand hygiene and small devices.  

Hard Surface Disinfection

Let’s start with some basics. When it comes to hard surface disinfection, you need to understand the difference between sanitizing and disinfecting.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates disinfectants and approves information included on product labels. According to the EPA, disinfectants destroy or inactivate 99.99% of bacteria and viruses listed on the product’s label. A sanitizer reduces 99.9% of bacteria, but not viruses, listed on the product label. Sanitizers can leave microscopic amounts of bacteria that can cause illness. Surface disinfectants must pass more rigorous EPA testing requirements and clear a higher bar than surface sanitizing products.

The bottom line? When you want to kill viruses and bacteria on hard surfaces, disinfect – not sanitize.

Read Labels and Follow Directions

Your efforts go to waste if you don’t use the right product correctly. Product labels provide the details you need, such as the bacteria and viruses it will kill. (Different products aim at different viruses and bacteria.) It also tells you how long the disinfectant must remain on the surface before you wipe it off, known as wet or contact time. When a product sits on the surface, it’s hard at work doing what it’s supposed to.

According to infection control experts, a product that has to stay wet for more than two minutes is ineffective. Maintaining more than two minutes of wet time isn’t achievable.

Apply Full Coverage

When applying a disinfectant, it’s essential to cover all high touchpoints completely. An air-assisted electrostatic sprayer gives you the best results. It delivers the disinfectant in a tiny mist and has an electrostatic charge that attracts the disinfectant to cover the surface and in nooks and crannies. The disinfectant can dry on its own with no wiping needed.

Studies have shown using a “spray and wipe” process is less than 50% effective in disinfecting hard surfaces, and typically unsafe for electronics. Electrostatic sprayers with the right disinfectant save time and money while significantly reducing the risk of infection.

Air Purification

With classrooms, locker rooms, gyms and hallways in schools, air purification is another essential piece of a comprehensive school disinfection program. Disinfecting options include equipment attached or retrofitted to the existing HVAC system, and moveable mobile units. Both systems are important and effective.

Mobile units use HEPA filtration, ultraviolet light and charcoal filters that cycle the air in a room 10 to 15 times an hour. The process reduces airborne viruses and bacteria up to 99.99%. Air purification reduces the risk of breathing in a virus or touching a surface where it’s landed and transferring it by hand to mouth, nose or eyes.

Hand Hygiene and Small Device Disinfection

Pairing hand hygiene and small device disinfection is a must to deliver a 1-2 punch to viruses and bacteria. Thorough hand washing means nothing if we’re touching devices like phones, tablets, laptop computers, badges and keys covered with germs.

A study by the University of Arizona found that cell phones carry 7-10 times more bacteria than a toilet seat. According to Business Insider, an average person touches their phone 2600 times per day. That means all those touches on a phone alone transfers viruses and bacteria to hands (even clean ones), which spreads them to everything else touched.

Having students and staff follow the Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines for handwashing is one of the most effective ways to stop the spread of germs. Hand sanitizers can reduce germs when soap and water aren’t available. Although the CDC recommends using hand sanitizers with at least 60% alcohol, some of the alcohol-based options can be toxic over time. One product on the market is alcohol-free and lasts up to eight hours on hands.

When it comes to effectively disinfecting small devices, ultraviolet (UV) light shines – in specific situations. UV light must directly contact on an object within three to five feet, over a precise amount of time, and at the correct dose to be effective. Distance from the light, shadows, or dust prevent UV light from reaching a device and sanitizing. Small, controlled chambers, such as a UV lightbox, which looks like a microwave, make it easy to disinfect many types of small devices, such as classroom tablets, cell phones, pens, pencils and markers. UV is becoming a staple in small device disinfection, it should be implemented in any school disinfection plan.

Unfortunately, many companies promote UV light as a top-tier, all-around disinfectant. It’s not. UV lights, unlike disinfectants, aren’t regulated, leaving some UV light manufacturers to make false and irresponsible claims that aren’t backed by scientific proof.

For example, UV light manufacturers’ studies show that UV light robots marketed to disinfect rooms and large spaces only sanitize, leaving germs that can infect and cause illness. The technology doesn’t achieve the distance, time, and dose required to disinfect the way UV light does in a small, controlled space like a UV lightbox.

There is Much to Learn

There is so much to learn about preventing infections in every environment. That’s why it’s important to work with a reputable company and people who can sort out the correct information and products to help you put together a cost-effective, comprehensive plan that’s right for your school district.  

Watch for future articles to learn more about school disinfection solutions to keep your school district healthy.

About the Author

Ron Romano is president of Safety Net, a West Chester, Ohio, company helping keep people healthy and safe. Ron and his team partner with schools, businesses, hospitals and local governments from around the world, providing disinfection products and expertise. Learn more at safetynetamerica.com.

The Proactive Approach to Infection Control & Prevention

Posted on by Hasselfeld_Robert

As we approach a post-pandemic world, the focus of the country has shifted from a reactive mindset to a proactive and preventative state-of-mind. Thoughtful and diligent planning will drastically reduce gaps in workplace infection control & prevention plans, keeping us safer in the long run.

2020 was a year that most of us would like to forget. Going back to a complacent mindset as a society will inevitably lead us there again. For far too long it seems as if the overall mindset has been let’s wait around and find out…we no longer can abide by this mentality. After the events of last year and reflecting on the country’s response it’s clear we need to be proactive when it comes to infection control & prevention.

COVID-19, despite its challenges has taught us much about societies priorities and how they are truly misplaced. We need to take things more seriously, across the board.

Infection control and prevention is not something to take lightly, especially in hind of what just unfolded globally. In 2020, mankind was caught off-guard by a microscopic villain, reacting to the chaos instead of controlling it, and we need to make sure this never happens again.

Reaction

What does it mean to react? In this case it means a response to a situation, stimulus, or treatment. As COVID-19 arrived on the scene we quickly realized that we were no prepared. Instead, we had to react.

We, as a country, were not prepared for the sheer volume of cases, nor prepared to protect our society from cross-contamination, and definitely not prepared to lose 500,000+ fellow Americans (even more people worldwide). We lacked PPE, proper disinfectants, basic hygienic practices, and comprehensive infection control plans. Ignorance to proper procedures and not having the proper protocols in place led us to react to the situation rather than control it.

When it comes to infection control approach, we don’t want to be on the reaction side of this game. Reacting here means lives are lost. It means that the necessary steps have not been taken to protect patients, employees, and patrons. The lack of attention is putting more lives at risk.

In healthcare, failure to prevent healthcare associated infections (HAI) can cost mind-numbing amounts of money (the cost of HAIs in the US is between $28-48 billion annually).

Aside from the money, the most important reason we don’t want to react is because it costs lives. You cannot put a price on a human life.

It shouldn’t take a global pandemic to get us to wash our hands, cover our mouths when sneezing/coughing, stop rubbing our eyes and touching our face, improve our indoor air quality, and our general approach to hygiene…. but it did.

It took all those deaths and cases for us to put a premium on hygiene and reducing cross-contamination, which is why at Safety Net we’ve spent 15+ years creating a suite of proven safety solutions and products that protect caregivers, business owners, educators, and many others. We proactively attack the game.

Pro-action

“The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today,” H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

When it comes to infection control, we have to look at the whole enchilada, not just a small portion of it. If we neglect the macroscopic picture of infection prevention we’ll end up with a negative, and potentially dangerous, microscopic result.

But who are these microscopic bad guys that we’re going toe-to-toe with?

Identifying the Enemy

What are we targeting when carrying out our disinfection efforts? What’s the most important?

At Safety Net, we’ve identified what we call The Triple Threat:

Bacteria – microscopic single-celled organisms that occupy virtually all habitats.

Viruses – small infectious agents that replicate only inside the living cells of an organism

Fungus/Molds – Fungi produce some very unpleasant diseases of the skin, lungs, and mucous membranes – can even invade the entire body, in rare cases.

  • Bacteria
  • Virus
  • Fungus/Mold

All of our disinfection solutions and technologies aim to abate these three categories across all of your high-touch areas. Depending on the enemy we’re targeting and its location we’ll use different solutions.

Understanding Sterilant, Disinfectants, and Sanitizers

There is a hierarchy to disinfection solutions and their effectiveness (Fig 1.).

Fig 1.

Terminology is important and carries much weight. The three most important aspects of the disinfection hierarchy are:

Sterilant (sporicide) – is an antimicrobial “pesticide” that destroys or eliminates essentially all forms of microbial life in the inanimate environment. The FDA term ‘sterilant’ is deemed to be synonymous with the EPA’s ‘sporicide,’ but such products are intended for different purposes. Since sterilization includes eradication of all living microorganisms, such claims are intrinsically related to protection of human health.

  • 99.9999% reduction

Disinfectant – a chemical that destroys the vegetative forms of harmful microorganisms.

  • 99.999% reduction

Sanitizer – a hard surface solution that reduces but does not eliminate all the microorganisms on a treated surface.

  • 99.9%

Clearly you can see that not all disinfecting solutions are created equal, nor are the technologies that apply them to surfaces or spaces. A healthy combination of all of these disinfectant styles will cover the gaps efficiently.

If we are to be proactive with our infection control & prevention, we need to have a firm understanding of these terms, their effectiveness, and where they fall within the hierarchy of your own plan.

Understanding Cross-Contamination

How dirty do you think your phone is? Do you keep track of all the surfaces you set it on, who touches it, how many times you’ve cleaned it? Before the pandemic probably not a whole lot.

A lot has changed since with how society utilizes technology. Lockdowns forced us out of the public and into the “privacy” of our own devices. We are using our phones, tablets, and computers more than ever before.

According to a Business Insider Study the average person touches their phone over 2600 times per day. That’s a lot!

If you pick up your dirty phone with clean hands you’ve just made all that hand-washing obsolete. If you pick up your clean phone with dirty hands you’ve just made your phone disinfecting nonsensical.

To effectively prevent the cross-contamination of dangerous pathogens you’ll want to clean both your phone and your hands before joining the two forces.

High-touch devices pose a new threat in our fragile society. Cross-contamination has never been easier for pathogens. They just idly sit by and wait for you to show your friend or colleague the latest video, news article, and or infection prevention blog post. Then, at the opportune moment, they cross over and potentially affect the next person.

Our hands must be clean but in order to maintain cleanliness on the hands we need to make sure we’re taking a proactive approach and disinfecting our high-touch devices more often.

The T-Zone and Hand Hygiene

You may be wondering what the T-Zone is and with March Madness going on we need to be clear that we’re not talking defensive strategy in basketball. Rather defensive strategy against infectious disease spread through cross-contamination.

The T-Zone is the part of your face that has the most oil secreting areas as well as the mucus membranes of the eyes, nose, and mouth (Fig 2.)

Fig 2.

You may not realize it now, but you touch your face a lot. Now that you’re cognizant of it you’ll be haunted by the number of times you’ll find your hand travel its way north to scratch an itch, cover a cough, wipe an eye. Resist the urge! According to a study found on the National Library of Medicine states that, “On average, each of the 26 observed students touched their face 23 times per hour.”

Every time you touch a part of the T-Zone you increase the risk of respiratory and gastro-intestinal diseases considerably. If we touch someone’s phone and then scratch that pesky itch with the same hand, we’ve just put ourselves at a higher risk of getting sick.

As a society we should aim to achieve “herd-intelligence” of the T-Zone. Marketing strategies around hand washing should be complimented with pictures of the T-Zone and high-risk areas on the body to touch. Reducing the number of face touches per hour is critical to staying healthy and protecting ourselves against cross-contamination.

The Henry the Hand Foundation boils it down to 4 Principles of Hand Awareness:

  1. Wash your hands when they are not dirty and before eating.
  2. DO NOT cough into hands.
  3. DO NOT sneeze into hands.
  4. Above all, DO NOT put your fingers into your eyes, nose, or mouth (T-Zone).

Why did it take a pandemic for us to re-learn these basic hygienic principles?

Safety Net’s Proactive Approach

We don’t wait for things to get out of hand before we take action. At Safety Net we put together comprehensive infection control and prevention plans that suit your needs. Ranging from hospitals to manufacturing plants, restaurants to schools, there is no place Safety Net can’t provide adequate protection from deadly infectious diseases.

Our company has an amazing suite of high-efficacy, EPA approved and registered, effective solutions and devices that can aid you in your infection prevention efforts.

Stop cross-contamination at the source with our UV Boxes and incredible mPulse hand sanitizer. Improve your air quality with our state-of-the-art air purification systems. Disinfect those hard-to-reach spaces with our electrostatic spraying systems. Take back control of your environment now.

Safety Net cuts the head off of the proverbial infection monster preventing infection and deadly disease at the source.

About the Author

Robert Hasselfeld is SEO manager and an account manager at Safety Net.