Priority's Director, Tony White, features is this spring's edition of Business Time in Essex magazine, and explores the effectivity of cleaning regimes in the continuing fight against the spread of Covid.
"CLEANING has never been more at the forefront of our everyday lives than
it has of late, whether it’s the home, workplace or washing your hands. Now, more than ever, it’s so important to ensure
we continue safeguarding ourselves, our colleagues and the environment we inhabit.
But how do we determine the effectiveness of our cleaning regime? The guidance on washing our hands ranges from washing them with hot soapy water for 20 seconds to humming a well-known tune for a similar length of time, but where does this leave any of us when it comes to our office or home?
I recently dealt with an enquiry from a potential client. He wanted deep-cleaning, sanitising, fogging - in fact everything we have all heard of these past eleven months without really understanding the process behind any of them or if he actually needed any of them. My first question to him was how many days a week is your business operational, my second how many cleaning shifts and my third which sector do you operate in. His answers immediately gave me a good understanding as to his requirements and how we could best deliver the most effective cleaning regime to meet his specific needs.
A robust cleaning regime, whether delivered directly or via a reputable cleaning contractor, providing clear stringent regular cleaning to your washrooms, workstations, meeting rooms, kitchens, breakout rooms and any other operational areas within your facility, affords you the foundation for a safe working environment. We always provide and agree on the cleaning specification with our clients.
Introduce ‘touch point’ sanitising within the regime, to be correctly used once cleaning has taken place, and your sanitising programme will focus on all those surfaces we touch without even thinking about them: light switches, door handles, stair rails, phones, etc. We introduced this service to all our contracts at no additional cost from March 2020.
I just wanted to highlight two very effective but different forms of fogging. You and your cleaning contractor can determine which best fits your requirements. Cold UVA foggers emit a fine dry fog containing minute droplets of the sanitising mixture into the atmosphere. These in turn settle on all surfaces effectively ensuring a wider coverage of sanitisation in less time whilst seeking to kill off any pathogens in the atmosphere.
Electrostatic foggers emit an electrical charge to the surface to be sanitised, ensuring increased adhesion for the sanitising mix which in turn reduces the potential for any pathogen to adhere to the surface itself.
The HSE publishes very informative articles on all aspects of cleaning and sanitising relating to COVID so please do check out the facts for yourself. But please remember, the foundation of a clean healthy building is a robust cleaning regime!"