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Survey reveals industry feelings about H1N1

December 3, 2009
In yesterday''s CM e-News Daily™ Special Report, we shared swine flu basics and several industry resources to consider as you aim to protect your facility from an H1N1 influenza A outbreak.
In today''s lead feature, we would like to disclose survey results.
The staff of Cleaning & Maintenance Management® recently conducted an online survey to tap industry professionals about current swine flu news and experiences.
Over 650 people responded to this survey and we would like to thank each one for taking the time to discuss this important topic.
The Results Are In
Below is a breakdown of who participated in this survey and what type of facility they represent.

· Contract cleaner — 33 percent

· Health care facility/nursing home — 17 percent

· K-12 school — 16 percent

· College or university — 14 percent

· Office/government building — 8 percent

· Industrial/manufacturing facility — 8 percent

· Hospitality — 3 percent

· Airport — 1 percent.

The first question we asked in our online survey was: Has H1N1 news made you change your cleaning focus? According to the majority of respondents — 63 percent — the answer was, "Yes." Call To Action When asked, "What are you doing different to safeguard against and prepare for such potential pandemics?," the answers were diverse and informative. Below are several actual, edited responses from that survey:

· We put hand sanitizers throughout the plant. We are concentrating on more cleaning of touch-type surfaces. We''ve put posters up to promote washing of hands, covering coughs, etc.

· Training staff on how and were to use disinfectant cleaners and, most importantly, training on proper hand washing.

· Focusing on using "clean" cleaning towels daily and "clean" mop heads. More laundry. Using only hospital-grade germicidal in "all" areas of building with special attention to door knobs and push plates.

· Through U.S. government information, we have gone to a more thorough and more widespread decontamination style of cleaning. This is sold to customers on a case-by-case basis. We try to instill in our contacts the importance of a co-mingled effort with prevention along with commonsense practices and establish our company as the knowledgeable provider of hand and door sanitizers.

· More time spent on prevention.

· The focus has changed only in the sense that we have to caution the uninformed who overreact and want to hit everything with a sodium hypochlorite or bleach product. It''s unnecessary, ill-advised and poses distinct respiratory problems. An ordinary hospital-approved disinfectant — generally a quaternary ammonium product — works very well. H1N1 should not trigger extraordinary response. Routine and appropriate daily cleaning and disinfection is not simply adequate, but ideal.

· Increased frequencies of ceiling-to-floor cleaning from once annually to quarterly. Also, installed alcohol-based hand sanitizer dispensers at all restrooms, mailrooms and conference rooms. We made alcohol-based hand sanitizer pump bottles available in all office suites.

· Committee has been set up to determine best practices, such as keyboard cleaning, fitness center equipment cleaning, etc.