Every factory needs a clean room

Whether or not your manufacturing process or research requires a clean room, there’s one space where the risk of contamination is all too real. The washrooms or toilets in any building are a case for special treatment.

As it is, they already account for up to 70% of the cleaning spend in most buildings. Yet washrooms are still the main source of complaints – and germs. Each time an employee, or visitor, uses the company’s washroom they take away an impression of the employer’s attitude to its people. A foul-smelling or soiled toilet room smacks of mismanagement or lack of care. But even an apparently clean washroom reeking with the pungent smell of disinfectant may be harbouring pathogens that endanger health. So users can take away more than a bad impression from their visit.

The common cause is the use of outmoded cleaning methods. Apart from the supplies of soap, paper, air fresheners and other consumables, a large component of that 70% spend is labour.

Mopping is still the main method used to tackle dirty floors; the best estimate  we can find is that 70% of all floors are ‘cleaned’ in this laborious, inefficient and ineffective way. It’s a startling statistic given the advances we’ve seen in technology generally, and cleaning equipment in particular, and the heightened awareness of hygiene’s importance in human health and infection control.

Toilet facilities are in frequent use, have many common touch points for transmitting germs and infection, and expose users to bio-hazardous wastes. That risk rises if a toilet overflows, mixing bacteria from the human gut with other pathogens on the floor, deposited there by shoes or splashes. Also, people who are ill tend to use washrooms more, so it’s all the more important to get washroom cleaning right to stop illnesses spreading and prevent cross-contamination with other areas, such as the canteen.

Denis Rawlins can advise building managers and employers on cost-effective cleaning methods and equipment. We take a science-based approach to cleaning. When it comes to mopping, the science confirms what we already know from our own eyes and intuition. A mop is far better at spreading soils and contaminants than removing them. Microfibre flat-mops were a step forward. But plunging any microbe-absorbing mop head back into the dirty bucket water is only going to dump more of this potentially toxic brew on the floor. Even with frequent water changing and careful rinsing, it’s a laborious, haphazard and slow process. 

We have launched a campaign to ‘Chop the mop!’, having carefully researched the evidence for alternative cleaning methods.

The most cost-effective system for cleaning washrooms in our view is to spray a carefully calibrated cleaning solution, rinse with clean water under high pressure, and remove the resultant liquid containing dirt and contaminants by vacuuming the surface so it quickly dries.

Independent studies in the US have shown that this approach – as used with the Kaivac No Touch Cleaning system – is up to 60 times more effective at removing bacterial contamination than mopping. It’s also more efficient: Cleaning a washroom in this way takes between one half and a third of the time.

Moreover, the Kaivac system tackles bacteria and toxins embedded in grout lines, cracks and corners that defy traditional methods, and give rise to odours as well as health risks. Not only is it more hygienic for cleaning floors, this method also can sanitise every surface from urinals, toilet bowls and walls, to wash basins, door handles and pushplates. 

We needn’t rely on scientists for proof. Testing cleanliness is now easy and affordable using meters that measure ATP (Adenosine TriphosPhate), a universal energy molecule found in all animal, plant, bacterial, yeast and mould cells.

Apart from the hygiene gain, the labour savings can justify the switch from mop to modern, science-based cleaning. This No Touch Cleaning approach is also more professional and dignified from the cleaner’s point of view. No more going on hands and knees to clean behind toilet bowls. 

Whatever our industry, it behoves the business and its employees to be productive, safe and cost-effective. The same goals should apply to cleaning – in the washroom, just as in food processing, the laboratory or hi-tech manufacturing clean room.