Choosing a disinfectant for your business, you always want to go with one that’s non-toxic and effective. Ideally, it will be a disinfectant where you use just enough to do the job and no more than that. In high concentrations, disinfectants can be very damaging to human health as well as to surfaces, materials, and air quality. Consider how you use your disinfectants. Search for eco alternatives, such as hydrogen peroxide and alcohol-based disinfectants. In this article, we do a deep dive into some of the common disinfectants you can use and disinfectants to avoid.
Bacteria is everywhere. It’s not inherently a bad thing, either. In the body, there are bacteria. A lot of it, in fact. Most bacteria do not cause illness, however, some can. The worst of these are things like methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (aka MRSA), salmonella, and E. coli. In workplaces, keeping bacteria at bay is a must.
Dish soap is perhaps the most common cleaning product in Canada. Soap doesn’t look like anything special. We use it in our homes. We use it in our offices and commercial centers. Compared to sanitizers and disinfectants, soap might not seem like much but you couldn’t be more wrong.
Dish soap has many benefits. It can do things quickly and more effectively than sanitizers or disinfectants, in some instances. It’s also eco-friendly and non-toxic, safe to use around pets, children, and individuals suffering from respiratory difficulties.
Buying dish soap in bulk and using it generously in your commercial cleaning routine is a fine method of keeping your workplace safe, tidy, and free from dangerous chemicals and unnecessary toxins.
How Does Dish Soap Work?
As a cleaning tool, dish soap is an absolute essential in offices everywhere. Soap is not only a commercial cleaning go-to but it’s used by employees as well, in washrooms and to keep their hands free from carrying viruses, germs, and bacteria from surface to surface.
Dish soap can kill viruses, like COVID-19 upon contact. It breaks the bonds at a cellular level, infiltrating these cells and deactivating viruses.
Disinfecting is a key part of commercial cleaning. Disinfectants can reduce the spread of contaminants, including viruses and bacteria. For the average small business office, in schools, fitness facilities, government buildings, community centres, and churches, retail stores, grocery stores, and restaurants, disinfectants have a role. You may be asking yourself a few questions though.
What areas should be disinfected?
What’s the best type of disinfectant to use?
How much disinfectant are you supposed to use?
How do you use disinfectant and is there a wrong way or dangerous way to use disinfectant?
All these questions are important. We hope to outline a few of the answers here today in this article.
Air quality in an office is impacted by various things. Dust, metals, mold, bacteria, endotoxins, viruses, and allergens can all pollute the air.
Add to that the office cleaning chemicals a lot of cleaners use day-in and day-out, and we have a big problem.
Up to 30 percent of our population has allergies. Add to that the people who have respiratory troubles or with compromised immune systems and chances are there’s at least an employee working in every office at high risk of complications that come from using too much cleaning chemical or using them improperly.
Are Office Cleaners Safe for Indoor Air Quality?
Learning how to use office cleaners is a must. Unfortunately, there are cleaners used in small business offices every day packed with problematic materials, i.e. bleach or ammonia, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), high pH levels, and solvents. Used improperly, these lead to respiratory toxicity.
Air toxicity can often be resolved through air circulation in an emergency or by minimizing chemical usage to start.
Make your cleaning routine more eco-friendly. Do it with more eco-friendly cleaners as alternatives to chemical cleaners. Do it by using harsher cleaners in more careful ways. For consumers looking to make more eco-conscious choices when it comes to cleaning, here are some common ingredients found in environmentally sustainable cleaners.
What Can You Find in Eco-Friendly Cleaners?
Plant-based cleaners exist. They often contain ingredients that are not easily accessible or available. Plant-based cleaners are effective in a variety of ways, with their primary advantage being they biodegrade.
For example, decyl glucoside, a non-ionic surfactant, is plant-based and used in some cleaners to break down molecules of water even smaller. This thereby allows the soap in a solution to permeate more efficiently. Capryl glucoside is another plant-based ingredient used similarly.
Dozens of on-the-rise eco-friendly cleaning brands exist, many favoring the use of plant-based ingredients over chemicals.
Dish soap is a non-harmful cleaner and safe to use. It contains no allergens, skin or respiratory irritants, and is non-toxic. It is not harsh enough to destroy, stain, or degrade.
To have a clean office free of COVID-19, a healthy amount of cleaning with disinfectants is recommended.
Disinfectants are used every day now in hotels and restaurants, gyms, retail, pet stores, pharmacies, healthcare facilities, small business environments, and government offices. Is it possible to use too much disinfectant – well, here’s the truth.
How Do Disinfectants Work?
Disinfectants is a cleaning product that inactivates and kills microorganisms like bacteria and viruses.
How to use a disinfectant is simple. Clean the area first. Second, apply the disinfectant. For a disinfectant to work, it shouldn’t be immediately wiped away. Leave the disinfectant there. This is called the ‘dwell time’. It typically lasts 5-10 minutes.
Through the dwell time, the disinfectant breaks through the bonds of a germ or virus and kills it slowly but thoroughly.
Please note, if a surface is not cleaned beforehand, the dwell time may need to increase. Most likely what will happen is that the disinfectant won’t work at all. Ensure you clean and then disinfect, not strictly disinfect.
The toxic nature of cleaning chemicals is incentive to do what we can to use eco-friendly alternatives.
There are tremendous benefits to switching to eco-friendly cleaners and cleaning techniques, including most notably it being safer than the use of chemicals which are not only damaging to the environment but also to other human beings in the office.
Steam, for example, is a safe and effective way to clean carpets, bathrooms, and general materials.
This involves no use of chemicals and is equally effective in a lot of cases, merely through the power of moisture and warmth. By using steam cleaning instead of more abrasive toxic ingredients, you save on risk and waste.
What Are the Most Eco-Friendly Cleaners?
You may see buzzwords like ‘all-natural’ and ‘eco-friendly’ used on cleaners but this doesn’t necessarily indicate that a product is chemical-free or toxin-free.
The most eco-friendly cleaners are those that are made without the use of or with minimal chemicals.
There are eco-friendly office cleaning products for almost every product, from disinfectants/sanitizers to floor cleaners, liquid deodorizers, degreasers, and more. There are homemade cleaners as well, using combinations of dish soap, water, vinegar, and/or baking soda.
Eco-friending cleaning procedures and a committed eco-friendly office cleaning plan may include any of the following.
It can seem like an enormous effort to keep an office sanitized, tidy, and clean. With the right products though and when there’s a set schedule, an office can easily keep germs, viruses, bacteria, and the spreading of infections at bay.
Dish Soap
Dish soap, aka dish detergent, is a fine multi-purpose cleaner. As we found out last year, dish soap’s also a great way to keep COVID-19 at bay. Encourage frequent hand-washing and maintain a decent inventory of soap which is less damaging on office materials than stronger cleaners.
There is a lot to find out about the novel Covid that causes Covid illness 2019 (COVID-19). In light of what is as of now thought about COVID-19, spread from individual to-individual of this infection happens most habitually among close contacts (around 6 feet). This sort of transmission happens through respiratory droplets. Then again, the transmission of novel Covid to people from surfaces tainted with the infection has not been reported.
Ongoing investigations revealed that individuals who are tainted yet don't have manifestations probably are the big factors in the spread of COVID-19.
Transmission of Covid happens significantly more usually through respiratory droplets than through items and surfaces, similar to door handles, chairs, cabinets, consoles, toys, and so on.
General recommendations for routine cleaning and disinfection of households
You should practice routine cleaning of mostly contacted surfaces (for instance: tables, door handles, light switches, handles, work areas, door knobs, facucet sinks, and hardware ) with general cleaning and EPA-enrolled disinfectants that are suitable for the surface, adhering to product guidelines. Read directions for protected and safe utilization of the cleaning item including precautionary measures you should take while applying the item, for example, wearing gloves and ensuring you have great ventilation during utilization of the item.
For gadgets read factory’s guidelines for all cleaning and sanitization items. Think about the utilization of wipeable spray for hardware. On the rare cases that no factory direction is accessible, consider alcohol based wipes or water containing 70% alcohol to sanitize contact surfaces.
There is a lot to find out about the novel Covid that causes Covid illness 2019 (COVID-19). In light of what is as of now thought about COVID-19, spread from individual to-individual of this infection happens most habitually among close contacts (around 6 feet). This sort of transmission happens through respiratory droplets. Then again, the transmission of novel Covid to people from surfaces tainted with the infection has not been reported.
