Harvard-Recommended Cleaning Measures for Airlines
Airlines have always presented a special challenge when it comes to ensuring a clean environment. Passengers are grouped together in close quarters with plenty of high-contact areas and fast turnarounds. Fortunately, a study by Harvard University found that a comprehensive, multi-tiered strategy can effectively reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 during air travel. This layered strategy consists of federal masking guidelines as well as enhanced cleaning and disinfecting measures. These Harvard-recommended cleaning measures include:
HEPA Filters
High-efficiency particulate air, or HEPA, filters in their ventilation systems. Columbia University professor Faye McNeill explains here that these filters can actually catch the particles that cause coronavirus. Furthermore, these filters refresh cabin air every two to four minutes, offsetting the close quarters that travelers endure during their flights.
Masking Guidelines
Mandatory face coverings for all travelers and staff. Harvard found this to be the number one deterrent for the spread of coronavirus during airline flights.
EPA-Approved Disinfection
Disinfection of all high-touch surfaces with an EPA-approved product before every flight along with a daily deep clean. Bioesque’s Botanical Disinfectant Solution is on the EPA’s List N, and features a 55-second kill-time against SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19).
Electrostatic sprayers can be especially effective in the application of disinfectants. These sprayers apply a positive charge to approved disinfectant solutions resulting in particles that are attracted to negatively charged surfaces, allowing them to cover a large area and a variety of hard non-porous surfaces. Bioesque’s Botanical Disinfectant Solution is one such approved disinfectant.
A Safer Way to Clean
Cleaning chemicals like chlorine, bleach, and ammonia are harsh and toxic. Bioesque Solution was founded on the principle that there must be a safer way to clean without sacrificing the power found in these chemicals. Powered by Thymox®, every Bioesque® Solutions product is designed to work together harmoniously like in nature, to bring the future of disinfecting and cleaning to our customers today.
Cleanliness is always of the utmost importance when it comes to hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Hospital-acquired infections (also known as healthcare-associated infections, or HAI) are a very real danger. However, clean and sanitary facilities can cut down the risk of them considerably. During the coronavirus pandemic, though, this goal has taken on an even greater significance. Some experts from the University of North Carolina detailed some strategies that hospitals and other healthcare facilities are implementing to combat the spread of COVID-19.
An Effective Disinfectant at an Increased Frequency
Emily Sickbert-Bennett, PhD, director of UNC Medical Center Infection Prevention, says that COVID-19 “is actually one of the easiest pathogens to eliminate with disinfection”. It’s important, though, that janitorial staffs are using a hospital and EPA-approved disinfectant. Furthermore, these staffs are cleaning more often than they were prior to the pandemic. For example, UNC Health’s Environmental Services team is disinfecting areas like the emergency department, lobbies, waiting rooms, restrooms, and hallways every two hours. In addition to the usual sweeping and mopping, they’re also paying special attention to high-touch areas like countertops and chairs.
Isolating Patients
Hospitals and other healthcare facilities take steps to separate COVID-19-positive patients from other patients. This helps to reduce the spread of the virus. Dr. Sickbert-Bennett speaks of screening processes integrated with electronic medical record systems. These measures can alert staff and keep track of patients with COVID. Hospitals are also taking extra steps to separate patients in the emergency room.
Transporting Patients
Patients in hospitals often need to be moved from one area of the facility to another. Accordingly, healthcare facilities are implementing extra steps to ensure their safety. For example, after taking a patient from a testing lab to their room, UNC Health staff returns the stretchers or wheelchairs to a new cleaning station in their equipment storage area where they get a thorough disinfection.
While these steps were designed to reduce the spread of coronavirus, many are bound to become the new norm as hospitals learn to provide a safer environment more efficiently.
