Whether you like it or not, that time of year is coming. The season when your family, friends, colleagues, and others are getting sick.
As we approach Global Handwashing Day1 on October 15th, it’s important that we are mindful of the steps we can take to keep people around us safe.
Washing your hands properly is one of the best things you can do to help prevent and control the spread of many illnesses, according to the CDC2, and good hand hygiene is a key contributor to helping us all stay healthy.
Although cold and flu has always been more prevalent this time of year, many other diseases and conditions, such as RSV and COVID-19, can also be spread by not washing hands with soap and clean water. As a matter of fact, it is estimated that up to 80% of communicable diseases are spread through touch3. Although studies have shown that COVID-19 has been primarily transferred via airborne particles and droplets through close contact with someone who is infected, good hand hygiene is still recommended.
Did you know that, according to the American Journal of Infection Control4, people touch their faces more than 20 times an hour on average? Handwashing with soap helps to remove germs from our hands, and this, in turn, helps to prevent infections because germs from unwashed hands can get in our eyes, nose, and mouth when we touch those parts of our bodies. Pass the soap and water, please!
Germs from unwashed hands can also be transferred to other objects like tables, door handles, and toys and then transferred to another person’s hands before they touch their eyes, nose, and mouth. Germs can also be transferred by foods and drinks which have been prepared with unwashed hands.
In short, clean hands help keep everyone healthy!
When Should You Wash Your Hands?
The CDC recommends5 that you wash your hands often, especially during the following key times when you are more likely to be exposed (or expose others) to germs:
✔ Before preparing or eating food
✔ After going to the restroom
✔ After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has gone to the restroom
✔ Before and after tending to someone who is sick
✔ After blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing
✔ After handling an animal or animal waste
✔ After handling garbage
✔ Before and after treating a cut or wound
The Restroom Experience
Maintaining a healthy restroom experience is essential in combatting the spread of germs. As a facility manager, it’s vital to maintain a clean and healthy building environment using premium products, uninterrupted stock levels, and laborsaving solutions that include battery-on-the-refill technology.
Step 1: Choose a hand soap system that’s right for you. One out of every four refillable bulk soap dispensers are contaminated with unsafe levels of bacteria, leaving hands with twenty-five times more bacteria than before. As opposed to traditional bulk refill systems, touch-free sanitary sealed soap refill systems reduce cross-contamination and keep hands clean and healthy.
Step 2: Touch-free hand towel dispensers are a critical aspect of maintaining a healthy restroom experience and vital in combatting the spread of germs and improving building occupant wellness. No-touch towel dispensers offer a number of features that will improve health, reduce waste, and save you time and money. Having paper towels automatically dispense at the wave of a hand reduces the number of common touchpoints in a restroom, and adjustable paper length decreases excess product waste. Paper dispenser/receptacle combos can be placed near doors where the paper towel can also be used to open a door handle and then be immediately thrown away.
Step 3: Installing touch-free hand sanitizer dispensers immediately adjacent to the restroom door allows building occupants to instantly sanitize their hands to avoid “sharing” germs from touching anything else directly after washing their hands, especially if they need to touch a door handle to exit the restroom.
Envoy Solutions is ready to help build your custom Hand Hygiene System to fit your facility care needs and help keep your building occupants healthy during the fall and winter months when respiratory viruses like flu, COVID-19, and RSV are more prevalent. Reach out to us and our experts will work with you to ensure your business stays healthy and safe.
1. Global Handwashing Day
2. Show Me the Science - Why Wash Your Hands? (CDC)
3. Wash Your Hands, Avoid Your T-zone to Prevent Infection ( UCI Health)
4. Face Touching: A Frequent Habit that Has Implications for Hand Hygiene (National Library of Medicine)
5. When and How to Wash Your Hands (CDC)
