The post-pandemic washroom
Jamie Woodhall, UK Technical and Innovation Manager at Initial Washroom Hygiene, discusses how to improve washrooms to combat germ and virus transmission.
Full time working from home is beginning to lose its appeal for many employees. A recent survey of 2000 office workers across the UK conducted by Ambius found that 52% of office workers are looking forward to returning to the office for mental and wellbeing reasons, and this rises to 64% among those aged 18–34 years.
In preparation for restrictions to be lifted this summer, many businesses are reconfiguring their office layouts ahead of the return of workers. For example, Revolut has announced office brainstorming rooms called ‘Rev Labs’, while WeWork is planning to introduce touch-free coffee machines and motion sensitive doors to limit touchpoints and the possibilities of cross-contamination for business residents.
Washrooms are typically small spaces that get high visitor turnover, with many shared touchpoints and often a limited air flow. Germs and harmful pathogens, like Coronavirus, are typically transmitted in three ways: person to person, surface to person, and air to person. It’s the one place that the majority of employees and visitors will use during the working day, making the facility a high-risk area for all three types of transmission.
Office managers and FMs have five main considerations for the planning and maintenance of washrooms, with steps to assist with health and safety practices to reduce the transmission of microbes from one user to another.
Digital solutions
Think about deploying a digital counting system in your washroom to clearly show users
when it’s at capacity, to avoid anyone waiting outside the cubicles while they’re in use. Washroom users will be more empowered to follow social distancing guidelines if they know the washroom is full.
No-touch solutions are also available including no-touch soap dispensers, taps and sanitary waste bins to help reduce cross-contamination via surface to person, while also helping businesses to manage their sustainability goals by reducing water and soap usage. Initial Washroom Hygiene has a range of smart hygiene products called Rapid>SmartHygiene, including sensor-operated taps so employees don’t need to touch the sink, while water waste is reduced as water flow is stopped as soon as hands are moved away.
The solutions in this range also use connected, cloud- based technology that provides real-time data from soap dispensers, so consumables can be replaced in a timely manner. Washroom insights also assist with cleaning strategies, giving professionals a greater understanding of when their facilities are in peak use and when they need to be cleaned.
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twitter.com/TomoCleaning The hygienic cubicle
Due to the pandemic, users' expectations of hygiene levels are now far higher. Options such
as providing surface disinfectant or toilet seat cleaner in every cubicle so that each new user can sanitise the seat before use are worth consideration. You should also look to install toilet paper dispensers that seal away the paper, so users don’t need to touch the entire roll. To reduce the number of surfaces a user needs to touch even further, it’s also possible to install a no-touch flush system.
It’s important to ensure sanitary waste disposal bins are installed in both women’s and men’s cubicles. This is because continence-related issues, affecting both men and women, are on the rise amongst the under 40s in the UK. Research conducted by Initial with a sample of 100 GPs spread across the UK, found that 54% believe new diagnoses of incontinence-related problems have increased over the past two years. 97% of doctors who were part of this study said better access to disposal facilities in washroom environments would allow sufferers to lead a more normal life.
Sanitary waste disposal bins should be touch-free, but where possible bin units should be wall-mounted too. Moving them off the floor makes the cubicle and wider washroom easier to clean as the floor can be mopped without the unit having to be touched, reducing the risk of cross-contamination by isolating the unit.
Clean air
It’s recognised that Coronavirus can be transmitted via aerosols, and the World
Health Organization (WHO) updated its guidance at the end of April 2021 to say that Coronavirus is mainly transmitted when people are in close proximity (one metre) to one another. It makes transmission a high risk in poorly ventilated, crowded spaces. Many washrooms have reduced access to fresh air, and many don’t have windows at all, making them difficult spaces to adequately ventilate.
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