not easily sprayed uniformly.” She added that as pandemic measures such as mask- ing and social distancing fade away, surface disinfection will become more critical and must be done in a way that is efficient and safe for the indoor environment. “Cleaning and disinfecting will always be one of the best ways to prevent the transmission of infectious pathogens,” noted Emily Rosenberg, MPH, senior clinical and scientific affairs specialist, CloroxPro. This can be especially important where children are involved. “Normally, hand hygiene would be an effective mea-
sure for preventing illnesses from pathogens picked up from surfaces,” she said. “But kids being kids, they have a hard time following and practicing hand hygiene, and they touch more surfaces than the average adult.” As a result, she advises focusing on high-touch,
shared surfaces such as handrails, bus seats, seatbelts, window surfaces and latches, and the driver’s compart- ment area. One option is the use of electrostatic sprayers for end-of-day cleaning. For cleaning of high-touch surfaces between morning and afternoon rides, ready- to-use (RTU) disinfectant wipes can be effective. High-grade air filters are also supplementing efforts.
Andrea Zironi, product line manager HVAC at Webasto, recommends using medical-grade HEPA H-14 filters
that are easy to install and keep the air continuously clean. “This is important on vehicles where there may be numerous passengers getting on or off during the ride or who move in every moment,” she explained. Dan Fillenwarth, president of Lumin-Air, noted that
with the density of students on buses, it only makes sense to be sure they’re breathing clean air. To that end, his company offers filters that help capture pathogens, particulates and other contaminants from recirculated air, while also providing a dose of UVC, or ultraviolet germicidal irradiation. Looking to the future, an across-the board emphasis
on virus protection seems likely. “I think it now becomes more of a mindset to protect our cargo,” Hillsborough’s Beekman speculated. He pointed to the conversions of technology in the aftermarket business to clean and pu- rify the air. “In our own cars we now have cabin filtration systems that was unheard of years ago but were intro- duced by the manufacturers pre-pandemic,” he said. “I think it will only be a matter of time before we see bus manufacturers offering this in their product as standard equipment, or at least as an option.” Similarly, he expects deep cleaning of buses on a regu- lar basis to be a continuing trend. Still, Drysdale worries that some student transporters
54 School Transportation News • JULY 2022
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