What is the largest horizontal high-touch surface in a building that is touched by everyone but ignored by most people? What is the largest contributor to indoor air quality that is a repository for all types of microscopic stuff and other stuff we can clearly see, like hair, dirt, and pollen?
The floor.
Floors are the largest horizontal surface in a building. When we sneeze or cough, those particles are ultimately ending up on the floor. All the dust in the air eventually settles on the floor. The microbes that are mold spores that eventually can cause mold growth will end up on the floor. Within the cracks and crevices the floors are filled with these contaminants.
The carpet is the largest filter in the building; the carpet collects everything that is in the air and on peoples shoes and gets trapped within its fibers and padding. Remove a carpet that has been in place for years and you can see the amount of dirt and grime comes out of the carpet. In areas around entrances, the amount of dirt and grime will be greatly increased. Areas that are moisture prone such as bathrooms and kitchens are havens for bio-nesting of mold and bacteria.
Here is the process of how floors affect our health:
Step 1: Infected person sneezes that produce droplets containing bacteria or viruses that land on the floor
Step 2: Someone walks on the floor and the virus or bacteria is transferred on to their shoes, virus and bacteria spreads throughout the facility. While walking, the virus or bacteria is aerosolized back into the air.
Step 3: Person returns home, further spreading the virus.
Step 4: Person takes off their shoes, virus or bacteria is transferred to their hands.
Step 5: Person touches their face, increasing likelihood of infection.
What to do?
How do we control the spread of viruses and bacteria from the floor? Nx2 includes floor cleaning and sanitization of our customers floors in our normal daily cleaning processes. While some floors in highly controlled environments such as surgical suites or cleanroom suites require disinfection using either quaternary based or phenolic based disinfectants, less controlled environments are typically cleaned using nothing more than a surface cleaner, only removing dirt, but not killing any viruses or bacteria.
Nx2 uses Tersano SAO for the majority of its daily cleaning tasks, including floor cleaning. Using Stabilized Aqueous Ozone allows our service workers to clean and sanitize in one step, killing a wide range of bacteria and viruses without the use of disinfectants that will eventually damage the flooring.
Want to learn more about how dangerous floors can be in high risk environments? Check out our blog post next week!
Want to provide a clean facility for your employees? Contact Nx2 today to see how we can improve the cleaning in your building.