Cross-contamination is always concerning when it comes to cleaning, but schools have extra work to do in the prevention of spreading germs as keeping surfaces clean is significantly more difficult when most occupants are children. Children may know from lessons that they have to wash their hands and keeping their hands to themselves, and it would be desired to believe that they are doing so, but very often kids may be skipping out on those extra germ-removing precautions.
Because of the lack of hand-washing, as well as some children’s less than hygienic habits, germs can be everywhere in schools. One student comes into contact with germs, doesn’t wash their hands, and then touches many others surfaces. The next student that touches that surface now carries the germs and the cycle continues. Because of this, germs in schools are multiplied at exponentially higher rates.
Some of the biggest hotbeds for schools include: toilets, desks, water fountains and computer keyboards. A toilet can contain 3,200 bacteria per square inch. A computer keyboard containing 3,300 and a water fountain can contain around 2.7 million bacteria per square inch.
There are significant consequences to harmful bacteria, including 60 million school days lost to sick children, an average of 5.3 teacher absences, which cost $29 Billion in the United States annually.
Thankfully, there are products on the market that help with assisting in stopping the spreading of germs.
IPC Eagle has a product on the market, called the One Cart, which was designed specifically to stop the spreading of germs with its Pre-Treat system.
The One Cart is an easily transported customizable cart which can include mops, buckets with watertight lids, laundry bags and microfiber cloths, which together create the pre-treat system.
The purpose behind the pre-treat system is to assist in ensuring that the exact amount of solution is absorbed into microfiber mops or cloths, with up to 20 microfiber products being able to be pre-treated per bucket. The pre-treated microfiber then can be used to clean one area and discarded into a laundry bag, without ever being touched by the operator after moving from surface to surface, in room to room.
The cart’s equipped microfiber mops and cloths come with color-coded options as well, to make certain that one cloth is not used on a dirtier surface and then used later for cleaning a germ-sensitive area.
The entire one cart pre-treat system with microfiber makes preventing cross-contamination significantly simpler for schools. One set of pre-treated microfiber cloths can be used for classrooms, another for the cafeteria, and another for restrooms.
To learn more about the pre-treat system, click here and click here to schedule a demonstration with IPC Eagle to see how the One Cart can help you to stop the spreading of germs.