Hygiene Theater: What It Is and Why I’ll be Discussing it on March 28, 2022.

Gist:
At the start of the pandemic, the national restaurant chain Applebee's hired sanitation czars to make sure every window ledge in their facilities, all tables, chains, and menus, were disinfected every night. For the first time in 116 years, the New York City subways closed each evening so that each car could be blasted with disinfectants. In Wauchula, Florida, the local government gave a resident permission to spray down the entire town with disinfectants.

We realize now these efforts were little more than hygiene theater. Worse, they actually could cause more health problems than they solved.

Background, Pre-Pandemic:
Before the pandemic, with the help of organizations like ISSA and BSCAI, along with industry trade publications, cleaning workers were taught disinfecting best practices, starting with only using these powerful solutions when and where necessary.

Background, During the Pandemic:
This guidance was tossed out the window. Disinfectants were used anywhere and everywhere, in virtually every nook and cranny whether needed or not. This was true even after the CDC reported that while COVID-19 spreads easily in the air, touching a surface “isn’t thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”

Case Study:
In March 2020, half of the employees in a message center on the 11th floor of an office building, working in an intimate work environment, got sick with COVID. But less than one percent of the remainder of the building contracted COVID-19, even though they all shared the same elevator buttons and touched the same common area surfaces throughout the building.

The Concern:
Disinfectants are classified as “pesticides” in the U.S. They are designed to kill living things, even if it is bacteria, viruses, and fungi. But overused, they can prove harmful for the user, building users, and the environment.

Key Quote:
“The pandemic was unlike anything we have seen in a century. Understandably, building owners, managers, cleaning professionals, and the public overreacted. But hygiene theater built a false sense of security. We must return to effective cleaning, using proven cleaning methods, products and solutions, and just as importantly, using those that are environmentally preferable,” Steve Ashkin.

Please join me for the Cleaning for Confidence Educational Summit to Debut on March 28. More info here: https://bit.ly/34AcXMq

#hygiene #disinfecting #cleaningforhealth #steveahkin #environment