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Posted By tomahawk
It must be the season for old chestnuts as well as roasted ones !
I am being pressed again to get our office telephones and computer keyboards cleaned on a monthly basis because of how 'unhygenic they are'. I think its a waste of money and that we should supply wipes to staff to use as often as they see fit on the basis that they know best how often they use this kit. Neither the keyboards nor phones are used by others much - they are virtually for the exclusive use of whoevers desk they are on. Personally I can't see that someone coming round once a month is going to make them cleaner for any length of time - anyone any thoughts or ideas but please resist the temptation to quote recent articles that desks are dirtier than toilet seats !!!!
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Posted By Julide
I have some questions for you:
1 - do all staff use some significant number of phones? don't each have one of their own?
2 - don't you have a contract with an IT company to clean the pcs and the keyboards?
3 - don't you have cleaners at work?
4 - don't you have office (workplace)inspections?
5 - did you try to tell them about contagious diseases? ( any info on how germs are transmitted through sneezing etc)
these are the first thing I wonder.
thanks
Julide
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Posted By Julian Wilkinson
Hi Tomahawk,
in my experience cleaning pc's 3 x monthly is an unnecessary expense and found that 6 x monthly is fine as long as you use a hi-tech cleaning company for it. If they need to clean their kit more often then we supply the wipes and they do it themselves.
The phones are a different matter, monthly disinfecting/cleaning is the acceptable course of action. However we managed to build this in as part of the daily cleaning contract as this was very expensive if done by the hi-tech cleaners.
Hope this help
Julian
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Posted By Ron Hunter
I would support your approach tomahawk.
I would also discourage staff from eating at their desk, and generally expect them to take some responsibility for the hygiene of their own workstation.
Cans of compressed air are available which are quite effective at dislodging food scraps etc from keyboards!
Personally I would rather this than have someone transferring germs etc, across the office by way of a damp cloth!
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Posted By LMR
Clean keyboard? mine has never been cleaned and has an assortment of crumbs beneath it! I shake it outside once in a blue moon! i have worn off the text which confuses everyone - but it works better than any of the new ones they have offered me. (I was a proper shorthand typist so i dont need the letters marked!)
Air sprays are available but i react violently to the propellant gasses so they cannot be used in my vicinity. A good long bristled brush (kiddy paintbrush) will shift most with a wipe over with an anti-static duster.
telephones - we clean them as we need to in our environment that can be anything from 5 minutes to weeks. Wipes are available.
In the one job i did have where we had a contract to clean telephones and put freshers in we had more cases of breathing problems and facial rashes causing absences so we ditched that plan and went with wipes and clean dry tissue (kitchen roll for cheapness) and have had no problems since.
Not a cost effective move in my experience.
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Posted By Julian Wilkinson
further to my previous post, what you do depends on the numbers of staff or equipment you are using. where we have over 500 pc's and 500 phones warrants a cleaning programme.
If you have only a few maybe it doesn't and probably much easier to do it yourselves.
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Posted By Ron Hunter
The propellant in a can of compressed air is.......err........compressed air!
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Posted By GARRY WIZZ
Have not clue as to the correct answer but from the posts it would seem that you should.....or should you
Is there a significant provable risk that my H&S is endangered from the use of equipment that lives in a relatively clean environment.
I would consider that unless you cleaned the equipment prior to ones own use of it then cleaning would be a bit hit and miss as far as killing off a few germs.
I could be off base here, just looking for the logic that requires regular cleaning for the IT bits.
Garry
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Posted By LMR
propellant in the aerosol of air to clean the computer contains a small percentage of butane (commonly used propellant it being ozone friendly). compressed air would not cause an allergic reaction - we too were surprised as we believed it to be clean compressed air. Some of them may be but after one reaction we do not use them in an area with ashtmatics.
Again the basic rule applies - ALWAYS read the labels.
Sensitization to chemicals needing epi-pens are not to be sniffed at (apologies for that one)
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Posted By Chris Packham
Presumably the theory behind regular cleaning of phones is that this prevents cross infection. I have to question this assumption.
Of course, sneezing when using the phone or exhaled air can expell bacteria which will land on the handset around the mouthpiece. How well these then survive on the surface of the phone is another matter.
Then there is the question of transfer. How are the bacteria on the mouthpiece of the handset going to get to the user? Do you lick your phone? As far as I am aware bacteria do not have wings and cannot simply take flight.
So in reality the risk of cross-infection is very small. Just try to find real evidence of this being a significant source of cross infection.
I could also argue that regular use of a disinfectant wipe could actually present a greater hazard to health from penetration of the active biocide through the skin of the hands to trigger an allergic reaction!
I am not arguing that we should not clean phones, but let us keep some sense of reality and proportion.
Chris
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Posted By Julide
Chris,
we sure do not lick the handset but we touch it? don't we?
How many people do you know to wash hands after phone use?
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Posted By Chris Packham
Julide
yes, but your skin, if in good condition, will have a bacteriostatic effect and the potential for cross contamination from holding a handset will be very small.
We are surrounded by bacteria. In fact, there are more bacteria in your mouth than people on this planet. Only 1% of all bacteria are harmful to humans, and then only if they can gain access to the part of the body where they can cause a problem. (In my courses I always say that this can be compared to weeds. A weed is only a plant in the wrong place at the wrong time!)
You also carry many millions of bacteria in your skin anyway. They are part of the skin's defence mechanism for preventing infection by the transient bacteria. These resident flora are generally harmless to others.
If handsets are such a problem, then what about everything else we touch. When you catch the train you hold the handle to open the door, you will hold on to the handrail on stairs, escalators, etc. Did the person on that escalator before you wash their hands after using the toilet. And excessive hand washing can damage the skin and make it more susceptible to colonisation by transiet (pathogenic) bacteria.
The danger is that we become so paranoid about bugs (just like the USA) that we actually damage our immune system and make ourselves more vulnerable. Its all about keeping a sense of proportion.
Chris
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Posted By Exdeeps
Tomahawk,
There's a chapter on this in the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy". Apparently a whole planet was wiped out because the middle managers were shipped out and no one scheduled the regular cleaning of telephones which resulted in a plague and all the executives and workers died.Serious stuff indeed.
Sorry, but I couldn't resist it,
Jim
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Posted By Ron Hunter
LMR, I stand (or sit) corrected. I didn't see anything other than air on the can contents here though.
I too had a smile in recalling the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" episode.
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