Are Your Disinfecting Your Home Properly? How do you know?
Disinfecting indoor environments of crucial these days for obvious reasons. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 8-9 months you’ve come to realize that the cleaner the indoor environment is, the less chance of getting sick. There is one important question: Are you disinfecting your home properly? How do you know?
Before we get to the details of properly cleaning and disinfecting your home, we need to explain the concept of biofilms first.
What is a biofilm you ask? A bifiolm a collection of cells from microorganisms that stick together and form on any surface. Like plaque on your teeth, microscopic biofilms can and will form on any indoor and outdoor surface. Indoors, floors, walls, furniture, counter tops, personal items, etc, can have microscopic biofilms. This sticky collection of cells becomes a shield or hiding place for bacteria, mould spores as well as viruses. Think of it as a protective shield used by bacteria and viruses to hide and protect their colony from other colonies of bacteria, mould and viruses. Similar to a dense jungle with a natural protective habitat for all its little creatures.
The problem is that anti microbial solutions, sprays and cleaners including disinfectants also can’t get at these bacteria and viruses if the biofilm is well established. The biofilm habitat becomes more problematic for occupant health and indoor air quality when it supports and hides pathogenic bacteria and viruses.
This biofilm accumulation of cells forms a protective shield where pathogens such as E.coli, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus and even season flu viruses and coronavirus can hide and survive. So in other words, you could be fogging the indoor air and cleaning and disinfecting surfaces such as kitchen counters, light switches, faucet handles and toilet flush handles with bleach or any other disinfectant…and not really killing the harmful bacteria or virus.
This has major implications for how we clean our homes, offices and schools. If we are cleaning and disinfecting high touch areas but not really killing bacteria or viruses, then what is the health risk to our family, or occupants of a building.
Luckily, there is a way to determine if surface areas are in fact clean and disaffected properly.
A professional indoor environmental assessment designed to determine the efficacy of disinfection cleaning can provide valuable data on the cleaning and disinfection protocols and habits of residential homes and offices. Our indoor air quality testing programs can include a bacterial analysis of high touch areas to ensure your cleaning and disfunction practices are in fact killing bacteria and viruses.
We have been performing bacterial analysis in indoor environments for almost 20 years in the GTA. In the past this was usually performed for basements that had a sewer back up and was disinfected and cleaned. We would then perform bacterial surface analysis to ensure walls, floors and contents were properly cleaned and disinfected and that no harmful bacteria such as E.coli or coliform were present.
The same process can be used for determining if cleaning and disinfecting high touch areas have been successful in eliminating the bacterial, fungal or viral threat.
Contact us today for a detailed indoor environmental assessment and air quality test. We service Toronto and the surrounding GTA.
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