Spray and Pray Is NOT Disinfection

Have you considered the manner in which your disinfectant is being delivered to the surface by the professional cleaning staff? Have you investigated how long the disinfectant remains wet on the surface once it is applied?

If you spray a surface with a disinfectant and wipe it off right away, it won’t be effective. Remember, no disinfectant works instantly! You are “spraying and praying” that the process kills the surface pathogens. You may as well ditch your disinfectant and use tap water; you’ll get the same surface disinfection results.

Disinfecting surfaces is a 2-Step Process

Many cleaning professionals have heard that a surface must be cleaned before applying a disinfectant. However, they might not know exactly why. But before explaining the reasons, it will help to identify the differences between cleaning and disinfecting. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), here is how these terms are defined:

Cleaning is removing. We don’t hide or brush aside dust and wastes and say we’re cleaning. We must remove and dispose of them, too. The CDC’s definition for cleaning refers to the removal of dirt and impurities, including germs, from surfaces. Cleaning alone does not kill germs. But, by removing the germs, it decreases their number and therefore any risk of spreading infection. 

The unqualified use of the term “cleaning” should be avoided when communicating hygiene practices with your staff. Terms other than “cleaning” could be used to define this process and state of hygienic cleaning—hygienically clean. 

It is time to replace “clean” or “cleaning” with “hygienic cleaning” to refer to any process intended to reduce the numbers of pathogens on surfaces to an acceptable safety target level which makes it fit for purpose.

Disinfecting, according to the CDC’s definition for disinfecting works by using chemicals to kill germs on surfaces. This process does not necessarily clean dirty surfaces or remove germs. But killing germs remaining on a surface after cleaning further reduces any risk of spreading infection. 

For an environment to be considered disinfected, we remove or make safe the vast majority (95%) of harmful substances in it. We eliminate the pathogens that are most threatening to humans. A disinfected condition can be achieved, but the requisite time to task must be established and adhered to.

The following explanations from leading health and safety sources can help explain why the two-step process is necessary.

• A publication on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website states: Clean first before you disinfect. Germs can hide underneath dirt and other material on surfaces where they are not affected by the disinfectant. Dirt and organic material can also reduce the germ-killing ability of some disinfectants. 
• From the book A Practical Guide to Decontamination in Healthcare:  To ensure efficacy, cleaning is a necessary first step followed by disinfection. Use only color-coded micro denier microfiber cleaning cloths for soil removal and change them frequently.                                  

When Speed Meets Need

Ditch the trigger sprayer. Novel application methods such as Electrostatic Sprayers warrant further evaluation in the facility setting as the devices produce positively charged disinfectant particles of equal size, which distribute uniformly over surfaces.

The ESS equipment allows for touchless disinfection and could be more effective at targeting sites that:

·       might have been missed by the cleaning professional,

·       are more difficult to reach or,

·       are too labor intensive to disinfect with a traditional microfiber wipe or flat mop

·       need appropriate contact time per the disinfectant’s label.

Electrostatic spraying is still the fastest, most effective, and economical way to keep infectious diseases at bay but it’s not intended to replace daily cleaning, hand hygiene and touch-point targeted disinfection.

The staff should be trained in proper cleaning methods and disinfection by hand. Once that is achieved, ESS equipment can be used as a secondary disinfecting technique.

CALL TO ACTION

At a minimum, cleaning must always achieve a state of “sanitation.” An unsanitary condition poses a likely health risk. The purpose of cleaning is to correct the risky condition. Therefore, if a risk has not been improved to a level, we call sanitary, cleaning has not been accomplished.

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