How commercial disinfection services keep workplaces safer

Commercial disinfection services allow businesses to reduce the risk of workplace infections. By cleaning and disinfecting high-touch areas, commercial disinfection protocols prevent the spread of pathogens, including harmful viruses and bacteria that cause conditions like COVID-19, the common cold, the flu, and food-borne illnesses.

Professional disinfection services can help keep businesses and their surrounding communities safer. Public health campaigns often promote proper hygiene and preventative healthcare to slow the spread of contagious illnesses. But prevention never works perfectly, so businesses need cleaning and disinfecting services to maintain the health and safety of their work environments.

 Learn how commercial disinfection works and why some companies need these services more frequently than others.

How does commercial disinfection work?

Commercial disinfection involves using chemical agents, UV light, or heat to break down pathogens and reduce the risk of infections. According to the Centers for Disease Control, high-touch areas often need to be cleaned first for disinfecting agents to work properly.

Commercial disinfection services commonly follow these steps:

• [Gloves] First, professional cleaners put on the personal protective equipment (PPE) that’s appropriate for the environment they’re cleaning, and that can include non-latex gloves, masks and face shields, shoe covers, or disposable cleaning coveralls.
• [Duster] Then, dry cleaning methods — like dusting and vacuuming — are used to remove any superficial dirt or debris before applying liquid cleaning products.
• [Sponge] Next, cleaners use cleaning agents to break down any other materials that may be on the surfaces that need to be disinfected. Cleaners should scrub any built-up grime away as well.
• [Spray bottle] Once the workplace surfaces are clean, disinfectants can work effectively. Liquid disinfectants are most commonly used since UV-light disinfection only works in certain conditions. Heat-based sterilization can be prohibitively expensive (dry heat methods) or inappropriate for moisture-sensitive equipment (moist heat methods like steam-cleaning). Knowledgeable cleaners should only use disinfecting agents approved by the EPA.
• [Cloth] Last, any excess disinfectants should be soaked up, and all surfaces are wiped down until dry.

How is commercial disinfection different from commercial cleaning?

When it comes to keeping commercial spaces safe, cleaning and disinfection services fulfill different purposes. While commercial cleaning uses cleaning agents to remove built-up dirt, debris, stains, or corrosion from workplace surfaces and equipment, commercial disinfection uses various methods to break down pathogens like viruses, germs, and bacteria.

But cleaning cannot  replace that step. Read more about why these tasks are separate steps during disinfection services for COVID-19.

For disinfection protocols to work and effectively prevent the spread of infections, professional cleaners should have training on what products and processes to use depending on the type of facility, surfaces, and pathogens involved. And cleaners can incorporate eco-friendly products for both commercial cleaning and disinfection.

How does commercial disinfection help keep businesses safer?

Encouraging staff and visitors to wash their hands and stay home when sick are great public health measures. But these efforts don’t work perfectly. Employing regular commercial disinfection services helps remove pathogens from high-touch surfaces.

Think about how often someone in your office or business borrows someone else’s pen, opens the break room fridge right after another colleague, or uses a shared computer. 

If not sanitized and disinfected, workplace surfaces can easily volley viruses — like those that cause COVID-19, the common cold, and the seasonal flu — back and forth between co-workers and workplace visitors, even if no one appears visibly sick.

Commercial disinfection services for COVID-19

Because of how many people contract COVID-19 without showing symptoms, many workplaces are incorporating disinfection services into their workplace management protocols.

And even if you work in an industry that doesn’t require frequent sanitizing services or your staff is vaccinated at a high rate, using COVID-19 disinfection services can still lower the risk of workplace infections.

Commercial disinfection during cold & flu season

Although many businesses are focused on using disinfecting services to prevent the spread of COVID-19, they also help reduce workplace absences due to cold and flu infections. Not only is that a great way to promote workplace health and safety, but it also saves businesses money.

Clean work environments help reduce unplanned absences and lower employer health insurance claims, which means commercial disinfection services are a great investment during flu season.

When do businesses need commercial disinfection services?

Disinfection and sanitization protocols are commonly associated with medical and food service businesses, but virtually every industry can and should use commercial disinfection for work environments.

However, some businesses will need disinfection services more than others — both in terms of how many surfaces require disinfection and how frequently. Based on CDC guidelines, commercial, office, and industrial facilities have a greater need for disinfection the more high-traffic spaces and high-touch surfaces they have.

How often should commercial spaces be disinfected across industries?

On one end of the spectrum, medical and food-service facilities would need the most comprehensive and most frequent disinfection or sanitization services. 

In contrast, offices with few visitors and few common spaces may only need regular disinfection services in break rooms and bathrooms. Public-facing businesses would fall somewhere in between.

How often your business disinfects its facilities or surfaces should correlate with the risk of exposure to pathogens. That can fluctuate — for example, if the local community has a surge in flu cases, you may want to disinfect more frequently.

However, suppose the community is relatively healthy, and no staff members or visitors have been sick recently. In that case, your business can default to the CDC guidelines of cleaning daily and disinfecting shared spaces when those issues do arise.

JK Janitorial can handle all your commercial disinfection needs and more

Whether your facility needs commercial disinfection services frequently or as a supplement to your regular commercial cleaning, let the JK Janitorial team give you peace of mind. We help our customers stay safer and more productive, providing the combination of cleaning and disinfection services their businesses need.

JK Janitorial provides cleaning and disinfection services with care, attention to detail, and professionalism. Since 1987, provided reliable, high-quality services to businesses across the midwestern and southern United States, including Arkansas, Kansas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas.

We’re trained to deliver commercial cleaning, disinfection, and janitorial services that help your business succeed, no matter what industry you’re in. 

With our convenient locations in Oklahoma City, Dallas, and Little Rock, we’re ready to help you maintain a safe work environment. Contact us today to see what kind of cleaning and disinfection services JK Janitorial can provide your business.