How to Disinfect your space?

How will we make our spaces safe again when we are released from Lockdown? How will we give the public confidence to come into our holiday lets, restaurants, offices and public spaces?

The answer appears to be big business at the moment, with many entrepeneurs offering their expertise in fogging to kill every bug in every situation. However I want to just share a few pointers for you to consider before you push ahead with an expensive process.

Before any disinfection can occur, you absolutely must first clean your space. Disinfecting isn’t a quick solution to cleaning, it’s a secondary process. According to GBAC – Global Biorisk Advisory Council, to irradicate any biorisk from crime scene to office with potential Coronavirus residue you should follow this process:

• Incident site Risk Assessment
• Pre-disinfect – a process to disinfect everything in the space
• Load reduction – removal of waste
• Forensic cleaning – This is your standard cleaning process to remove any residual dirt on surfaces etc.
• Professional disinfection – This stage removes the unseen virus and leaves the space safe.
• Post site risk assessment – quality control (to ensure the risk is gone)

Depending on your setting there are lots of options of how to disinfect, which I will try to explain below, along with some pros and cons. (NB there will be additional methods)

Virucidal Spray – This process is a very common and cheap method to clean all hard surfaces and high touch points (light switches and door handles) and can easily be implemented by anyone. You just need to check that your spray works on enveloped viruses to be effective against Coronavirus and ensure that it has the appropriate dwell time (leave it to air dry and you should be fine). Some products need diluting so you need to make sure you get the concentrations correct. This method is the best for frequent cleaning and for hard surfaces. It’s not so effective on soft furnishings and it also requires you to cover all surfaces manually. Virucidal sprays with EN14675 or EN14476 are tested on similar viruses but haven’t yet been tested on SARS-CoV-2. EN14476:2013+A2:2019 are products that have been tested on and found to be effective on SARS-CoV-2.

Fogging – These is the use of machines that push out disinfectant in a fine mist to cover all surfaces, because the mist is pushed out under pressure the disinfectant spreads across a wide area and can get into hard to reach areas. However on the down side you have to prepare you space well, cover all fire alarms and electrical appliances and ensure no one enters the room during and after the fogging until the appropriate time has passed. Operators must wear full PPE and be well trained on both the equipment and the chemicals they are using.

UV Light – UV-C Lights use short wave ultraviolet radiation.  The light penetrates the outer structure of the cell and alters the DNA molecule preventing it from replication and causing cell death.  It has been used since the 1880s to kill micro-organisms and has been used to successfully kill a range of viruses, bacteria and organisms including: Coronavirus, Ebola, MRSA, Salmonella, E-Coli, Fleas, dust mites and Pneumonia. It has a kill rate of 99.99% (Log 4). Lights can be set up in rooms and left for a set time (timer on the appliance) and the room can be vacated while in operation, or there are hand held UV lights commonly known as ‘wands’ that can be swipped over surfaces to ensure all living cells are destroyed. Pros are that it can be used in a variety of settings and is safe for use, however you must remember that light travels in straight lines and it won’t get into folds in curtains or into hidden cracks.

Gaseous Ozone – Gaseous ozone is emitted from an ozone generator in a sealed space. The room must be absolutely clear of any living things including pets, plants, people and sealed while the generator is in action. The ozone generator draws in Oxygen from the air, converts it to and then emits Ozone (O3). Ozone is very effective in cleaning air, and a number of people use ozone generators to get rid of unpleasant smells (eg smoke or teenage bedrooms!) However, from my research it appears that it’s kill rate on SARS-CoV-2 is still under investigation, but may be no better than 99.22%. After an ozone generator has finished the room must be left for a certain time to ensure the ozone breaks down before anyone can enter.

Aqueous Ozone

A stabilised form of Ozone suspended in water for up to 24 hours. Essentially it is a powerful cleaning and disinfecting product that consists of water, oxygen and electricity. A powerful charge is pushed through the water to change the structure. The O2 in water become O3 (oxone). This is a powerful cleaning agent, and after 24 hours the O3 has returned to O2 making it perfectly safe to throw out down the plug as normal tap water.

It can be used to pre-disinfect, clean and disinfect, so is a multi purpose item, however it has not yet been fully tested on SAR-CoV-2. It has been found to be 99.99% (Log-4) effective on a nearest similar virus

Steam Cleaning:

Within the steamer heat is used to transform a single litre of tap water to over 1700 litres of steam, which is enough to clean a small apartment.   Because you are only using tap water, you are not leaving behind any chemical residue that may be harmful to guests especially those with allergies. The steam also binds dust together and removes it rather than emitting any allergens and therefore it also improves the air quality.

The official UK government advice is to steam clean your upholstery and fabric furnishings to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.   Karcher, who are obviously a leading brand in the steam cleaning world, have carried out research in an independent lab and the result “if used properly, the machines remove up to 99.999% (Log 5) of enveloped viruses such as the coronavirus and influenza, and 99.99% of common household bacteria from hard surfaces”   It appears that it has not been fully tested yet on soft furnishings, however that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work, just that it hasn’t been tested.

Hopefully this has been a useful summary of disinfection methods that can be used in a variety of environments. If you would like to know more on any of the products or on how we can help you to clean and disinfect your space, please just drop us a message.