Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 16th January 2025 Issue no. 1145
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Illness impacts your people's ability to work: Are you prepared for the winter months?
Each year, seasonal influenza is responsible for up to 50 million symptomatic cases in the European Union/European Economic Area.
Flu and flu-like illness has a meaningful impact on people's ability to work, which also impacts you as an employer. The majority of cold and flu seasons peak between December and February - with this season just around the corner, are you prepared?
Some 20% of the population is infected with seasonal influenza each year, so the impact on your organisation can be significant. Staff absences can be a real issue in terms of detrimental impact on an individual employee's wellbeing, as well as a reduction in your overall capacity and any associated increased costs.
Keeping hands clean and helping to promote good hand hygiene are crucial parts of mitigating these impacts on the workplace and on your people. Hands transmit 80% of all infections - good hand washing practice can prevent one in five respiratory infections. Germs can also stay alive on the hands for up to three hours, so it's no surprise that your employees need clean hands to help reduce their spread.
There are clear guidelines around when to wash, and when to sanitise, which can help your workforce maintain best practices. Recommended advice on good hand washing practices is as follows:
* Hands should be washed regularly and especially before and after eating, after touching potentially contaminated surfaces such as door handles or light switches and after coughing or sneezing and using the washroom
* A good hand washing technique needs to be employed to clean the hands thoroughly and thus prevent the further spread of germs
* Hand washing is a key aspect of hand hygiene, visibly removing soiling from the hands as well as high levels of bacteria and viruses when carried out correctly
Recommended advice on when to sanitise is as follows
:
* As with hand washing, proper technique is needed when using sanitisers
* Sanitisers should only be used when the hands are not visibly soiled
* Enough product should be applied to keep hands wet for 20 - 30 seconds
* A palmful of product should be used - or enough to cover the entire hands
SC Johnson Professional can help your organisation prepare for the cold and flu season.
5th December 2024