by James Flieler

Concrete floors have evolved over the decades. They were originally restricted to the most functional facility areas, such as basements, warehouses, and industrial work areas. Now you see concrete floors just about anywhere in all types of residential and commercial facilities. You may notice these floors have a new look compared to concrete floors of the past.

Today’s concrete floors are often dyed or stained in many different colors and decorated with patterns and designs. Thanks to these new looks, some facilities, such as retail buildings, consider concrete the “in” floor. And for good reason:

• Concrete can be amazingly durable
• When compared to other flooring materials, such as stone, concrete is very cost effective
• Concrete floors typically require less maintenance than other floors.

It’s this last point that often results in one of the biggest misconceptions about concrete floors....

DuPage County sent this bulletin at 01/29/2019 01:09 PM CST

Extreme cold is heading for DuPage County!

COLD WEATHER SAFETY TIPS Extreme cold is heading for DuPage County! Starting late Tuesday night, DuPage County will enter its coldest snap in more than a decade. Temperatures will stay below freezing both day and night. The winter conditions will result in potentially life-threatening wind chills. Take some time to make sure your home is ready and make sure your family is safe! If you cannot stay in your home, use this list of heating centers in DuPage County to find a warm place to stay. Please call the heating center first to make sure they are open and operating. Metra has released a modified schedule for Tuesday and Wednesday. Tips to keep your pets safe in extreme cold. Report an outage with ComEd, check repair status, or view outage maps. Check in on your local weather forecast. Visit the DuPage County website and the 18th Judicial Circuit Court's website for details on office closures. If you need additional assistance, please visit the Community Resource Information System's website. If you need to speak with someone, please call (800) 942-9412. In an emergency, please call 911. If you have non-emergency situations, please contact your local municipality. Determine your local municipality's non-emergency number nowbefore it's needed! Cold Weather Fire Prevention and Safety Never use an oven or stovetop to heat your home. Use of space heaters is not recommended. If you must use a space heater, make sure it is UL certified and located at least three feet from anything that could ignite. If using extension cords, make sure they are UL certified and only connected to one appliance. Cords should never be placed under a carpet. Frozen Pipes To keep pipes from freezing on an outside wall: Let hold and cold water trickle or drip at night from a faucet. Open cabinet doors to allow more heat to get to un-insulated pipes under a sink or near an outer wall. Make sure the heat is left on and set no lower than 55 degrees. If a pipe freezes: Make sure you and your family knows how to shut off the water in case a pipe bursts. Never try to thaw a pipe with an open flame or torch. Use a hair dryer instead. Always be careful of the potential for electric shock around standing water.

​

If you are an employer or a manager, it is your responsibility to provide a safe work environment not only for your cleaning staff, but for all your employees.To do so, there are three of things that have to happen.

First, management commitment must exist and it must be continuous (not a one time thing).

Second, the cleaning organization must comply with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Hazard Communication Standard and have a written hazard communication program in place.

Finally, employees must be involved in developing, understanding and executing the program.

The ISSA Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) leads managers through all of the above (see section 4, Health, Safety and Environmental Stewa...

According to a CMM Daily News article, Eight percent of U.S. water systems don’t meet federal safety standards. The artciele raised the following concers below;

Is the water system for your facility keeping out contaminants? If your building has been regularly maintained and is in an urban or suburban area, its water supply is most likely safe. However, if you maintain an aging facility, or one in a rural area, your water supply may not meet federal standards, CNN reports.

Since Flint, MI, made the news several years ago for its unsafe drinking water, testing in other towns and facilities, including schools, has revealed unsafe levels of lead, copper, and other contaminants. Recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports...

The workplace restroom is crawling with germs. Research has shown there are thousands of different species of bacteria on the floors and on other surfaces of public restrooms. Even worse: That bacteria is not simply lying dormant—it is actively multiplying and dispersing at alarming rates. In fact, a toilet seat can spray aerosolized feces as high as 15 feet into the air, and during the course of 2 to 4 hours, bacteria can spread to more than 60 percent of frequently handled surfaces, such as door handles and sink edges.

Handwashing is a great first step to ensuring all of this potentially harmful bacteria is removed from hands before building occupants leave the restroom. However, hand drying is where things can get dicey and has...

CDC offers tips to prevent contamination from infected chicken products

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is investigating a salmonella outbreak that has infected at least 92 people in 29 states, leading to 21 hospitalizations.

The strain of salmonella is resistant to several antibiotics and has been linked to a variety of raw chicken products. As a single supplier of chicken products has not been identified, the CDC believes the salmonella strain is widespread in the poultry industry.

Facilities with kitchens can avoid spreading salmonella by following these tips from the CDC:

Wash your hands before handling food, between handling different food items, and after handling raw meat or poultry.Don't wash chicken b...

Whether you operate or manage a restaurant, hotel, fitness center, retail store, or other facility, properly maintaining and stocking the restrooms is one way to show customers that you care about providing an excellent experience at every level. These processes are also essential if you’re aiming to achieve coveted five-star status for your business on consumer-driven review websites, such as Yelp and TripAdvisor, which have proven influential in the past.

Today, patrons can quickly and easily voice their disappointment to friends and family, and even to people outside of their immediate networks via popular social media and review websites. There are also numerous apps available that allow customers to share their feedback regard...

Ensure these areas are both clean and up to safety standards

By Amy Seretsky

Most of us have seen baby changing stations in public restrooms, and they are possibly already installed in buildings we manage or clean.

However, facility managers and cleaning professionals may not know that a bill called the BABIES bill was signed into law by President Obama near the end of his term. The BABIES bill refers to the Bathrooms Accessible in Every Situation Act, which requires all publically-accessible federal buildings to have baby changing stations for both women's and men’s restrooms.

While this law may not impact your facility now, it may in the future. Changes like these tend to eventually find their way into privately-owned commercial ...

A recent World Health Organization (WHO) report links poor sanitation, contaminated water, and inadequate hygiene to the deaths of 1.7 million children worldwide per year.

The most common causes of death for one in four children under five, such as diarrhea, malaria, and pneumonia, could be prevented by improvements to water, air quality, and cleaning practices, according to the WHO report.

“A polluted environment results in a heavy toll on the health of our children,” said Dr. Maria Niera, WHO director of department of public health, environmental, and social determinants of health. “Investing in the removal of environmental risks to health, such as improving water quality or using cleaner fuels, will result in massive...