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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...

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...

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...

In the present market there are more cleaning products than its possible to list. Especially when new products are constantly emerging - new names or new brands under a conglomerate and new, re-formulated mixes adding to an increasingly saturated market place.

But when it comes to purchasing what is the difference between cleaning products? what is it that influences our purchase? Is it familiarity? A brand with a rich history? The claims the product makes? Or, perhaps, these buying decisions are based on something else, maybe a mercenary approach to shopping or simply, what’s available at the time of shopping. In any of these choices, apart from perhaps, ethical decisions, are the ingredients of a product ever scrutinised? Sure, w...

In September 2016, the Food and Drug Administration ruled for the removal of triclosan—an ingredient found in antibacterial soap and hand sanitizer—from commercial and consumer hand hygiene products.

The ruling states the ingredient must be removed from all applicable products by September 6, 2017, and manufacturers are already making moves to comply, according to Cleaning and Maintenance Management’s February 2017 cover story, “The Ban on Triclosan.”

However, in addition to triclosan, the FDA has also barred 18 other ingredients from over-the-counter wash products. The full list includes:

CloflucarbanFluorosalanHexachloropheneHexylresorcinolIodine complex (ammonium ether sulfate and polyoxyethylene sorbitan...

Mandated changes to hand hygiene products may impact your workforce, budget, and building occupants

On September 2, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced its final ruling on triclosan, an active ingredient used in consumer antiseptic and antibacterial wash products. In this ruling, the FDA banned triclosan and 18 other ingredients from being marketed in commercial and consumer wash products.

The FDA says manufacturers have until September 6, 2017, to reformulate their production lines and remove existing triclosan products from the market. However, these changes will not only impact product manufacturers; the onus to remove triclosan products used in facilities and replace them with FDA-compliant products will fall ...