COVID-19 Back to Work Cleanliness Inspection and Certificate

COVID-19 – THE FACTS

• Worldwide COVID-19 cases surpass 900,000 cases (as at 02/04/2020).The COVID-19 virus can live for up to three days on some surfaces, like plastic and steel.
• Symptoms of COVID-19 can range from mild illness to pneumonia. Some people will recover easily, and others may get very sick very quickly.The virus can spread from person to person through: close contact with an infectious person (including in the 24 hours before they started showing symptoms), contact with droplets from an infected person’s cough or sneeze or from touching objects or surfaces (like doorknobs or tables) that have cough or sneeze droplets from an infected person, and then touching your mouth or face.

COVID-19 is a new disease, so there is no existing immunity in our community.The Australian Government recommends social distancing, and good hygiene to protect yourself and others from the virus.

OUR BACK TO WORK CLEANLINESS INSPECTION AND CERTIFICATION PROCESS

COVID-19 and Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)

The new COVID-19 virus spreads from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth when a person with COVID-19 coughs, sneezes or exhales. These droplets land on objects and surfaces around the person. Other people then catch COVID-19 by touching these objects or surfaces, then touching their eyes, nose or mouth. Emerging research also suggests that the virus may be present in faeces, suggesting a possible faecal-oral route of transmission.Detecting the actual presence of the COVID-19 virus in the workplace environment is currently out of reach for most organisations. Therefore, it is necessary to determine whether the site is of a suitable cleanliness level reducing the risk associated with viruses and other contaminants. This can be achieved through Air Quality and Surface Testing methods. Respiratory droplets from sneezing or coughing contains different human organic material (e.g. epithelial cells, cells of the immune system, bacteria, fungi and viruses) including Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP). All organic matter (living or once-living) contains ATP, an organic compound providing energy for living cells. In determining cleanliness, ATP Surface Testing can therefore be used to show if organic cellular material is present on objects and surfaces. Given the COVID-19 virus is known to be transmitted by both contact with respiratory droplets and is present in faecal matter, Saunders Safety and Training can undertake a cleanliness inspection of your workplace. Our Air Quality and Surface Sampling process will assess the presence of air pollutants and ATP, providing a practical, cost-effective and efficient way of checking the cleanliness of your workplace prior to workers re-entering.

Step 1 – Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and ATP Inspection and Testing

An Occupational Hygienist will complete IAQ Testing and Surface Sampling for ATP within the workplace prior to workers re-entering.  We complete the ATP sample analysis on-site with our ATP Hygiene Monitoring system. The system provides rapid on-the spot results.

Information captured during our Back to Work Cleanliness Inspection are inputted directly into our enterprise HAZMAT App.

Benefits of our HAZMAT App Include –

• Instant reporting direct from the App
• Elimination of report writing time
• Consistency in reporting
• Customer access to clearance inspection results

The IAQ Testing and Surface Sampling will include the following parameters –

• Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)
• Temperature (oC) and Relative Humidity (RH) Levels
• Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
• Carbon Monoxide (CO)
• Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
• Sulphur dioxide (SO2)
• Total VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds)

Step 2 – Inspection Report and Clearance Certificate

Once the Indoor Air Quality and ATP surface sampling has been completed, a Clearance Certificate will be issued.

The Clearance Certificate can be displayed adjacent to the main access point into the workplace to assure all workers that the working environment has undergone testing for possible risks to staff and visitors alike.

Environmental Cleaning and Disinfection Principles for COVID-19

The best ongoing defence against COVID-19 in the workplace is ensuring personal hygiene practices like washing hands continues, covering of coughs and sneezes, immediately disposing of tissues, isolating people who are unwell and ensuring the disinfecting and cleaning of all surfaces where organic and cellular material may be present.

Find below a link to the Australian Government, Department of Health, Environmental cleaning and disinfection principles for COVID-19:

https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2020/03/environmental-cleaning-and-disinfection-principles-for-covid-19.pdf

The document contains principals for effectively cleaning your work environment prior to our back to work cleanliness clearance inspection.

If required, we are able to recommend service providers to complete a deep clean of your workplace in-line with the cleaning and disinfection principles for COVID-19 for your workplace.

The deep clean should consider the workplace environment, nature of the work carried out and target all surfaces where transmission could occur including but not limited to: Door handles, Tabletops, Light switches, Keyboards and Computers.

Dr Geoffrey Sayer BSc(Psychol) MCH PhD FAIDH GAICD

We commissioned Dr Geoffrey Sayer, an Epidemiologist with a speciality in scientific review, community health, evidenced based medicine, statistics, and population risk. Dr Sayer completed a literature review of the current evidence available and confirmed the suitability of the approach we indicated within our service offering.

Dr Sayer’s experience includes:

• Epidemiology with NSW Health and Western Sydney Public Health Unit
• Academic research in Medicine, Health and Epidemiology in Primary Care
• Teaching in Epidemiology and Statistics with both the University of Sydney and The University of Western Sydney

“The Back to Work Cleanliness Inspection and Certificate process is about Risk Mitigation as part of ongoing hygiene, cleaning and disinfection practices in the workplace during these unprecedented times. By providing links to the Australian Government, Department of Health, Environmental Cleaning and Disinfection principles and Personal Hygiene practices for COVID-19, we are wanting to help work-places and are not just testing without consideration of these other good practices.”

Click here to download PDF brochure.

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