- January 21, 2022
- iOT
During the COVID-19 pandemic, automatic appliances like touch-less soap dispensers are not just convenient—they are beneficial to our health. Good hygiene is always important, but over the last year it’s become even more vital to heed proper hand washing practices. One way we can make our homes that much more hygienic is by using an automatic soap dispenser.
We know that bathroom and kitchen surfaces can be breeding grounds for bacteria and viruses, so the fewer surfaces you touch, the better. Arising from the urgent need of curbing spread of virus through cross contamination increased among infection prevention professionals, the industry responded, introducing touch-less sink fixtures and hardware as well as soap and paper towel dispensers.
In fact, an entire generation has nearly grown up around this kind of touch-less environment, making it the standard for restrooms everywhere, but most notably in healthcare facilities to decrease infections.
When hands come into contact with these surfaces, microbial agents can then be transferred to the nose, mouth, eyes or environmental surfaces via indirect contact transmission. Touch-less dispensing solutions are one way to help reduce the spread of germs in a restroom. These systems can help make the task of using as well as maintaining the restroom easier, more efficient and more cost-effective, while providing improved hygiene and sanitation features.
A recent survey conducted as part of ASM’s Clean Hands Campaign revealed that although 95 percent of men and women claim that they wash after using a public toilet, observations made by researchers discovered that only 67 percent actually do.
The same survey discovered that among people who do use public restrooms, nearly 66 percent use a variety of maneuvers to avoid touching anything, including using their feet to flush toilets, their elbows to open doors, and paper towels to turn off faucets and open handled doors on their way out.
The study showed that contamination of hand-contact surfaces could act as a reservoir for microorganisms and could contribute to hand contamination before or after hand washing. In addition, the sink environment and its organic matter could serve as a breeding ground for potential pathogens.
In conclusion, considering a hand washing system with a automatic hand dryer introduced into the system, due to the constant maintenance and refills that come along with paper towel dispensers, automatic hand dryers will be a cost-effective solution. Not only must paper towels be refilled, but there are also costs associated with the production and clean-up of paper towels. For example additional trash bags and cleaning products are needed to dispose of the paper towels and reduce the spread of germs through towels left on counter tops.
