Commercial cleaning is usually done on a large scale, and often involves use of various cleaning chemicals that can cause bodily harm. As such, the commercial cleaners need to take the necessary precautions when handling cleaning chemicals.
Bodily harm, meanwhile, can occur as a result of other various reasons apart from mishandling cleaning chemicals. Personal injuries, such as slips and falls occur mainly due to negligence of personal safety measures during cleaning. Lack of appropriate safety measures or the utter negligence of the laid out cleaning procedures can result to other catastrophic accidents and health complications.
In this article, we will discuss the safety measures that a commercial cleaner must observe during commercial cleaning.
Personal Protective Equipment
Commercial cleaners use various cleaning solutions and chemicals such as bleaches and acids, which cause significant health damage upon coming into contact with the skin, eyes, or even worse, when a cleaner swallows them.
Cleaning chemicals have various effects which include skin burns (when acids spill on your skin), blindness, or cases of poisoning (especially when you swallow the cleaning chemicals), depending on the area of contact.
Personal cleaning equipment comprise safety clothing and accessories that help protect different body parts against the harmful effects of cleaning chemicals. Each personal protective equipment is designed specifically to offer protection to a specific body part.
Some personal cleaning equipment are listed below.
- Gloves
The safest gloves are usually made of rubber because rubber is relatively inert. As such, rubber gloves help protect your hands against the effects of bleach and acid-based cleaning solutions.
- Googles
Protective googles help protect your eyes in case the cleaning chemical splashes on your face, and against reactive gases that are produced when the cleaning chemicals come into contact with different surfaces.
- Uniforms and Safety Shoes
Commercial cleaning uniforms not only help protect the cleaning personnel against different cleaning hazards, but also enable them to stand out from the other staff in the building.
Additionally, there are some site-specific gear such as safety shoes that are used in places with imminent hazards like construction sites.
Proper Use of Cleaning Chemicals
The most common cleaning chemicals used in commercial cleaning are soaps, detergents, bleaches, and acids. These cleaning chemicals come with vivid instructions and utility guidelines that help commercial cleaners use the right amounts of each during cleaning.
Using concentrated bleach leads to discoloration of surfaces, while excessively diluted bleach may result in low-quality cleaning results, contrary to the client’s desires.
Meanwhile, avoid mixing some classes of cleaning chemicals: mixing acids and bleaches is a disastrous as the two chemicals yield harmful gases. Additionally, cleaning acids require extra caution, and you need to ensure that you dilute your acids properly to avoid dissolving metallic surfaces when cleaning.
Commercial cleaners must ensure that they use the appropriate mixing ratios when using cleaning chemicals.
Appropriate Cleaning Tools and Equipment
If you want to distinguish between professional commercial cleaners and amateur cleaners, simply check the kind of cleaning equipment they are using.
Professional commercial cleaning companies utilize modern cleaning machinery and equipment to deliver top-notch commercial cleaning services in Troy, MI.
Modern working and residential spaces call for adaptive equipment (such as vacuum cleaners) that not only help ease the commercial cleaning process, but also help reduce the cleaners’ exposure to health hazards like dust particles.
Furthermore, there are other cleaning equipment (like mops) which are tailored for specific tasks and would otherwise pose a health hazard if the commercial cleaners didn’t use them.
Proper Signage
Safety measures employed during commercial cleaning are meant to protect both the cleaning staff and other building users. As such, the commercial cleaners must ensure that they use proper signage especially in places like restaurants and office buildings.
Signs help warn and notify other building users of ongoing cleaning activities, slippery floors, or keep them out of the area under cleaning completely.
Conclusion
Safety in commercial cleaning is of the utmost importance as it helps protect both the commercial cleaners and other building users against potential hazards. Ensure that a cleaning company has all these measures in place before offering them a cleaning contract.
