Hamilton, OH – January 25, 2010 - As a result of recent concerns about H1N1 and other public health menaces, school districts around the country have been taking a number of steps to help protect the health of their students and staffs.
Catoosa County Public Schools in Ringgold, GA, about an hour north of Atlanta, believes they have already accomplished this and that no new special cleaning regime is necessary other than the schools' current cleaning system, used in the district's 1.7 million square feet of school space.
The district uses a No-Touch Cleaning® system. With this system, a machine applies cleaning chemicals to all surfaces to be cleaned. The areas are then rinsed, a process that loosens and removes contaminants. A final step involves vacuuming up the solution and debris with the machine's built-in wet/vac system, effectively removing the contaminants from the area. *
According to Damon Raines and Paul Acuff, environmental service managers for the district, one of the key reasons the district turned to no-touch cleaning was to protect the health of 'high risk' children—a relatively new term that refers to children that have chronic health, emotional, or developmental needs.
Without proper care and hygienic cleaning, these students are more susceptible to diseases, such as H1N1 and other infections.
'The Kaivac No-Touch system has proven so effective that we do not believe there is a need for implementing any special cleaning programs due to H1N1,' says Raines. 'Should we get a cluster of absences, we will review our cleaning protocol. But right now, we have everything under control.'
Acuff adds that protecting the health of high risk children helps ensure that the health and well-being of all students, as well as teachers and staff, are also protected.