Hygienic washrooms
February 1st 2004 In the food industry hand hygiene is also of critical importance. There are an estimated 9.4 million cases of intestinal disorders per annum in England alone. Approximately 50% of these are foodborne. Cleaning and hand hygiene are recognized as being important factors in the attempts to reduce food poisoning. Around 1 in 10 patients acquire an infection while in hospital leading to 5000 fatalities. It is estimated that as many as 30% of these are avoidable and improved cleaning and hand hygiene could make a significant contribution to reducing the scale of the problem.
Dart Valley Systems has produced a report on the benefits of no-touch taps, which can be found on www.watermark.gov.uk under News/Special Projects. To reduce the problems caused by carrying infectious bacteria on the hands it is important to reduce bacteria on surfaces and improve handwashing.
There are other products that improve hygiene and save water such as No-Touch wave-on electronic WC flushing systems. These are hygienic, easy to operate [help disabled and young children] and use 30% less water. Other benefits include low maintenance, vandal resistant and improved aesthetics. These systems are being installed in many industry sectors, including airports, hospitals, factories, motorway services, public toilets, and office buildings. The most important area for most organisations to carefully review to avoid wasting water is urinal bowl cleaning. DVS estimate that there is still around 200million of water being poured down the drain each year in the UK as a result of having no urinal controls fitted or not maintained. The average reduction obtained from fitted conventional PIR electronic urinal controls is 80% and payback is normally 3 to 6 months.
The alternative solutions for cost effective cleaning of urinal bowls has become more sophisticated and DVS offer a wide range of options to ensure the best solution is available for each application. These include the most popular multiple bowl PIR systems, Individual bowl designs that are the best option for busy places such as airports, and biological cleaning which enables even further reductions in water. DVS strongly advise caution and careful consideration before committing to totally waterless and recommend a review of their article on the subject, which can be viewed on www.watermark.gov.uk under News/Special Projects.
This article will also give some pointers on issues such as ammonia smells in toilets, the route causes and solutions to eradicate them using biological additives for urinal bowls and WCs coupled with biological cleaners. DVS are pioneers in developing hygienic water conservation products, with the most extensive range of products and experience enabling the Company to provide expert advise for implementing cost effective water saving solutions. The Company is also partners to the Government initiative watermark project to help and advise the Public Sector on how to save water.
Amongst DVS water saving achievements are massive savings made at major UK airports, 250 000 a year by Wiltshire County Council and 1million per year by Safeways Supermarket. More articles from Dart Valley Systems Limited: | 
