An assessment of effectiveness of cleaning critical surfaces in elementary schools

Abstract

Inadequate cleaning and maintenance practices in schools, compounded by the effects of emerging infectious disease agents, can put students' health at increased risk. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is a useful tool for establishing pre- and post-cleaning residual surface contamination on high contact surfaces. Fluorescent markers (FM) are also used frequently in the cleaning industry as a means to determine whether or not a surface has been "touched" as an indication of thoroughness of cleaning. This paper provides parallel pre- and post-cleaning data of FM pass (FM removed) and FM fail (FM still present after cleaning) tests on surfaces, as compared to % reduction in ATP values from 34 schools (17 control and 17 study schools) over a one year school period. Based on these preliminary results, using a FM may not necessarily relate to a reduction in ATP residual on the surface, and thus may serve as an efficiency measure of cleanliness without indicating cleaning effectiveness