The Janitors' Closet

N-95 vs KN-95

After a few months of "out of stock" responses, we finally got in a case of real N-95 masks.  We've been using the KN-95 masks for months, and studies show little real world difference between the two.  N-95s meet US standards, and are generally manufactured here (largely by 3M); KN95s come from China (no, the K does not stand for "Knock-off"), and there is a bit of variation in effectiveness between manufactures.  Both stop 95% of particles in the 0.3 micron range but, interestingly, they work much better for both larger and smaller particles.  At 0.1 micron, the size of a Covid virus, they only let through 0.1% of the particles - pretty darn good.  (in passing, avoid the masks with an exhaust valve - they filter air coming in, but not air going out, so you don't protect anyone else should you be infected.)

We've used surgical masks for years, particularly for our crews cleaning health care facilities.  The much more effective KN-95s have made a lot of sense; now, the N-95s will likely give us slightly better protection and, perhaps as important, will instill a bit more confidence in our staff and our clients.  And, since we do a bit of emergency electrostatic Covid remediation, any extra safety we can provide is all to the good. 

Here's a bit more on the KN-95 vs N-95 difference.

In passing, might be a good idea to cancel that trip to South Africa.....

So what's with the facemask?

Conversing with a friend recently about his experience in a somewhat trendy northeast community. He generally goes without a facemask (admittedly something of a political statement) and received a number of less than friendly glances, and a few comments, from masked folks in shops and on the street.   

It occurred to me that, while I've seen and heard much in recent months regarding masks, from both "sides", I've seen and heard close to nothing regarding the quality of masks. Evidence is solid that an n-95 mask offers a good deal more protection than a surgical mask, which in turn is much superior to simple cloth.  Recall that cloth masks were suggested, early on, as a bit "better than nothing", but that scarce surgical masks, to say nothing of unavailable n-95 masks, were best reserved for healthcare providers.

Considering protection from Covid, vaccination seems the best one can do, followed by air circulation, followed by distancing, with masks a dead last (or maybe a bit better than the traditional clove of garlic suspended from one's neck).  And a cloth mask is worth a good deal less than a surgical or  n-95 mask.

We stockpiled surgical masks, and a few kn-95 masks, back during the Ebola crisis, and well as hazmat suits, gloves and lots of disinfectant - because we provide janitorial service to a lot of medical facilities - so we've been in good shape. One wonders why America still has availability issues with n-95 masks; in quantity, and in normal times, they are quite inexpensive.  (Check out a recent Atlantic article on the issue.)

One might almost suspect that masks have become valuable mostly as a partisan signaling device.

What's happened to America's public restrooms?

Due to my last post, regarding my janitorial background, I seem to be thinking about public restrooms.

An often overlooked aspect of a city's livability, and thus civility, is the availability of public toilets.  If one is not at one's home or office, and not patronizing a particular business, one is often out of luck.  And it's a bit of an imposition, and an economic hardship, to require a shop or restaurant to open its restrooms to general street traffic.  Here's an interesting article out of Marketplace, that includes the following:

"In the middle of the twentieth century, public toilets were relatively common in the United States. For the most part, people had to pay for the stalls, which opened with coins, while urinals were free. But with rising feminist sentiments in the 1970s, people started to recognize this arrangement as sexist, since it meant that women had to pay, while men did not. Over the following decade, the grassroots organization Committee to End Pay Toilets in America succeeded in getting bans on pay toilets in many states, and the late March Fong Eu, California secretary of state from 1975 to 1994, smashed a porcelain toilet with a sledgehammer on the steps of the State Capitol.

"The banning of pay toilets had an unintended outcome. Instead of free public toilets for all, public toilets pretty much disappeared from American cities, since cities found it expensive and difficult to keep them safe and clean. (In Europe, where there was no such movement, pay public toilets persist, as they have since as far back as Roman times.)"

Shiny faucets

My long ago sales manager reminded me of this; had not thought of it in years.

When folks with a long time in the janitorial field, particularly in the operations end, find themselves washing up in a public restroom, they tend to automatically wipe the water spots from the faucet and handle.  Perhaps a commendable habit, but it can still gain you unwanted notice.

My sales manager went on to a career in high end commercial real estate.  He tells of visiting a restroom at our Phoenix Country Club, with a couple of the local real estate magnates, and finding himself wiping down the fixture.  To a couple of bemused glances.

He'd been well trained.

Hospital acquired infections are up - thanks to Covid.

Too much focus on the pandemic has lead to an uptick in hospital acquired infections, according to research from the CDC, as noted by our friends at Cleaning and Maintenance Management.

“Several factors likely contributed to the increases in several categories of HAI, among them, the fact that hospital leadership and staff were laser-focused on the pandemic,” write the authors of an accompanying editorial. “As a discipline, we need to develop strategies that can be effective in maintaining the highest possible quality of infection prevention and control activities while still supporting a pandemic response.”

Makes sense.  I'd also suspect that overstressed facilities and staff would contribute to the problem - quite significantly.

Going in for my flu shot next week.  I'm fully vaccinated against Covid, as are most of my people (we do a good deal of Covid remediation), but I don't much want to visit a hospital for any reason these days.

Flood clean-up

While much of the country suffers high temperatures and drought, here in Phoenix we're having our usual summer monsoon season.  And, as usual, neither our trees nor our roofs are ready for it.

I spent yesterday evening chain sawing fallen tree limbs in my backyard and my neighbors; meanwhile, I had my service techs do preliminary flood clean-up work in a cardiovascular facility to which we provide janitorial service.  Multiple points in the roof gave way, bringing down ceiling tole and insulation throughout the office.

While there is no asbestos to contend with (too recent construction), the fiberglass insulation is rather nasty stuff, so we used masks, goggles and gloves, with bunny suits available if needed, all on our vans as a result of ongoing Coronavirus electrostatic disinfection, which we've offered to clients and the rest of the commercial community since quite early in the pandemic.

Looks like the job went well; the contractor has baseboards to replace, at a minimum.

Belt and suspenders

Just caught a radio interview of another fellow in my industry, the commercial janitorial field.  What seemed to motivate him the most was the many lessons he'd learned from mentors, clients, and others over the years.

One lesson that's influenced me, both in business and life generally, was from a senior fellow at Walsh Brothers, in years past a major Phoenix institution.  He suggested, metaphorically, wearing both belt and suspenders.  Always be prepared, with a back up.  Always have a "what if" plan.  

Several weeks ago, one of my floor techs called late on a Friday evening.  Fridays, we don't provide much service; most of our weekend clients are cleaned later on Sunday,  So, Fridays, my operations manager is off.  Not much call for him.  So I cover any emergencies.

My tech, getting his work out of the way early, had to limp his van onto the side of the road, with a front wheel half disconnected and wedged into the wheel well, due to a snapped connecting rod.  I ran over, and called our tow company. The first driver, in a standard flatbed tow truck, could not winch our van up onto the deck, due to the non-functioning wheel.  By the time his more experienced collaborator arrived, got it loaded, and dropped it at my garage, I had a couple of hours in.  Ran my tech over to our office to pickup our spare van (back up #1).  Dead battery, due to age and doubtless sitting too long.  Jumper cables (backup #2) did not suffice, nor did the power station (back up #3) - just too old a battery.  The back up spare van (back up #4) which I keep at my home, just down the street from the office, started just fine.  Good thing, too.  Back up #5  is my personal pickup.  We have no back up #6.  It's hard to carry a floor buffer on a city bus.

In this world, one needs belt, suspenders, and then some.

Vaccine test

A client of mine handled the Astra-Zeneca vaccine trial locally, so I volunteered.  And, as it happened, I got the real vaccine, not the placebo - months before anybody else around here.

Now, they are conducting another test, on 12 to 17 year-olds, and are looking for volunteers.  Said I'd pass the information along, and here it is:

Hello Bob,

Here is some information about the sponsor and adolescent vaccine trial you requested! Feel free to forward this email to anyone you think may be interested and have children between the ages of 12-17.

Sponsor COVID Vaccine Informational Page: https://www.novavax.com/our-pipeline#nvx-cov2373

Efficacy Information: https://ir.novavax.com/news-releases/news-release-details/novavax-covid-19-vaccine-demonstrates-893-efficacy-uk-phase-3

Study Specific Information: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04611802

Link to sign up for more information: https://www.cctresearch.com/active-trials/arizona-clinical-trials#!/study/149

If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out to us at 480-582-2040. This trial will be enrolling from May 6^th-May 21^st.

Thank you,

Cassandra Leedom

Patient Enrollment Specialist

cassandraleedom@cctresearch.com

O: 480-582-2040

It's important to look up.

From a longtime friend, co-worker and member of our board:

Back in the mid 1970's CBN cleaned the old KRIZ Radio station offices and studio;  their slogan was 'The Miracle on Buckeye Road'.  The office was located on  Buckeye Road, just west of the Black Canyon Freeway, a bit North of the Durango Curve. 

At that, time we had Rob, an ASU student, cleaning our Southwest route of about five accounts, most of which were cleaned two or three times a week, and most importantly all of them had to be cleaned over the weekends so they would be ready for business on Monday mornings. KRIZ Radio was part of the route. 

I was running inspections one Sunday night when I got a notice on my pager from Rob around 3 AM asking me to call him. He told me that he had had some
vehicle problems earlier in the evening, and was running late. He didn't think he could clean all the accounts by 7 AM, and he asked me what he should do. 

I said that I would meet him to help get the accounts cleaned in time.

I met him at the KRIZ Radio Station's parking lot, and we unloaded his cleaning equipment, and headed inside to clean the place. 

Rob started emptying the trash cans, feather dusting desk tops, and wiping counters, while I started in on the restrooms. Next he started mopping the tile floors, and I grabbed the vacuum cleaner and started on the carpets. 

Let me pause the action for a moment and describe a key piece of the equipment in this story.

In those days we were using very large Kirby vacuum cleaners that felt as though they weighed half a ton. This particular Kirby had a large heavy duty cloth bag, a long yellow industrial duty power cord, a powerful (read that as very loud) motor, a headlight, and what looked like a car bumper and grill.  If you squinted your eyes, the front of this thing could be mistaken for a Chrysler Buick. It could have been registered as a motor vehicle, and given a license plate. 

Anyway, back to the story... after I cleaned the restrooms, I grabbed hold of the big Kirby vacuum cleaner monster with both hands, and began to vacuum the carpet. The vacuuming routine was simple; unwind the cord, find an electric plug that is near the center of the office (we called it 'the strategic plug') and start vacuuming, being very careful to keep eyes on the machine and carpet.  Remember, we had to move fast; daylight was coming, and people would be arriving at work. 

I was concentrating on the carpet, careful to move chairs, to vacuum under tables and desks, and not accidentally snag any electric cords with the vacuum's rotor brushes and beater bars, because that would be very bad. 

Anyway, I never noticed that when I opened a door to another office, to continue vacuuming, I had made a blunder.  I hadn't looked up to see the small sign with a red light that read 'On Air', and because the vacuum cleaner was so loud, I mean really, really loud, I never heard the DJ frantically yelling... "turn that thing off, turn it off, we're live, WE'RE LIVE.  Everybody can hear you!" 

The good ol' days of live radio.  

----Bill.

In passing - we've upgraded a bit since the '70s.  We no longed use upright, unfiltered vacuums or feather dusters.  Or pagers.

COVID detection

This is Fred.  He's my choice to train to become a COVID sniffing dog (see my 2/23 post) should we choose to supplement our commercial janitorial and COVID electrostatic remediation services with COVID detection services.

Fred came from the county shelter with the name of Leo.  It happens that my current black Lab, also from the county shelter, also came with the name Leo. (Apparently, policy at the county shelter is to name all male black Labs "Leo"). I thought having two black Labs named Leo would prove confusing, so I called the new one Fred.

Bad decision.

When one is stumbling towards fridge or bathroom in the dark of the night, and falls over an amorphous black mass sleeping at the single most inconvenient spot, it would be efficacious to be able to holler, simply, "dammit, Leo!".

Names are important.  Brings to mind a story told years back by Karl, my long time graphics and advertising guy (most of the photos on our website, and attached to this blog, are by Karl.)

Karl's father, the sort of fellow who had several small businesses and occupations going at any one time, had for years a seasonal business called "B Y Citrus".  "B Y" stood for "backyard".  In early spring, he'd drive around those affluent neighborhoods in North Phoenix and environs that had been carved from grapefruit groves, and still retained a few trees in side and back yards.  He'd contract to pick and truck away the harvest.  Come summer, he'd come back with a semi and a crew of "pickers", and crates and ladders.  He'd sell the grapefruit to the old Sprite bottling plant in Glendale.

So about sun-up one summer morning, Karl found himself in the Arcadia neighborhood - very "old money" Scottsdale - setting up the crew.  A regular client, a quite proper matron of a certain age, possessed a great Dane named (I've not learned why) "Dammit".  As Karl pulled into her street, along comes a joyful great Dane, free at last - hotly pursued by the matron, in robe and curlers, hollering at the top of her lungs, to the delight of her neighbors, "Get back here, Dammit!"

Names are important.