Just When You Thought it was Safe to go Back in the Water[cooler]…

Beating the bugs that linger just above the surface.

Did you know that the average person spends two and half years of their life suffering from colds? Or that there are 200 different types of cold virus? Or that most workers take four sick days a year due to colds (teachers take eight – full of germs, these kids!).

Moving along, there are roughly 2,000 cases of Norovirus (the winter vomiting bug) a month between September and March.

This winter more than 150 Brits died of flu, with 30,000 people seeing their GP for flu symptoms in a single week in January 2018.

In total, an estimated 137.3 million working days were lost due to sickness absence in the UK in 2016.

That’s an awful lot of wasted time for business, and an awful lot of feeling rotten for individuals.

Sickness happens, and as a business manager – and a human being – you will know that there’s little you can do to shelter your business from the repercussions of sickness absence; there will always be a virus waiting in the wings. But here’s something that you may not know: a huge number of viruses are passed on by touch and they can live happily outside of the body for as much as 24 hours. With people touching an average of 300 surfaces an hour (I know, it’s hard to believe, but apparently true) and touching their face 2,000 to 3,000 times a day, there’s little surprise that when an illness strikes, it usually works through your entire team in a matter of days. This is why hygiene in the workplace matters.

Now, people are always going to get hangovers, hurt their backs and suffer stress, and there are always serious health complaints waiting (cheery, aren’t I?). Lamentably, you’re also never going to get to a stage where every one of your team members washes their hands after going to the loo, much less after every sneeze or nose blowing, so you’re never going to get to a stage where your office or workshop is illness free. BUT, you can help to reduce the spread of common nasties through careful cleaning. And your watercooler, drinking fountain or sports bottle refill station is no exception.

Think of all the hands that touch the water release trigger on your office water cooler. Even if they have all used soap and water after visiting the lav, how many have blown – or picked! – their noses? Or sneezed, or touched something else that you wouldn’t necessarily want going into your mouth? You have a duty to your team to keep the facilities you provide them with in a sanitary condition, and yet you need to be careful that your cleaning equipment isn’t going to cause other kinds of illnesses or taint the flavour or smell of the water. It’s not easy.

Luckily for you, MIW has started selling just the thing: Bioguard Sanitising Spray and Sanitising Wipes. They’ve both been formulated to provide efficient protection against a wide range of bacteria, mycobacterium, viruses and fungi, without tainting. They’re also both 100% food and drink safe and won’t irritate the skin. So, although you can’t keep your business completely safe and free from germs, you can at least help to limit the revolting things that might find their way into or around your drinking water.