Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
06/18/2012
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
The results were most worrisome levels of contamination detected in the tools used by cleanup crews
A study conducted by University of Houston puts the television remote controls between the more contaminated surfaces in hotel rooms. The research was presented on Sunday, the 2012 edition of the General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
Although some of the most contaminated samples, including the bathroom and her sinks, since conditions were expected, they also found high levels of bacterial contamination in the head light switch of the beds. But the most disturbing result of the study were high levels of contamination detected in some of the tools used by cleanup crews, including sponges and mops. According to the researchers, this represents a serious risk of cross contamination of rooms. With lower rate of contamination are the headboard, curtain rods and door knob of the bathroom.
"The hotel owners have an obligation to provide its customers with a clean and safe environment. But today, the maintenance practices vary widely according to the hotel, with little or no standardization. The method used to measure the level of cleanliness a hotel room is still the visual assessment, "says Katie Kirsch, graduate student at the University of Houston and one reason for the search.
With the growing concern of society for public health issues, cleaning a room is one of the most prevalent factors in choosing the hotel. "Currently, an employee cleans between 14 and 16 rooms per shift of eight hours, spending about 30 minutes each. Identifying the items most at risk of contamination in a hotel room will allow maintenance managers can design practices cleaning and allocate staff time, reducing the risk of microbial contamination, "says Kirsch.
The study is the first step in applying the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP acronym in English) for cleaning the hotel room. Originally developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, HACCP is a preventive approach that identifies potential chemical, physical and biological standardization of processes to reduce these risks to safe levels.
The team from University of Houston, in conjunction with researchers from Purdue University and the University of South Carolina examined several areas of hotel rooms in Texas, Indiana and South Carolina were tested in each of the levels of total aerobic bacteria and contamination coliforms on these surfaces.
Kirsch warns that this study is preliminary and is limited by sample size, which included only three quarters in every state and 19 surfaces in each quarter, but expects it to be just the beginning of a survey that can provide a scientific basis for standardization cleaning in hotel rooms.
"The information resulting from this study can help hotels to adopt a proactive approach to reduce the potential risks of contact with surfaces within rooms and provide a basis for the development of maintenance practices more effective and efficient," complete.
Source: R7 News
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This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.