Our NEW Targeted Hygiene Programme Launches to Help Break the Chain of Infection

In collaboration with hygiene expert Professor Sally Bloomfield, SC Johnson Professional® have developed new guidance titled the ‘8 Moments for Targeted Hygiene’ specifically designed to help break the chain of infection via hand and surface hygiene in workplaces and public facilities. To enable managers to implement the guidance, the company has created the dedicated ‘SC Johnson Professional® Targeted Hygiene Programme’ to help improve the hand and surface hygiene behaviour of facility users at the moments of highest risk for infection transmission.

The new ‘8 Moments for Targeted Hygiene’ guidance is based on the risk management approach for hygiene – known as Targeted Hygiene - developed by the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene (IFH) which builds upon the policy paper ‘Too Clean or Not Too Clean’ published by the Royal Society for Public Health in 2019.

The new guidance recommends that in order to help reduce the spread of many infectious pathogens  in workplaces and public facilities, a firm focus should be placed on hygiene behaviour of individuals rather than a reliance on routine ‘deep cleaning’ and disinfection.

Professor Bloomfield commented: “We have to accept that facility managers can only do so much to make their facility COVID secure. Preventing transmission of infections such as COVID-19 and beyond in workplaces and public facilities has to be a shared responsibility.”

Developed for those who manage workplaces and public facilities, the core principle of the guidance is to identify the 8 ‘Moments’ of highest risk when infection may be passed on via the hands or surfaces. Scientific evidence developed since the 1980s by the IFH has shown that the main sources of harmful microbes in public facilities are people rather than places even when these are perceived as visibly ‘dirty’[1]. The IFH’s research has found that many people still largely view hygiene as synonymous with cleanliness[2]; however, whilst regular disinfection of frequently touched surfaces does play a role in managing risk, it cannot alone create a safe environment. Studies[3] have shown that this is because contamination can reoccur very quickly within a space which is inhabited by people as microbes are transmitted either via the air or via hands or surfaces which are frequently touched.

The Targeted Hygiene guidance helps to address hand and surface hygiene risks by identifying the 8 Moments when hygiene behaviour change should be encouraged:

• Touching common surfaces
• After coughing, sneezing, blowing your nose
• Returning to and leaving your workspace
• Getting food prepared
• Eating food
• Toilet use
• Entering and exiting the building
• Disposing of waste

Bloomfield commented: “Having worked to introduce the concept of Targeted Hygiene at home with the 9 Moments for Home Hygiene, we realised that creating a similar concept for ‘away from home’ environments provides the means to develop effective hygiene to prevent the spread of COVID in public spaces.

“It is hoped that the ‘8 Moments for Targeted Hygiene’ will help to drive behaviour change around hygiene. This approach is designed to prompt people to recognise the moments of risk when targeted hygiene is called for, rather than giving them a written set of ‘rules’ about when to act, which they may or may not remember.”

Building on this guidance, the ‘SC Johnson Professional® Targeted Hygiene Programme’ has been designed to give managers the tools to pinpoint the 8 Moments of high risk in their facility and to set up a suitable, tailored hand and surface hygiene infrastructure. Targeted hand or surface hygiene actions are advised at these moments and the essential products (such as hand washing facilities or hand sanitisers) are provided in order to encourage people to act in a manner which helps reduce the risk of infection transmission.

The Programme starts by requesting an on-site survey from one of SC Johnson Professional®’s team of experts.

John Hines, Director of Research and Development at SC Johnson Professional®, commented: “As a company, we have many years’ experience of working in a variety of sectors to help improve hand hygiene compliance.

“We know that breaking the chain of infection can only be achieved in combination with social distance and facial coverings, and by enabling the right products to be used at the point of need, combined with frequent hygienic cleaning of high-risk surfaces. This then needs to be fully supported by facility managers, to encourage the right behaviours for the safety of all users of their facility.”

For more information on the Targeted Hygiene Programme see here: https://www.scjp.com/en-gb/targetedhygiene.