CMM Weekly News Recap-October 18

This week we saw professional cleaners dealing with forces of nature. Cleaning companies in Texas were busy sweeping and vacuuming piles of crickets as the annual cricket swarm seemed heavier than normal. A sales manager at a cleaning company in San Antonio said she hadn’t seen this many crickets piled up around homes and businesses in about four years. Prompt cleanup is necessary when there is such a large number of insects, especially when businesses use pesticides as the bugs smell when they start to pile on top of each other and die.

In the San Fernando Valley of California, cleaning crews have been called to schools to remove piles of ash from the desks and floors. The ash is the result of the Saddleridge Fire which has been burning in Los Angeles County and resulted in school closures last week. When the schools reopened Monday, students and teaches at several schools returned to ash covering all the surfaces.

One force of nature that is more helpful to cleaning professionals is water, specifically clean water for handwashing. Tuesday was Global Handwashing Day, an annual advocacy day dedicated to increasing the awareness and understanding about the importance of handwashing with clean water and soap as an effective and affordable way to prevent diseases and save lives.

To help you remind your staff (and yourself) about the importance of handwashing, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has launched a new national campaign, Life is Better with Clean Hands, to motivate adults to make clean hands part of their daily lives. The campaign offers various resources, such as posters and social media posts, to help raise awareness about the importance of handwashing at key times in both homes and public settings, such as before cooking or after using the restroom.

Have a good weekend and don’t forget to wash your hands, often.