Have you ever washed your hands with soap from a refillable bulk soap dispenser? If so, you may have left the restroom with more germs on your hands than when you entered.
But how do you know if you are washing your hands with refillable bulk soap? In this post, I will share with you how to determine if the restroom facility has refillable bulk soap, the risk it causes to your social well being and the solution that more and more facilities are moving towards to solve this problem.
A bulk dispenser is one where the soap is poured into the top of the dispenser, into an open reservoir. Because the reservoir is open, bacteria can contaminate the soap which leads to a bacterial biofilm on the inside of the dispenser. A biofilm is groups of bacteria that coat surfaces and are difficult to wash off or kill. Because the biofilm is formed on the inside of the dispenser it leads to bacterial contamination of new soap added to the dispenser.
Three recently published studies reveal there are potential issues with washing your hands with soap from a refillable bulk soap dispenser. The studies suggest that public refillable bulk soap dispensers are rarely cleaned, even leading to exposure to fecal bacteria.
The numbers are ugly.
25 percent of public refillable bulk soap dispensers are contaminated with unsafe levels of bacteria1
Refillable bulk dispensers can leave hands with 25 times more bacteria after washing2
Biofilms in refillable bulk soap dispensers, cause recontamination even after the dispensers are cleaned with bleach3
There is an alternative. Many schools, restaurants and office buildings are moving to soap dispensing with sanitary sealed systems. The sanitary sealed systems are sealed at the manufacturer and snapped into place inside the dispenser, eliminating contamination risks and keeping the dispensing system clean. The difference between a sealed system and a bulk dispenser is that in sealed systems the new clean soap is never opened and refilled. The sanitary sealed system helps prevent contamination by germs in the air or from the fingers of the person doing the refilling and the container is recyclable.
If you work at a school, office building or facility that uses bulk soap, download information and talk to your facility management department about replacing the refillable bulk soap dispensers with sanitary sealed systems. It is too important for your health and those you care about too!
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