Americans are sick more than 4 billion days each year, at a cost of $950 billion dollars in direct medical costs. Worse yet, an astounding 160,000 people die each year of infectious diseases as the underlying cause of death. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, colds alone account for 22 million missed work days and 7.9 million doctor visits each year.

Cross contamination is often to blame for these illnesses, so awareness of cross contamination’s harmful effects is at an all-time high. That, combined with facility managers’ desire to control costs, has sparked recent growth in sales of touchless restroom products and technology.

Cross contamination occurs when illness-causing germs are spread surface to surface, surface to person or person to person. In restrooms, this can occur when a person touches soap dispenser levers, toilet handles or paper towel dispensers.

For years, people have tried to avoid touching surfaces with a variety of unique approaches. According to a recent national survey, 61 percent of the respondents admitted that they utilize a variety of unorthodox strategies to avoid touching faucets, toilet handles, towel and soap dispensers, hand dryers or other restroom surfaces. Those sometimes-clumsy techniques include using paper towels to touch faucets and door handles, dispensing towels or soap with elbows or wrists, and flushing toilets using feet to push the handle.

So, it comes as no surprise that nearly nine out of 10 of these people indicated that they prefer restrooms with automatic or touch-free sinks, toilets, and soap and towel dispensers.

Look, No Hands!
Designed to significantly reduce bacteria transmission, touch-free products allow restroom visitors to flush a toilet by simply moving away from it; wash their hands without turning or pushing a knob; dry their hands without pressing a button; and grasp a new paper towel without having to touch the dispenser. There are no buttons or levers to harbor germ colonies on these products. Because they are activated by infrared sensors, they reduce the likelihood of spreading colds, flus, skin infections and intestinal illnesses, which are commonly spread in public restrooms.

Touch-free restrooms have numerous advantages, according to knowledgeable jan/san distributors. They can turn a public facility into a much cleaner, more hygienic environment, says Chris Kelly, Chicago-area facilities supply segment manager for Unisource Worldwide Inc., in Itasca, Ill. “That’s good for both the health of users and for the image of the facility,” he observes.

Additionally, manufacturers are making touch-free products more affordable, and looking at more ways to tout their cost-saving properties. That’s the contention of Paul Giangreco, president and CEO of Hy-Grade Distribution Inc., Tonawanda, N.Y.

“Customers looking at the benefits of these products feel they are cost effective — not prohibitive at all,” says Giangreco.

Kelly agrees. He says the return on a facility’s investment in touch-free products can be realized in six to nine months, give or take a bit. “It will vary from organization to organization because energy, water, and labor costs —along with other aspects — can factor into this,” he explains.

“The main reason for touch-free is to prevent cross contamination, especially in hospitals where there’s a danger of picking up an infection,” says John Marcon, district sales manager of D.P.I. Southwest Distributing Co., Albuquerque, N.M. “It’s a very easy way to prevent the spread of germs. Plus, with automatic towel dispensers you don’t use or dispose of unnecessary paper towels. It discourages people from manually taking and using 10 to 12 towels at a time. You just wave your hand across the sensor, and it dispenses the appropriate amount of towels to dry your hands.”

Automatic towel dispensers limit waste, cutting down on a facility’s paper costs, he adds. “Economically, you save money overall compared to conventional towel dispensers. There could be as much as a 40 percent savings because with the automatic dispenser you can set the amount of towels to be dispensed so no one can go in and grab all those extra towels at one time,” Marcon says.

Touchless also contributes to a quicker restroom exit. “That’s good, too, because most people are in a hurry to get out of a restroom. They can quickly activate the sensor, get the towel, dry their hands, and leave the room.”

Because these products work automatically, the chance of misuse or lack of use is virtually eliminated. Touch-free toilets, for example, flush as soon as the user steps away from them, cutting down on toilet clogs caused by people who won’t touch the toilet handle to flush it. Automatic flushers also help reduce the unpleasant odors that are produced by unflushed toilets and urinals, says John Wilcox, president of Casey Engineered Maintenance Inc., a jan/san distributor in Foxboro, Mass.

“This was demonstrated to me a while ago when a manufacturer told me that by going to a hands-free urinal flush, I’d notice a reduction of odors in 48 hours,” says Wilcox, whose customer base includes health care institutions and Class A office buildings — likely touch-free customers. “He was wrong. I noticed the difference in 24 hours.”

Wilcox initially was concerned that more water usage would occur with the utilization of automatic flushers, “but many of my clients who have actually measured water usage tell me they actually use less water.”

A Breath of Fresh Air
Giangreco says the most efficient way of cleaning toilets is with automatic flush units. “We carry products that are attached to a toilet or urinal. When flushed, they will deliver a chemical that cleans and sanitizes and is effective 100 percent of the time. If someone has to manually clean 100 toilets, they’ll swab them quickly, which is an inefficient and labor-intensive way of doing it.”

With touch-free sinks, restroom users are unable to waste water or leave faucets running, which brings about another reduction in a facility’s maintenance costs, according to Kelly. They can save labor for a facility because of quicker clean-up time. And they can enhance a facility’s image because of their clean appearance.

Unisource’s Kelly says his distribution company calls on customers in a wide variety of industries: health care, manufacturing, government, and office buildings. All market sectors have one thing in common:

“One thing that’s clear — they are all concerned about the environment, more so in the recent past,” he says. “And we have found that touch-free technology has improved several basic aspects of their business — protection (personal care and hygiene), cost in use, image and productivity.

“They see how touch-free technology helps the environment. Products coming out of touch-free dispensers, such as air fresheners, are designed to improve indoor air quality (IAQ),” he says.

“It almost goes without saying that a toilet that hasn’t been flushed for a day or so can be bad for IAQ. But autoflushers are set to flush regularly at times of inactivity. When toilets are flushed regularly, germs aren’t allowed to build up,” Kelly says.

“In health-care settings, especially, touch-free helps prevent contamination from pathogens, which can cause hepatitis, salmonella and a wide host of other communicable diseases,” he adds.

Touch-free systems also add to the aesthetic appeal of a restroom facility. Image is a huge concern for building managers — tenant satisfaction is key to office building managers, just as patient satisfaction is important to hospital administrators.

Touch-Free’s Followers
Touch-free has been around for a while, but Casey’s Wilcox says he has seen more people using the technology in recent years. “In the past two years, entire washrooms have become touch-free. And in the past year we have been seeing hands-free toilet flushing in health-care and Class A office buildings, where traditionally they’ve only been in airports. Now we have clients all over requesting it.

“Our salespeople started showing these products about five years ago,” Wilcox says, “and people then thought they were expensive and wondered if they worked properly. Now we’re getting responses from our customers, thanking us for getting them involved. They’re telling us their facilities have become healthier, with noticeably less odor, and cleaner, which helps their image.” Customers also appreciate the fact that it takes less time to clean restrooms, a benefit that justifies the initial expense of the products. “So they’re very happy with the concept.”

Winning Over the Reluctant
But not every customer is so easily convinced. Cost weighs heavy on customers whose budgets are stretched thin. So how do jan/san distributors sell the concept to wary customers?

“We know facility managers and owners want to do what’s best for their employees and visitors,” says Wilcox. “The key is convincing them that going with touch-free restrooms will produce a savings for them — not additional costs. We tell them that they’ll have a healthier, cleaner restroom at less cost. When they see that, they get pretty excited.”

Kelly says Unisource partners with touch-free vendors who have strong marketing programs in place. “We send introductory mailers, cost in use analyses, and general education pieces. And we train our sales force to communicate the technical aspects and benefits of touch-free to our customers.”

Hy-Grade’s Giangreco emphasizes selling customers on the idea that they need to protect the health of their employees and visitors. He then shows them how touch-free technology creates cleaner, healthier environments for them. “For school system clients we talk about how costly student and faculty absenteeism can be for them. Schools get state funds based on the number kids who are present in classrooms. That’s a huge factor today.”

D.P.I. Southwest’s sales representatives have access to sample touch-free dispensers and use them at sales presentations and trade shows, says Marcon. “They explain to our customers that this is the latest and greatest technology and discuss the features and benefits of preventing cross-contamination.”

Marcon anticipates new touch-free trends and technologies on the horizon. “The beauty of our industry is that things always change. I’m sure someone will come up with a better mousetrap.”

The latest touch-free technology, says Kelly, is more “perceptive” sensing technology to activate touch-free faucets. “Instead of putting your hand under the sink to find and activate the sensor, your hand can be located anywhere: above, below, beside the sink. The sensor will pick up the presence of your hand will activate the faucet,” Kelly says.

Giangreco is encouraged by the touch-free trend, which demonstrates the growing awareness his customers have about the dangers of cross-contamination. “They are always looking for safer and more hygienic ways to clean in a restroom environment. They are coming to know they can do that through touch-free products.”

Jordan Fox is a Milwaukee-based freelance writer.




POSTED ON: 1/1/2005