ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

This was the key question tackled by a European ESF project called ‘Pandemic Clean - Safe and Effective Cleaning in Pandemic Situations', which was co-funded by Erasmus+.

The aim of the research was to identify what kind of cleaning instructions were given in different countries during the pandemic.Throughout the spring and summer of 2022 information was collected from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Romania, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

According to SVS, the industry educator in the Netherlands which took part in the research, it was found that mainly government institutes and organisations plus research institutes gave instructions on how to clean.

The instructions where mostly focused on general guidelines to prevent the spread of the virus but also on guidelines for long-term care facilities where people were staying who were infected or suspected of being infected with the virus.

How detailed the guidelines were varied from country to county, it said. "What is striking is that guidelines on how to use cleaning machines and the implementation of cleaning methods were rarely given. Most of the detailed guidelines were about the use of disinfectants."

The researchers now want to offer a helping hand with the results of this research in the event of another similar pandemic. "The research provide insights about what went well and what we can improve in the future," they said.