Hand sanitizer pumps empty during cold, flu season

BELLEVILLE, Ont. (11/21/11) George Letch, second-year electrical engineering student, cleans his hands with a sanitizer pump in the Student Access Lab. Photo by Keenan Weaver.

By Keenan Weaver

Students and staff at Loyalist are wondering why hand-sanitizers remain empty in the midst of cold and flu season.

Students like George Letch, a second-year electrical engineer, feel they’re useless if they’re not being filled.

“I like to use them instead of soap and water, it’s just faster and easier,” he said.

Sanitizers are his favourite alternative to waiting for slow hand-dryers, and says he’s never seen paper towels in the bathrooms.

“I use the one by Timmies, but they should have a few in the caf to be around all the food,” he said. “Seems to be the best way to stop the mass-spread of germs and the flu.”

The sanitizers were put up in 2009, when the H1N1 virus made its way through North America. The facilities staff put them in high-traffic areas around the school to combat the outbreak and give everyone an on-the-go solution.

Grant Brummell, supervisor of facilities services at loyalist, said it was about more than just swine flu.

“This time of the year everybody’s catching colds and that. It’s better to be proactive to avoid passing off any germs from one person to another,” he said.

They placed them mainly in high-traffic areas, where people use keyboards, mice and telephones. They targeted areas with “a high turnover of people, lots of different people using them.”

The Student Access Lab (SAL) and Loyalist Library are great examples. Both rooms have a wall-mounted sanitizer pump, as well as a pack of disinfectant wipes. Fighting bacteria is essential in high-traffic areas like these, where many students share the technology and workspace. Simple things like coughing into your hand and typing on a keyboard can spread those germs to anyone who uses it after you, until the keyboard is cleaned.

Despite the traffic, there are no visible hand sanitizer pumps in the cafeteria. Brummell said they must have been removed because of the renovations, and they “might not have been put back up just yet.”

Many alcohol-based sanitizers contain ethyl alcohol with a concentration of 60 to 95 percent. These have been proven to kill 99.9 percent of germs from the skin’s surface.

After a tour around the college, it was apparent that many sanitizers were left empty. The radio newsroom, for example, has two pumps within two meters of each other that have been empty all year.

Brummell didn’t know so many were empty.

“We supply them, and we maintain them,” he said.

Facilities staff supplied the dispensers and soap, while the custodial staff replenishes them. They do not, however, track down and monitor the dispensers.

“If an area has one in place and it runs out, they should send us an email, and in turn we’ll make sure it’s replenished,” he said.

Brummell feels the sanitizers are important for the school, especially in cold and flu season.

“For the minimal cost of the investment in the equipment and the sanitizer itself, I think it’s well worth it,” he said. “If you’re sick and stay home you miss school, and we don’t need staff to be home either. They need to be here in order to keep the place running.”

While the intention is good, many of the more secluded pumps tend to remain dry.

One pump in particular has been empty since early September, according to Gail Genereaux.

She works in the media resources room, where students can get the technology they need for classes and assignments. There’s a sanitizer pump directly to the right of the doorway, but it remains empty.

Genereaux feels it would to help to keep the dispenser stocked, as many students come through them handling a variety of different items.

“I just doesn’t know what’s involved or who’s in charge of replacing them,” she said.

“They were full for a while in September, but it’s been a while since they could be used.”