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Welcome to Living Healthy Chicago, I'm Jane Monzures.
On the show, we like to talk about
how we can all live healthy in every part of our life.
So today we want to start off by taking a look
at healthy habits in and around our workspaces,
whether that's at home or at an office.
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Joining me is Dr. Jacqueline Ivey-Brown
from Advocate Christ Medical Center.
Now, the first thing you want people to know
is that keeping their workspaces clean
actually starts before they even get to work.
- Yes, exactly.
Before you get to work, answer the following questions.
Do you feel sick?
Do you feel ill?
If so, stay home.
That helps protect your coworkers.
People that you may come into contact with your commute.
That's really one of the first things to help
keep the workspace clean.
- Once we get there, and we know this,
hand-washing really is our first line of defense.
- Yes, hand washing is key.
Honestly, it's a habit we really should have had
before COVID-19, but it's definitely something
that's emphasized today.
Hand washing for at least 20 seconds
before you enter into your permanent workspace.
And then also when you're leaving the workspace.
Hand washing helps remove germs from your hands
and thus spreading it into different
high-contact surface areas like door knobs
that you may be entering or exiting from.
Hand washing is really going to be key
in terms of protecting you and protecting others.
- So our hands are clean
and we think our office space is clean.
But explain to us the difference between
something that is clean and something that is disinfected.
- So, what cleaning actually is, it's just removing dirt,
grime, germs that may be on the surfaces of various items.
It's using soap and water to just kind of
move them around and get them out of the way.
But it does not necessarily kill the germs.
Disinfecting a surface is what kills the actual germs.
When disinfecting, and in particular,
we are all very much concerned about COVID-19,
the CDC has provided information on their website
to use EPA-registered disinfectants.
When you are looking at a disinfectant product,
on the back, on the instructions,
it will instruct you on how to properly use that product.
- So how do we know that we are
disinfecting for virus rather than just cleaning?
- So when you're looking at your product
and you're looking at that label
at the teeny tiny print, it'll state on there,
product must be on the surface for four minutes.
What that means is that once you are picking up the product
and you're spraying it down,
say if it's a liquid, that surface needs to remain wet
for four minutes to kill
whatever the product is saying that they kill.
Some, maybe just viruses, some say bacteria and viruses.
This can vary if you're looking at
the registration information on the EPA website.
The difference is because the EPA is looking at
a harder-to-kill virus than COVID-19,
how long it takes for that product to kill
that particular virus, and then says,
well, if you let the product sit
for at least that amount of time,
it'll kill the hard-to-kill virus,
which means it's also going to kill
that coronavirus as well.
So I always would recommend, look at that EPA site
and use that higher contact time.
- What parts of our office should we be focused on the most
and cleaning or disinfecting the most,
even if we're the only person touching it?
- Even if you're the only person
in your particular workspace,
you want to make sure to keep common things
clean all the time.
That can be a mouse, your keyboard,
your phone, if it's a landline,
as well as a cell phones too.
If you clean at the beginning of your shift
and then you clean it at the end of your shift,
that should be pretty adequate.
- What do you think we should take away
from talking about keeping our offices disinfected?
- The things that we do today
can help protect ourselves and our loved ones
into the future.
Being aware of your surroundings,
cleaning those high-touch surfaces
and washing your hands frequently.
- Thank you so much for sharing.
- Thank you for having me.
- If you want more health inspiration,
we've got great tips from our experts.
Just head to our website, livinghealthytv.com.