 What is Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)?Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) is the universal energy molecule found in animal, plant, bacterial, yeast and mould cells. Residues, particularly food or organic residue, contain large amounts of ATP. Microbial contamination contains ATP, but in smaller amounts. So ATP measurements represents dirt that otherwise may be invisable to the human eye. So the amount of ATP serves as a good indicator of how healthy the inside of your building is. The more ATP the greater the health risk are to your buildilngs occupants. ATP = Dirt = Bacteria & Germs  How do you know how much ATP is in your building?When the cleaning in your facility is being done properly ATP levels are kept to a minimal. But don't take your Cleaning Contractor's word for it, especially when the health of your building's occupant's is at risk. If your using a professional Cleaning Contractor they should be able to provide ATP levels by using scientific testing equipment specifically designed to measure ATP. This piece of equipment is called a Luminometer and by randomly surface testing througout your facility you should know wheter ATP levels are a health risk or not.
What can be done if your ATP Levels are high? Review your building's cleaning program to make sure that proper cleaning procedures are being adhered to and that professional chemicals are being used. For example, spraying a cleaning product on a surface followed by immediately wiping it off may not effectively clean that surface if the directions indicate a ten minute dwell time for that product. So the way to correct this proplem would be to change to a cleaning product that kills germs on contact or to leave the product on the surface for ten minutes before wiping it off. Other causes of high ATP Levels could be from improper mopping techinues. For instance, if there was some sort of spill on the floor it would elevated ATP Levels over the spill area. If a Cleaning Person mopped over that spot and did not properly wring the mop out, it could spread that contaminants from the spill to all other areas mopped after the spill. This makes a good case of why it is very important that your Cleaning Contractor is properly training their employees. A mop in the hands of an untrained employee can easily become a tool to spread germs and disease throughout your facility. Stop the spread of H1N1 by lowering ATP! This information has been provided to you as a courtesy of:  Phone (800)278-1884 "Stathakis is Southeastern Michigan's premier Janitorial Service Contractor" |