Mr. Sawchuk

Eco-Friendly Practices

Avian Flu: What we have learned from SARS

By Mike Sawchuk, President & General Manager, Enviro-Solutions

In November 1997, a terrorist attack in the ancient city of Luxor, Egypt, took the lives of sixty-eight people and left scores more injured. However, the deaths and injuries caused by the attack were just the beginning of the problems it caused Egypt. Tourism, the lifeblood of the country, went into a tailspin, resulting in mass numbers of hotel- and restaurant-related workers losing their jobs in a country that already has chronic high unemployment.

A few months later, realizing just how much the incident was affecting business and the economy, Egypt started a $4 billion marketing campaign to woo visitors back. In addition, they dramatically stepped up security throughout the most visited sections of the country. In fact, ten years later, a recent visitor to Egypt told me that armed guards are just about everywhere in the most traveled sections of the country and are often found riding with visitors on travel buses, which are often followed by police and army cars as well.

In effect, the country is still reeling from the incident and its impact on the tourist industry. Just imagine what would happen if something even more serious were to happen in Egypt or any other country in the world-such as the spread of H5N1 avian flu.

It seems that concerns and news stories about avian flu come and go, and in recent months we have not heard that much about the disease. According to one of the latest studies conducted by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions in Washington, D.C., a consulting firm dealing primarily with health-related issues, the "man on the street" is only "somewhat" interested or concerned about the spread of the disease.

However, this same belief is not held by scores of public health officials worldwide. According to a recent article in The New York Times, these officials are becoming increasingly concerned about the disease, not less, and point to the fact that the number of people who have died from avian flu, now estimated at nearly 150 people, is continuing to grow.

Interestingly, the same study questioned senior executives at 179 companies about avian flu and its potential impact on their companies and the world economy. Although high numbers agreed that if H5N1 were to spread to humans on a large scale it could seriously negatively impact their companies, 66 percent responded that they had "no plans" to protect their companies. In effect, even though these executives have been warned that the spread of the disease is a growing possibility, they have decided to treat it like a terrorist attack, believing there is not much they can do but pick up the pieces afterward.

History Tells the Story

If avian flu were to spread around the world, it would certainly not be the first time such a thing has happened. Throughout history, numerous plagues and illness have swept across large areas of the world.

One of the most documented such event occurred in 1918 when more than 20 million people died from the Spanish flu including more than 500,000 in the United States. The impact on the world economy, especially in parts of Europe, was dramatic and took businesses, including the hotel and hospitality industry, years to recover from.

The problems the disease caused were made even more troublesome because the Spanish flu came in three waves. It would attack an area of the world and then subside, causing citizens and businesses to believe the problem had passed. Then a few months later it would resurface, only to retreat again. After a third wave, the disease was finally gone. Many public health officials believe that if avian flu were to strike, it would probably come in waves as well, repeating this same pattern.

When the Spanish flu spread throughout the world, it had two major impacts on the business community. The first was to the workforces of companies worldwide. People were too sick to come to work, were too afraid to return to work, or had already died from the disease.

The next effect was to the marketplace. Just as with the terrorist attack in Egypt, tourism and the hotel and hospitality industry were impacted tremendously. It reached the point that many hotels simply closed their doors during this period, either out of fear or because there were no customers.

Ways to Deal with the Possibility

As grim as this all sounds, there is still the possibility that avian flu will disappear or not spread to humans on a large scale. Additionally, a vaccine may be developed and in large enough quantities to save millions of lives worldwide.

Moreover, as a result of the SARS outbreak that affected more than twenty-five countries in 2003, public health officials now have more experience dealing with such a health-threatening scenario. This is especially true in China, where the disease was first recorded. Visitors and residents there are now paying much closer attention to personal hygiene. Scores of malls, hotels, offices, schools, and industrial facilities have installed antiseptic hand-sanitizer dispensers so that people can quickly and easily sanitize their hands.

And the cleaning of facilities, especially hotel- and hospitality-related, are coming under much greater scrutiny in many areas of China, Hong Kong, and other parts of the world. For instance, high-touch areas in hotels, such as elevator buttons, TV remote controls, light switches, telephones, door knobs/push bars/push plates, cords to close window blinds and drapes, etc. -all of which may have been cleaned sporadically if at all in the past-are now cleaned regularly.

Learning from Mistakes

Greater attention to personal and environmental cleaning and sanitation is one of the most significant things learned from SARS. However, it is hoped that public health officials will also learn from some of their mistakes.

When SARS broke out, public health officials, facility managers, and hotel property managers were in a panic. They realized very soon that one way to stop the disease was to more thoroughly clean, sanitize, and disinfect facilities. And the chemical they most often turned to was bleach. Thousands of gallons of bleach, especially in Hong Kong, were used to wash down buildings. So much was used that four years later, many visitors report that they can still smell the chlorine in hotels and other facilities.

Although bleach is a very effective disinfectant and can kill many forms of bacteria and disease-causing germs, it can also be very harmful, especially when used in such large quantities as during the SARS outbreak. It can affect human respiratory systems and even cause death if combined with other chemicals. It can be corrosive and cause damage to assets. Additionally, much of the bleach was washed into waterways in both China and Hong Kong. Its effect on aquatic life and other living things is still unknown but assumed to have been substantial.

Fortunately, new cleaning technologies have produced chemicals, tools, and equipment, combined with better workloading and planning, which are resulting in effective elimination of bacteria and disease but with less impact on the environment. And just recently EcoLogoM, a leading certification organization based in Canada, introduced criteria to test and evaluate disinfectants so that consumers can select those that are effective but also Green, having reduced impact on the environment when compared to conventional disinfectants.

However, when selecting disinfectants or sanitizers, it is very important to review the microbial efficacy data of each product to see exactly what the 'kill claims' are, under what conditions, and compare those kill claims to what the required or desired kills are of competitive products. Not all disinfectants and sanitizers are alike in "kills" nor their cleaning performance.

Moreover, many facilities have better trained their people, especially cleaning workers, on how to deal with a health-threatening epidemic. Instead of the panic environment, where cleaning workers were unsure what to clean, how to clean it, and what chemicals to use, many have been trained exactly what steps to take not only to possibly prevent the spread of a disease but also to tackle it should it occur.

We cannot ignore the possibility that avian flu may emerge as a serious killer affecting people and businesses around the world. Fortunately, we have been warned that this can occur, can take measures to minimize its impact, and are better prepared to deal with such a situation than ever before. Additionally, because cleaning and sanitation will play such a major role in minimizing the possibility or spread of the illness, we have better trained cleaning workers using newly developed chemicals and technologies that are safer to use, have less impact on these workers and our environment, and yet are just as effective.

Mike Sawchuk is VP and GM of Enviro-Solutions, a leading manufacturer of certified-Green cleaning chemicals. He has developed and implemented programs in the cleaning industry throughout North America. His career has spanned sales, marketing, and operations positions with manufacturers and distributors. He holds a bachelor of business administration from Brock University and a MBA from McMaster University. He is a frequent presenter at seminars and tradeshows and am author of several articles on Green cleaning issues. Mr. Sawchuk can be contacted at 877-674-4373 or Sawchuk@Enviro-Solution.com Extended Bio...

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