Most common viruses are easily spread by hand. Knowing when and how to wash hands can help minimize the spread of germs.¹ In honor of the World Health Organization’s World Hand Hygiene Day “Seconds Save Lives” campaign on May 5, Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ: CTAS) offers hand hygiene best practices for businesses.

“Everyone plays a role in helping to prevent the spread of illness with proper hand hygiene,” said Christiny Betsch, Marketing Manager, Cintas. “Providing the necessary tools helps promote a healthier environment and shows employees, customers and other building occupants that facilities take hand hygiene seriously.”

Hand hygiene essentials facilities may wish to consider include:

• Placing hand sanitizer stands in high-traffic areas: Making hand sanitizer readily available in high-traffic areas can help remind and encourage customers, employees and others to clean their hands regularly. Consider installing hand sanitizer stands near entrances to help prevent germs being brought in and out of facilities.
• Choosing products carefully: Some hand soap and hand sanitizers contain skin-irritating ingredients, which can lead to skin disorders like irritant contact dermatitis (ICD). Choosing products made with mild ingredients and without harmful chemicals helps lessen this issue.
• Implementing touchless features: Installing automatic hand sanitizer, hand soap and paper towel dispensers in restrooms limits direct contact with surfaces. This helps reduce the risk of spreading illness and addresses heightened public concerns for cleanliness.
• Equipping restrooms with paper towels: It’s important to remember that poor drying techniques can easily compromise freshly washed hands. Studies have shown that hands dried with air dryers are more likely to contaminate surfaces than those dried with paper towels.² Provide paper towels near exits so patrons can use paper towels to open doors without compromising clean hands.
• Keeping restrooms appropriately stocked: A lack of restroom supplies makes it more difficult to follow proper hand hygiene protocols, and it’s also a common customer complaint. Make sure to find a steady, reliable supplier of restroom essentials, including hand soap, paper towels and toilet paper.

For more information, visit cintas.com/facilityservices.

About Cintas Corporation

Cintas Corporation helps more than one million businesses of all types and sizes get Ready^™ to open their doors with confidence every day by providing products and services that help keep their customers’ facilities and employees clean, safe and looking their best. With offerings including uniforms, mats, mops, restroom supplies, first aid and safety products, fire extinguishers and testing, and safety training, Cintas helps customers get Ready for the Workday^®. The company is also the creator of the Total Clean Program^™ — a first-of-its-kind service that includes scheduled delivery of essential cleaning supplies, hygienically clean laundering, and sanitizing and disinfecting products and services. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Cintas is a publicly held Fortune 500 company traded over the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol CTAS and is a component of both the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and Nasdaq-100 Index.

¹ https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/why-handwashing.html

² https://www.cleanlink.com/news/article/Study-Contamination-Rates-Of-Hand-Dryers-And-Paper-Towels--26895

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