News
ISSA Submits Testimony on Disease Prevention to San Francisco Board of Supervisors
June 29, 2020
The Global Biorisk Advisory Council® (GBAC), a division of ISSA, has submitted testimony to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on its “Emergency Ordinance – Cleaning and Disease Prevention Standards in Tourist Hotels and Large Commercial Office Buildings.”
In their testimony, Patricia Olinger, GBAC Executive Director, and Dr. Gavin Macgregor-Skinner, GBAC Director, focused on two main points:
- That opt-in cleaning is safer than opt-out cleaning given the current pandemic
- That the cleaning-and-disinfecting-every 30-minutes requirement is unworkable, ignores best practices, is not science-based, and could do more harm than good.
Olinger and Dr. Macgregor-Skinner explained that, “Limiting close contact is the best way to protect all parties and mandating daily servicing of rooms is not supporting that effort. Allowing hotels to have guests opt into room cleaning would provide those who need cleaning to obtain it, while minimizing exposure to the bulk of the hotel guests.”
On the issue of requiring cleaning and disinfecting every 30 minutes, 24 hours per day, they stated that, “This requirement is not based on any scientific and risk-based assessment and therefore is arbitrary. Furthermore, this ordinance does not follow widely accepted best practices used by the cleaning industry.” Olinger and Dr. Macgregor-Skinner encouraged the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to take a step back and engage public health officials, environmental professionals, and industry experts to suggest more prudent and effective cleaning and disinfection standards.
The performance-based GBAC® STAR facility accreditation program enables facilities to create and maintain an effective cleaning, disinfection, and infectious disease prevention program.
ISSA is working diligently to support the full spectrum of the cleaning industry in the U.S. and worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, including providing a variety of government affairs resources to support its members during this challenging time. For questions regarding ISSA’s advocacy efforts, including the association’s response to COVID-19, please contact [email protected].
