Page 40 - Green Builder May-June 2020 Issue

The

Pandemic-

Resistant

Bathroom

To avoid spreading

infection, you need

to take strict control

of the family

bathroom.

In the palm of your hand. There are more ways to catch COVID-19 in the bathroom than anywhere
else in the house.

OST PEOPLE CATCH Another issue particular to COVID-19 is
COVID-19 from family that it has been shown to survive for hours,
members, and the home even days on clothes and hair. If you have
bathroom is literally a towels, bathrobes or hand towels stacked in
M petri dish of infectious the bathroom, the virus can settle on them
opportunity. and stay there.
To start, most bathrooms are small, inti- The point is to try to cool down this hot
mate spaces. The good news is that they’ve zone as much as possible. Here’s how to do
typically got hard, washable surfaces that the best you can with the technology that’s
can be cleaned with a bleach solution or available, and a few behavioral adjustments.
other disinfectant. Let’s start with the easy changes, and move
The bad news is that the bath is where up the options chain from there:
we do the dirty work of being sick: diarrhea,
vomiting, nose blowing—you get the idea. 1. DESIGNATE A SICK BATH
Every surface, from sink handles to shower About half of U.S. homes have only one
faucets to tile shower walls, is a potential bathroom. For the other fortunate half of
hot zone, along with fabric curtains, blinds, homeowners, one bath can be reserved for
towels and vinyl shower curtains. those who are sick. Both baths still need to
To make matters worse, each time you flush be managed with the protocols below, to
an uncovered toilet, you blast disease causing avoid infecting the whole home.
particles into the air as an aerosol. Tests have
shown that this can happen for several days 2. RELOCATE ALL SOFT MATERIALS
after just one use of the toilet, and airborne Store towels, diapers, floor mats and any
particles tested have included norovirus, influ- other fabric materials elsewhere. Do not
enza and more. You can be certain coronavi- leave half-used bars of soap or wet wash-
rus will easily become airborne. cloths in the bath.

34 GREEN BUILDER May/June 2020 www.greenbuildermedia.com

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