by Bruce Wells
When the COVID-19 Pandemic releases its grip on the world, hundreds of millions of people will return to their offices. It’s also likely that many will be going back sooner than others, based on geography, and still have concern that the scourge is still out there.
As a manufacturer of office furniture, Innovant sells many products made of, or finished with, different materials. Each of these materials have different cleaning requirements and limitations. Before workers return to work with their homemade cleaning concoctions that their WhatsApp group claims will properly sanitize their desk and surroundings, we offer again our standard cleaning guidelines for our furniture.
Laminate Surfaces: These surfaces may be cleaned with a damp cloth and ordinary soap or a household ammoniated liquid detergent. Abrasive cleaners containing a chlorine bleach solution of 5% or more should not be used. Stubborn stains may be spot cleaned with organic solvents, such as alcohol, acetone, ketone (MEK), lacquer thinner or paint solvent.
Veneer Surfaces: Clean with a soft slightly damp cloth, and then dry using another soft cloth so that no water remains. Always wipe the surface in the direction of the wood grain. Use soapy water or a solution containing 50% water, 50% alcohol. Never use products with silicone or bleach.
Will COVID-19 Change Our Approach To Design?
Can anyone confidently say the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic will not have a significant impact on office furniture and office interiors design? We have always lived with viruses in the workplace, and different people have exercised different levels of caution to avoid them. However, relying on everyone in the workplace adhering to elevated hygiene habits will not likely offset the anxiety that could grip the office when this threat begins to ease and people return to their desks. Instead, it looks to me like there will be a new set of standards or best practices emerging in office and product design, the aim of which is to prevent virus spread. This, got me thinking; from a furniture manufacturer perspective, what could be done?
In healthcare environments, we already know of the special fabrics, surfaces and other materials that help prevent the buildup of bacteria and other microbes. Antimicrobial plastic laminates are widely available (but are they effective against viruses?)
How many people really appreciate the virus killing properties of copper? Yes, copper. Copper kills viruses on contact at the molecular level. Additionally, a 2019 study found that copper hospital beds in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) harbored an average of 95 percent fewer bacteria than conventional hospital beds, and maintained these low-risk levels throughout patients' stay in hospital. The research is published in the November issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology. Knowing this, would you appreciate copper finished door handles, light switches, bathroom faucets, elevator buttons, and all the other things many people touch within your office every day? Why hope the cleaning team disinfects these things properly at night when a material can do (most of) the work 24/7?
What office items do we all touch frequently?
Besides door handles, elevator buttons and bathroom fixtures, the first things that come to mind are elevator buttons, conference room telephones and MIMOs, laser printers, TV remotes, coffee machines, and any form of shared technology. We live in the world of voice activated TV remotes, Siri, Alexa and Google. I could see voice activation overtake communal buttons on all sorts of technology.
How about hand sanitizer? Right now you can’t find it but in time demand for products like Purell will ease (yet few will ever want to go too long without it.) Can you imagine future HR departments not mandating that every desk has a big ugly green bottle of hand sanitizer on it? I think there’s a better way of delivering hand sanitizer discretely at people’s desks, whereby the sanitizer dispenser is not visible (perhaps just under the front edge of the worksurface.)
I won’t speak yet to the myriad other aspects of office design that could evolve to address the concern of virus spread. I can imagine entire paradigm shifts taking place when the air clears. I believe clients and designers will be taking a very hard look at this in the near future. Their employees may demand it.
It’s all something to think about while we do our best working remotely and anticipating the day we get back to some sense of normal office routine. I will leave you with this image below of a door handle with a hand sanitizer built-in. We can probably do better.
Are ideas like this going to start appearing more frequently in the workplace?