Bournemouth: Workplace COVID test unveiled
Businesses concerned about allowing staff back into the workplace can now prove that surfaces and equipment are clean – and even free from COVID-19.
A new complementary service provided by Tech Clean Wessex uses a hi-tech gadget that can give results in minutes.
Peter Hann’s business was launched in the early 1980s to specialise in cleaning office equipment including computers and keyboards.
The new service works for any environment and measures the level of a particular molecule – ATP – which is present in all organic matter.
A reading between 30 and 50 is the base level, with a result below 10 meaning an area is extremely clean with no chance of Covid-19, and one over 50 meaning a clean is required.
Hann, whose business is based in Bournemouth and covers the whole of Dorset and Hampshire, said ATP hygiene testing could bring confidence back.
He said: “The testing machines are hand-held and my staff simply take a sample with an ultrasnap surface swab and insert it in the machine which gives a reading.
“We can test offices and equipment, but it will work in any environment, including in schools.
“Office managers, facilities managers, HR managers and those employers who want to do all they can to re-open their business are now able to add a new level of confidence about the safety of the workplace.
“With my company’s long experience in cleaning office equipment we are ideally suited to carry out this new ATP hygiene testing.
“Previously this has been quite a specialised service for particularly sensitive environments, but now it applies to everyone as we recover from the coronavirus crisis.
“The devices use an enzyme found in fireflies, which reacts with the ATP molecules to give a reading.
“The service is affordable and we can visit before and after a clean to test how well it has been done.”
It is so far unknown exactly how long COVID-19 remains on a surface and estimates range between three and nine days, and it depends on what materials the surface is made from.
