[JasmineG]

Do I need to wear gloves while cleaning toilets?
A colleague told me it's unhealthy that I'm cleaning toilets without using gloves.

[Bertie Boo]

Jasmine

Before i or anyone else gives you the correct answer can you talk us through your toilet cleaning procedue and why you think you should or should not wear gloves.

Cheers

Stephen

[Fox]

Hi

It is best to wear gloves whilst cleaning toilets and I advise all of my staff to do so, although it does come down to personal choice, if you don't wear gloves then make sure that you wash your hands thoroughly before touching anythiing else and of course either use disposal cloths or colour coding to stop cross infection.

Fox

[garyj]

But Fox, if you use gloves you can't use your finger nails to get off the hard bits.

[Fox]

Ah now Gary thats where you're wrong!  All my gloves are preprepared with the tip of the index finger removed for such purposes.

I also have my custom made gloves lined with a special cream that keeps your hands soft while you work.

Fox

[Bertie Boo]

whilst the humerous replies are amusing, i find it shocking that anyone would want to clean a toilet without wearing gloves.

i could not tell you the amount of things i wear gloves for ( I MEAN WHEN AT WORK AND NOT FOR 'PLEASURE'), i wont even empty a kitchen bin or pick up dirty laundry witjout gloves.

I feel quite ill at the thought of cleaning a toilet without gloves 

stephen

[The Great One]

Hi

I always use them too.

I use the black industrial ones for EOT cleaning, especially the bog.

I also spray the entire toilet, base & back pipe with anti bac before touching it.

once cleaning is finished in the property i spray both the gloves and my hands with anti bac

Regards

Martin

[merlin]

 :)hi i too would not dream of cleaning a toilet without gloves and we also spray the entire toilet with anti bac  come to think of it i ware my gloves most of the time i also try to make sure the staff have gloves on ( DONT WANT THEM OF SICK DO I ) hope this helps


carol

[Cleaning Resource]

I don`t use gloves they annoy the hell out of me and I reckon they harbor more germs than they protect you from. I have gloves on all sites as well as alcohol hand sanitizer and leave it up to my staff if they want to wear gloves or not.

[Bertie Boo]

i am just astounded  : :

stephen

[wilclean]

hi

  we always use colour coded gloves and would never clean a toilet with out gloves its all down to health & hygine and  safty.

so if your not wearing gloves shame on you :

[Fox]

I don't use gloves personally either!  Any one want to hold my hand! 

For those of you doing domestics - do you use gloves when you turn the taps on in a kitchen sink?  If yes then what do you touch next with your gloves?  Think cross contanimation, a kitchen sink tap is liable to harbour more germs than the average toilet, with the raw meat and food debris in a kitchen area it's not surprising.

There is absolutely no problem with cleaning a toilet without gloves as long as you thoroughly wash your hands afterwards, how many of you thoroughly wash your gloves or do you just carry on cleaning the rest of the bathroom?  Food for thought.

Fox

[Bertie Boo]

I just cannot get a grip on this.

So you go to a toilet and at the very least (and i am so sorry to be so crude) you can expect to find urine, feaces, pubic hair, blood, semen, vomit, and probably more, and there are people who are willing to clean all this up without gloves?

I'm telling ya, this thread has GOT to be a wind up  

Stephen

[Bertie Boo]

Fox,

I'm not on about cross-contamination, i'm on about the fact that i dont want all that stuff on my skin. When i clean a kitchen i start with the sink.

Bleach around all of it, taps, drainer, the lot. I then consider that to be as clean as it's ever gonna get. From there i then begin cleaning the rest of the kitchen. Avoiding cross-contam completly is impossible, even cleaning itself is only about 'controlling' and not 'irradicating' all the bad things that are around the place.

But that said, you would NEVER get me near a toilet without gloves. And another point, what about chemical damage to your hands and skin???

Stephen

[dhnjj]

Hi

I agree with Bertie on this, i know its personal choice but I always wear gloves when cleaning the loo.

I am surprised to read that fox doesnt! 
It is very likely that some of the chemicals we come into contact within our day to day operations (scrubbing the sh itta) will pass through the outer layers of our skin if we dont wear gloves, causing loads of skin conditions one for example, contact dermatitis (also known as eczema) is caused by coming into contact with irritants such as cleaning chemicals and then the more serious hepatitis virus is found in the faeces of infected people and can survive many days after its excreted. I wouldnt even trust my own judgement that my hands didnt have the slightest cut or graze on as they are not always visible. There are lots more.

Unless, well..theres always an excuse not to wear them...Coprophilia perhaps? lol

but gloves for me are here to stay

Dave 

p.s Bertie clean the sink last - cleanest area to the dirtiest an all that 

[Bertie Boo]

Dave

When i clean a kitchen i use the sink area as my 'base', ie the sink filled with hot water to wash-down all other surfaces. Thats why i clean it first so that i know its done, then a quick-do over when the whole kitchen is finished.

I am a firm beliver that, when cleaning any room, there are certain jobs that have to be done twice. Like if a floor is covered in cr*p i will vacuum it throughly before i clean anything else so that i am not walking it all over the house. Then when the room is finished i will vacuum (and mop if hard surface) the floor last.

BTW i just googled 'Coprophilia'. U filthy beast! 

Stephen

[Fox]

causing loads of skin conditions one for example, contact dermatitis (also known as eczema)

That's why I'm all scaly! I did wonder 

[Kevin White]

Just a point of note, if you are to clean a toilet without gloves then you will have in your hands a brush or a nice thick cloth. Does anyone think about wearing gloves when they do that other thing where the only protection against your skin is a couple of microns of tissue paper. Don,t think so !

I personally enforce the wearing of gloves where the chemical in use carries an irritant classification, other than that, it's up to the operator.

[Bertie Boo]

Yes, i think wearing gloves to wipe ur a ss is probably a good idea too.

Fact is, at least when you wipe your ass its your own ass and not piles and puddles of poo and p1ss from god knows how many other people. And what happens when someone has shat all over the loo seat, am i right in thinking there are folk here who would attend to that without gloves on??

Stephen

[Cleaning Resource]

we have carried out our own tests and discovered that the toilet is the last place you wanna worry about picking up germs from, think about it your ar$e is always covered, in-fact the only time it is not is when you go to bed, have a bath/shower or are going to the toilet. your hands on the other hand are exposed all day picking up germs from any number of places and yet you seem to think that there are less germs on the everyday things that your hands touch than there would be on a toilet seat which is touched by nothing but clean (in comparison to your hands)ar$es.

The most germ infested places we have found on new contracts are usually fridges,
like I say toilets are the least of your worries. I would recommend everyone gets themselves and their staff inoculated against hepatitis if you have not already.