Keeping mops and buckets apart at work

In a café, a nursery or a care home, the same few people may clean the kitchen, the toilets and the corridors in one shift.

Hospitals give each kind of room its own colour of cleaning kit, and other workplaces can borrow the idea.

A colour for each kind of room

NHS England's national standards of healthcare cleanliness describe a colour-coding scheme for cleaning materials and equipment. Healthcare organisations use it to cut the risk of carrying contamination between different kinds of area, such as bathrooms and kitchens.

A red mop, bucket or pair of reusable gloves is used only in bathrooms. The standards say the colour should be clear and permanent. The cleaning products themselves do not need to be colour coded.

Where raw food is handled

The Food Standards Agency tells food businesses to keep separate cleaning materials, such as sponges, cloths and mops, for areas where raw meat, fish or poultry is handled.

A food business also needs a cleaning schedule. It sets out what is cleaned or disinfected, how often, and with which products.

The agency says poor cleaning is one of the most common reasons food businesses are prosecuted. It asks them to check that a disinfectant's label carries BS EN 1276 or BS EN 13697, and to store cleaning products away from food.

Wet floors

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) says cleaning often brings slip hazards of its own, such as wet floors and trailing cables.

It suggests cleaning at quiet times, or in sections, so people always have a dry path through. Warning signs help, and staff take them away once the floor is clean and dry.

A dry mop or squeegee shortens the drying time, though the floor stays slippery while it is damp. HSE also points out that cleaning equipment only works well when it is looked after.

Lifting and carrying buckets

HSE describes manual handling as moving or supporting a load by hand or bodily force, including lifting, pushing and carrying.

Employers must avoid hazardous manual handling where they reasonably can. Where they cannot avoid it, they assess the risk and bring it down as far as they reasonably can. The law sets no fixed weight limit.

Cleaning products and staff

The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations require employers to plan, manage and monitor the harmful substances their staff use.

HSE says health and safety law applies to every business, however small. A self-employed cleaner is responsible for health and safety in their own business too.

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