Portable Sanitation Association International

ASSOCIATIONINSIGHT Portable Sanitation Association International News BIWEEKLY EDITION JUNE 10, 2020 Page 8 Implications in New CDC Guidance for Construction Workers…continued from page 7 Guidance Implications for Portable Sanitation Companies Employers should have a COVID-19 response plan to protect workers. Ask customers to review plan provisions with you so you can inform your service tech about any special needs or concerns on the job site. At the same time, educate customers about your company's COVID-19 response plan and how that affects the way your team members will service the site. Employers should provide to team members basic facts about COVID-19, proper hand washing techniques, and other routine preventative measures in a language they can understand. Your customers are expected to educate employees about hand washing. Can you help by providing this training? It's a great way to share your knowledge and professionalism. It may also give you a chance to educate workers about the rest of your equipment and encourage more responsible use of portable restrooms. Employers should provide to employees access to soap, clean running water, and materials for drying their hands. If soap and water are not readily available, employers should provide alcohol-based hand sanitizers containing at least 60 percent alcohol at stations around the establishment for use by both workers and customers. • Facilities must support soap and water washes of at least 20 seconds multiple times a day or a similar number of uses of alcohol-based sanitizer containing at least 60 percent alcohol. • Place hand washing stations and/or hand sanitizers in multiple locations (including in or adjacent to portable restrooms) to encourage hand hygiene. • Depending on the job site's size or configuration, there may need to be multiple hand washing stations available to accommodate the workforce while maintaining social distancing, and stations may need to be restocked during the course of the day to maintain adequate hand washing supplies. The PSAI believes changes in hand washing expectations and standards are here to stay. To accommodate these changes: • Check with your hand wash stations' manufacturer or conduct your own tests so that you know how many 20-second washes, on average, each station provides. Do the same for your sanitizer stations and dispensers. • Help customers estimate how many hand washes they should expect on the job site. Then work with them to ensure there's enough equipment and service to meet the need. The CDC guidance provides an extensive list of times workers should wash their hands. While ideal, it is not realistic to assume workers will stop work to hand wash on all of those occasions. At a minimum, the PSAI suggests you assume each employee needs at least three washes per day: one to two times after using the toilet, once before a meal, and once at the end of the shift. CDC recommends extra washes if hands are soiled, have been sneezed/coughed in, or if gloves have been changed. Talk with customers about how many more than three washes per employee are likely, but don't let them assume fewer than three. If they disagree, kindly point out they may not want to have to explain to an OSHA inspector or attorney why they don't have enough capacity for employees to wash after toileting or before eating. • Discuss the layout of the job site and the placement of hand wash or sanitizer stations. Also stress the importance of keeping them stocked between your services. • Document: 1. that you had a discussion and made the customer aware of CDC's guidance; 2. how often you will provide service (ideally at least twice/week); 3. who will wipe down stations and restock supplies between services; 4. who will provide cleaning products; and 5. how cleaning will be documented. Continued on page 19

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