This is a very interesting discussion! I don't know about the rest of you working in the university/college institutional environment, but in relation to this topic, one thing I think I can safely say:
important, necessary, and once "taken for granted" routine facility cleaning services and maintenance staff have been cut to the bone. A new administrator coming in is not going to be heralded and get accolades for "increasing the janitorial budget 15%" but will rather, and perhaps rightly so, focus budget efforts on a plethora of worthy issue-needs, "competing priorities." Cleaning and maintenance expenses, services and staff, are a easy place to cut when budget needs are forever straining over limits.
We really don't have time to do "extra"
cleaning in our piano maintenance jobs. But perhaps when it comes to "our" pianos we take care of, really, they are in our hands to care for, clean, etc., and no one else's. I'd honestly rather have it that way.
Our piano cleaning, historically, is mostly for cosmetic purposes-cleaning fingerprints, dust, body smudges off of keyboards, fallboards, music desks, lids, etc. Also, vacuuming and cleaning off dust, foreign objects on soundboards, plates, and in the pinblock/tuning pin area. Wiping down the exterior piano cabinets, pedal lyres, etc. Small, often turned, and rinsed out, wrung-out-till- barely-damp microfiber "detail" towels are ideal for this. I rarely use anything but clean water unless cleaning a piano which has been neglected for decades.
But perhaps rather than just focus on "cosmetic"
cleaning, we could consider possible integrating hygienic and disinfecting functions "while we're at it". Using non damaging wipes (Should we find some that will work that way) to clean off the keys, fallboards, lids and surrounds where people frequently touch. I wouldn't even mind hitting the practice room or faculty studio room door knob/lever on the way in and out, maybe even give a push plate on the door a wipe,
or at least where people push on the door on their way out, before throwing the disinfecting wipe away. I'm no germaphobe but good gosh, I'm used to using the paper towel I just used to dry my hands, to push open the door handle or bathroom door on my way out. Not everybody washes their hands after using the restroom...
Maybe we can integrate a small part of improving environmental hygiene and sanitation sense into the movements we already make.
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Sean McLaughlin
Lead Piano Technician
UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music
Los Angeles CA
661-714-4188
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-05-2020 05:53
From: Robert Edwardsen
Subject: Key cleaning and disinfectants
At my university we had workers spraying/wiping everything down in quasi hazmat suits when there was a bad norovirus
outbreak a few years back. I wouldn't be surprised if they reappeared.
Rob
Robert Edwardsen
Registered Piano Technician
PO Box 334
Pittsford NY 14534
585-586-1360
edwardsenpianoservice.com
eedward2@rochester.rr.com
Original Message------
I did some more reading and found that there are two things to keep in mind for deaths from flu vs. the newest corona virus. To make a long story short, more people die from flu every year than will probably die from the corona virus--at least so far. The actual death rate is higher from corona virus, but flu, overall, has caused more deaths than corona is likely to. People shouldn't lose sight of that. These stats and rates of death, when broken down by age group, also vary significantly, with the death rates climbing precipitately for people over age 60 for the usual flu strains and corona virus. (Notably, the 1918 flu pandemic caused unusually high death rates among adults in the prime of life instead of the frail and elderly.)
Also, the CDC and other entities that keep track of these stats also give a huge range of how many people contract influenza and how many people die every year. They just don't know for sure how many people are ill enough to go to the doctor and get counted, and the cause of death is not always known or attributed correctly. So these stats are a bit squishy.
At any rate, I think that this problem is way more than a university tech can solve on his or her own. There's no way to keep up with trying to disinfect surfaces. If this is a concern in the college workplace, it's time to get a global solution going, meaning get the administration involved. They're the ones who can put out the word to remind people to wash hands often, to not touch the eyes or nose, and wear an N-95 mask if you're coughing and sneezing. As I said already, they can also make disinfectant agents available, and masks if they want to go that far.
Margie Williams
pnotuner@pacbell.net
"We, the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing." (Unknown)