Q&A with Donna Duberg

Donna Duberg, assistant professor in Clinical Laboratory Science at Saint Louis University. An expert on germs and hygiene with an academic and clinical background in infectious diseases and microbiology, she teaches at the university and also serves on its H1N1 Pandemic Issues Committee. Duberg is a frequent media source both nationally and in St. Louis, where she makes recurring appearances as the “St. Louis Germ Expert” on local television and radio newscasts. She recently became a member of SCA Tissue’s newly formed Tork® Green Hygiene Council. The four-member TGHC provides best-practice information for Tork customers and the general public to ensure they are up to date on the latest sustainability trends and hygiene methods. Council members also participate in roundtable discussions, provide keynote speeches at industry conferences and do outreach on sustainability and hygiene forums on the Internet.

Q: How does your expertise fit into the mission of the TGHC?
A: Because of my academic and clinical experiences, media representatives have called on me to comment on public health issues. SCA Tissue recognized my ability to present public health issues in a way that people understand, so one of my focus areas on the Council is to act as a spokesperson on hygiene issues.

Q: What’s an example of a public health issue you feel is important and ongoing?
A: I have always been a very strong advocate for proper hand washing as one of the single most important things you can do to prevent the spread of bacteria and virus-related illnesses. Washing your hands frequently with hot water and soap and drying them thoroughly is the key to a lot of public health issues. I can tell you that as a microbiologist who wears gloves in the laboratory, I still wash my hands before and after I visit the bathroom.

Q: What about paper towels versus warm air dryers and jet dryers? Does one have a clear advantage hygiene-wise over the others?
A: In order to be effective from a hygiene standpoint, hand washing has to include thorough drying. Wet hands are an ideal breeding ground for germs. That said, a lot of people are not willing to stand with their hands under a warm air dryer long enough for complete drying to take place. The friction of paper towels not only completely dries hands and removes germs but the towels also can be used to turn off the faucet and open the restroom door, avoiding recontamination. They also are disposable and disposable paper products — whether towels, tissues, cups or plates, help prevent cross contamination.

Q: What about paper towels versus the air dryers when it comes to the environment?
A: My environmental colleagues on TGHC — David Gottfried and Joshua Radoff — can speak to that issue better than I can. I will say I am impressed by the fact that SCA Tissue uses 100 percent recycled paper in making their Tork products. That’s a lot of waste paper that’s being diverted from landfills through recycling. Also, I can tell you that the hospitals and clinics I am familiar with all use paper towels as opposed to electric or forced air hand dryers.

Q: I know you are an advocate at the consumer level of simple cleaning solutions such as the use of bleach and white vinegar solutions. What about at the commercial and industrial level of cleaning?
A: Using a 10 percent solution of bleach or a 10 percent solution of vinegar as well as hot, soapy water are all very effective tools for many domestic cleaning and disinfecting tasks. But that approach is not always practical at the institutional level. There definitely is a place for commercial cleaners. I used to teach a course to executive housekeepers and one of the things I’d tell them is to look at the labels of the cleaning products they were using and think about the “cidals.” Staphycidals are good for preventing staph infections, such as, methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Anyone cleaning where there are wound infections should be cleaning at the staphycidal level. Fungicidals kill fungi. Sporicidals kill mold and bacteria spores. Housekeepers need to consider what they are trying to accomplish and use the right “cidal” cleaning agent and also ook for those compounds that are less harmful to the environment.

Q: Is there an easy way to tell what type of products to use for what tasks?
A: Clorox has an excellent interactive Web site (www.clorox.com/cleaner_home) that shows which of their products to use for tasks in specific parts of the house. There’s also a good site on the use of vinegar at www.versatilevinegar.org.

Q: When it comes to cleaning products, is stronger and more a better choice than weaker and less?
A: No. When disinfecting a surface, for instance, something that kills 99.9 percent of germs is good enough. When sanitizing hands, something that has 62 percent alcohol is good enough. How many times do you need to kill the same germ? Also, care needs to be taken that the manufacturer’s directions are followed and that the wrong combination of chemical are not used. An ammonia-based cleaner followed by bleach will produce chlorine gas, which is highly toxic.

Q: Where do we stand with H1N1 or the so-called swine flu? Is it turning out to be weaker than the seasonal-type flu we see every winter?
A: That depends. H1N1 can be very deadly in younger groups, especially if they have additional underlying conditions such as obesity, pregnancy or respiratory disorders such as COPD (chronic obstructive respiratory disease). Earlier this fall we stopped doing routine testing on everyone who just seemed sick and came into an emergency room or a doctor’s office. So the number of those individuals who have been confirmed to have the H1N1 with flu like symptoms virus may seem lower. But for those people at high risk with underlying conditions, H1N1 can be very severe and exacerbate their underlying conditions with very serious consequences.

Q: Heading into normal seasonal flu season, have we seen the worst of H1N1?
A: I’d say we haven’t seen the end of it. I would not say we have seen the worst of it because there really are a whole lot of people who are being very conscientious about it. But we don’t know yet how available the vaccines will be and whether people are taking advantage of them. We don’t know for sure about the precautions people are taking. They may let up after the first of the year, thinking that we’re over it. We have had due diligence so far and if we keep up with it, H1N1 may not be as deadly as originally predicted. However, 36,000 people die from seasonal flu every year. They predict at least 36,000 will die from H1N1. And there’s a good chance that we will see it again, which is another good reason to get vaccinated.