What to Know About Germs and Your Child’s Summer Camp

What to Know About Germs and Your Child’s Summer Camp

What to Know About Germs and Your Child’s Summer Camp

(StatePoint) Parents sending their kids to summer camp often worry about whether they’ll be safe and have a good time. But while summer camps are full of sports, art, music, fresh air and fun, they can also put kids at a higher risk of coming into contact with illness-causing germs. From COVID-19 to other pathogens that have hit camps especially hard in recent years, like H1N1 and Staphylococcus, daily visits to high-trafficked areas and being in close quarters with those outside their household create more touchpoints for pathogens to spread.

Traditional Cleaning Methods

Experts say that when it comes to an environment like summer camp, where hundreds of kids are passing through bathhouses, dining halls and activity spaces each day, keeping people safe needs to go beyond routine cleaning. Traditional cleaning methods can’t guarantee full coverage, providing only momentary sanitization that leaves surfaces immediately vulnerable to recontamination.

In addition, frequently using harsh chemicals can pose a risk to kids; in fact, the daily number of calls to poison centers increased sharply at the beginning of March 2020 for exposures to the overuse of momentary cleaners and disinfectants. These efforts to sanitize constantly are at best, overkill, and at worst, damaging to children’s health and the environment.

New Solutions

Offering hope of better protection for campers, counselors and parents alike is a new EPA-approved product, SurfaceWise2 from biotechnology company Allied BioScience. The only residual antiviral surface coating with EPA approval, it offers weeks of protection against a variety of illness-causing pathogens with just a single application, making it a key component to the multilayered safety approach required at camps.

With camps featuring a variety of environments, SurfaceWise2’s ability to protect virtually all surfaces is critical to stopping the spread of germs. In addition, the quick electrostatic application only takes minutes to apply and moments to dry, reducing downtime for campers and staff and allowing them to get back to camp activities sooner.

“Parents like myself always appreciate extra peace of mind when we send our children to summer camp as we hope they come back to us happy and healthy,” says Jess Hilton, chief communications officer and senior vice president of government affairs, Allied BioScience. “With a long-lasting sanitizing solution being used to treat common areas like cafeteria tables, bunks and bathhouses, I would rest easier knowing my child has an extra layer of protection at camp that also reduces the risk of bringing home unwanted germs.”

SurfaceWise2 has undergone rigorous reviews and extensive safety testing, and carries the lowest possible EPA toxicity rating, making it safe for people and environment-friendly. To learn more, visit www.surfacewise.com.

Children’s health and well-being should be the top priority for every camp. Alongside other precautions like washing hands frequently, residual surface cleaners can become an essential part of a camp’s safety protocol to protect against germs.

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