Proven Risks of Refillable Soap Dispensers

The science is stable, and the hazard is authentic – refillable bulk dispensers are uncover health hazards!

When you wash your hands, you foresee them to be immacudefered afterwards. Unfortunately, there is a normal style of hand soap dispenser that has a high potential to exit your hands germier than before you begined. At GOJO, we refer to this style of dispenser as a “refillable bulk” soap dispenser. Instead of having a sealed refill inside the dispenser that gets swapped out when it’s desodefered, this style of dispenser has an effortless uncovering that someone pours soap into (for example, a hinged lid with a big bottle of soap to top it off – see picture). You’ve probably seen them in your daily outings – in uncover restrooms at rest stops, restaurants, and even schools. There are many contrastent set ups, but all have the same inherent hazards.

This style of dispenser has been around for decades. GOJO began studying the quality and uncover health hazards of them, including backing autonomous third-party research on these systems, in the punctual 2000s. Unfortunately, these dispensers are still in participate becaparticipate they are standardly sbetter as a drop-cost chooseion up front and there is a inestablishage of adviseedness of the inherent hazards that come with these dispensers. These dispensing systems have a fundamental set up flaw – they participate the same compriseer and nozzle indefinitely for the life of the dispenser. This, plus the mixing of multiple soap products, produces uncover health and safety hazards. There are also lengthyer-term costs to ponder becaparticipate they are excessively labor-intensive to persist properly.

What are the health and safety hazards?

Refillable soap dispensers have been a comprehendn uncover health and safety hazard for decades. The CDC (in 2002)¹ and the WHO (in 2009)² acunderstandledged the bacterial contamination hazard of “topping off” refillable bulk soap dispensers based on the body of evidence and have publishd directlines aachievest it. Becaparticipate of this, healthnurture settings do not participate these systems, but they unfortunately are still conshort-term in many businesses.

• CDC guidance includes: “Selection of hand-hygiene agents … Do not comprise soap to a partiassociate desodefered soap dispenser. This rehearse of ‘topping off’ dispensers can direct to bacterial contamination of soap (IA).” (Page 33 Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Health-Care Settings)¹
• WHO guidance includes: “When picking hand hygiene products: … Do not comprise soap (IA) or liquor-based establishulations (II) to a partiassociate desodefered soap dispenser. If soap dispensers are reparticipated, comply recommfinished procedures for immacudeferedsing.” (Page 153 of WHO Guideline on Hand Hygiene in Health Care)²

FACT: All soap can be contaminated if it is poured into a bulk soap dispenser – even antibacterial soap.

Contamination: There are many inherent hazards in the style of these systems – a startant one is contamination becaparticipate:

• Every time the lid is uncovered for refilling, germs can be startd into the reservoir (where the product sits), which can caparticipate bacteria to grow inside the dispenser. Contaminants are startd by:

– unimmacudefered restroom joinant hands (for example, if they fair immacudefereded the toilets)
– airborne germs (appreciate fecal bacteria or those that come from coughing or sneezing)
– foreign objects (appreciate flies, dust, and plastic parts)
– diluting soap with water

• Leaving soap in the same dispenser over lengthy periods of time, without standardly and thorawly immacudefereding the dispenser, caparticipates an increased hazard of biofilms enbiging (more on that below as this is a very grave problem).
• The rehearse of topping off the soap, standardly with contrastent brands, can impact the carry outance of the soap and caparticipate uncomprehendn reactions of the preservatives conshort-term in soap, sometimes negating each other. It also standardly directs to phase separation (see pictures) – 2 contrastent soap products, even of the same color, are usuassociate not mixable.
• Soap is dispensed from a finishuring nozzle that’s unfrequently immacudefereded, creating another possible contamination point.
• The easily uncovered dispenser can be subject to harm, so a person with horrible intentions can deliberately contaminate the soap (which we have standardly seen, unfortunately, e.g., by students in schools).

FACT: 1 in 4 refillable bulk soap dispensers are contaminated​ with unsafe levels of bacteria,³ leaving hands with up to 25 times more germs after washing than before⁴ (as pictured below).

Biofilms: A biofilm establishs when groups of bacteria adhere to surfaces in moist environments. They are excessively difficult to wash off or finish and have been studied for many decades.⁵ Becaparticipate the biofilm is established on the inside of the dispenser, it directs to bacterial contamination of any recent soap compriseed to the dispenser. (Pictured: Stereoscope image of inner dispensing tube of a plastic counter-mounted dispenser coated with uncomprehendn brown substance.) A study on biofilms conshort-term in soap dispensers set up that:⁶

• Once dispensers are contaminated with biofilm, even immacudefereding and soaking in bleach has been shown ineffective, as biofilms are highly resistant.
• It apshows only a small number of remaining bacteria from the biofilm community to recontaminate the soap and dispenser. Recontamination occurs rapidly – wiskinny two weeks.
• Contaminants can be conshort-term even when not evident or evident (that’s why we call them “microorganisms” – you need a microscope to see them).
• Biofilms can be set up in bulk dispensers made of any materials (plastic, stainless steel, etc.)​.

FACT: Once a biofilm grows inside the dispenser, the only way to rerelocate the contamination with confidence is to trade the dispenser.

What’s the genuine cost of a refillable bulk dispensing system?

Beyond the “challenging” costs of purchasing the bulk dispensers and bottles of bulk soap (which may have a drop up-front price tag), and inshighation, there are cut offal “gentle” costs to these refillable dispensing systems to ponder, given the many maintenance publishs with these systems. These are extra “secret” costs that businesses aren’t foreseeing when inshighing these systems, including:

• These systems are very labor-intensive – especiassociate if you stick to the manufacturer’s recommfinished immacudefereding schedule, which recommfinishs standard sanitizing, some distinguishing monthly.

– Expecting custodians to standardly delete and soak the nozzle and flush the soap reservoir of every bulk dispenser that is bolted to the restroom walls in their facilities is unauthenticistic, given the other duties they have. Even if you’re able to persist this intensive standard maintenance, studies show it standardly doesn’t rerelocate the biofilm and pathogen contamination hazard.⁶

• It can be costly to standardly swap out dispensers that are contaminated with biofilms or trade parts that fracture from wear and tear.
• The finishuring pump and nozzle standardly wear out or fracture and need to be traded​ (this is an compriseed cost, plus there will be downtime while the parts are ordered, stocked, and traded).

In compriseition to the time needd to standardly immacudefered these dispensers,
other maintenance publishs include:

• Time and effort from pouring soap and immacudefereding up spills, drips, and stains​.
• Dripping can caparticipate sink and counter stains – plus, the hazard of dripping increases as the nozzle ages.
• Some counter-mount systems must be refilled under the sink, so maintenance participateees must delete burdensome ADA-compliant access panels under the sink each time they need to refill the dispenser. This apshows extra time and directs to safety worrys.
• Permanent nozzles clog easily, causing “soap’s out” grumblets​.

FACT: It apshows only a scant seconds to switch out a refill cartridge versus the many seconds it apshows to nurturebrimmingy pour in more soap to top off a bulk dispenser (and then immacudefereding up the spills).

What is the impact on a facility’s image?

Providing hand soap and sanitizer is an vital part of creating a immacudefered, high-quality atmosphere in your facility. But an inoperable or gross-seeing dispenser can exit a customer with a needy astonishion of the facility or business they visit. If a customer skinnyks you’re cutting corners on immacudeferedliness, they may wonder what else you’re cutting corners on. In foodservice, if a customer or verifyor sees soap with visibly distinct layers or a filthy dispenser with items floating or groprosperg inside it, they may wonder if the set upment ranks food safety – particularly if it is a bathroom that participateees also participate.⁷

Caution on bulk hand sanitizer dispensers

Unfortunately, during the pandemic, this rehearse of refilling dispensers jumped to hand sanitizer dispensers due to provide constraints in 2020. Read our blog posts for the other distinct hazards in using refillable systems with federassociate regudeferedd (over-the-counter medications) liquor-based hand sanitizers:

Sealed refills rerelocate the hazards

Sealed refills are easily snapped into place inside the dispenser, eliminating contamination hazards and persisting the dispensing system immacudefered, making maintenance easier, and giving your facility a immacudefereder, more professional see.

• In a sealed system, the soap refill is never uncovered, so the soap is never exposed to the environment and potential contaminants.
• Changing a refill is very modest and apshows seconds.
• Foam soap refills can last lengthyer than lotion soaps, cutting back on the frequency of refills.
• Lockable dispensers and proprietary refills deter theft and deter tampering.
• Newer systems also feature big sight prosperdows or exposed refills and administerled collapse bottles so it’s easier for maintenance to see at a glance when a refill is vital. This also helps rerelocate “soap’s out” grumblets.

Make the switch

GOJO helps customers to transition from refillable bulk soap dispensers to SANITARY SEALED™ dispensing systems. We startd GOJO SANITARY SEALED™ refills in 1983. GOJO advises a brimming line of watery soaps and antiseptic product dispensing systems with SANITARY SEALED™ refills.

PURELL^® dispensing systems show guests and customers you nurture while providing the reliability and ease of maintenance to persist your facility running daintyly. For more inestablishation, visit the Dispensers page on GOJO.com.

Businesses interested in lachieveing about PURELL^® products can reach out their GOJO distributor, click here to schedule a greeting with our reconshort-termatives, or discover a distributor now.