Flu prompts some businesses to change practices
| Friday, Oct 23 2009 04:51 PM
Last Updated Friday, Oct 23 2009 04:53 PM
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To view the U.S. Small Business Administration's Preparedness Guide for Small Business, go to: www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/ca_fresno/ca_fresno_h1n1.
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Alex Horvath / The Californian Joe Padilla, a detail specialist for The Limousine Scene, wipes down all surfaces a driver or customer can touch. Padilla has this task after every run.
Alex Horvath / The Californian Joe Padilla, a detail specialist for The Limousine Scene, wipes down all surfaces a driver or customer can touch. Padilla works on a limousine that just returned from a trip to Los Angeles.
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Jim Luff used to tease his germ-averse wife about wiping down shopping cart handles at the start of each grocery store trip.
But in light of nine H1N1 deaths in Kern County as of Friday, and education he received at a conference for limousine owners earlier this month, Luff is taking new precautions.
"We always vacuumed and did other basic cleaning between passengers," said Luff, owner of The Limousine Scene in Bakersfield. "But now we're wiping down handles, gear shifts and steering wheels with disinfectant.
"Several drivers may drive a car in a single day or week, so if you don't curb it at each car, then you're just spreading it throughout your entire fleet, and all your drivers are out sick with the flu at the same time."
Luff's company is one of many organizations changing the way they work since spring, when there was a global outbreak of a new strain of influenza called H1N1, better known as swine flu.
Lots of local businesses, houses of worship and other places where large numbers of people gather are educating their staffs and in some cases, adopting new policies.
At St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Bakersfield, parishioners worried about hygiene may indicate they want the host to be placed in their hand rather than on their tongue during Communion, said the Rev. Kris Sorenson.
"We've also been advising people that during the kiss of peace portion of the service, when it's traditional to shake hands, to not actually shake hands but just greet each other verbally," he said.
"And of course we're reminding people to wash their hands often."
At Natural Healing Spa and Detox Health Center in Bakersfield, though, it's business as usual.
"I'm not worried about it, not at all," said owner Debbie Parks. "We were already washing hands and things, because that's just good practice. So nothing has changed."
The same is true at Kreative Kidz Family Daycare in Bakersfield, where staff members have sanitized toys every Friday since long before the swine flu pandemic.
"That's just normal here," said Kim Tennison, an administrative assistant there.
The U.S. Small Business Administration is concerned enough about swine flu that it has created a brochure called "A Preparedness Guide for Small Business" and posted it online.
"You should treat it like a plan for a fire or an earthquake," said Carlos Mendoza, director of SBA's Fresno District, which includes Bakersfield. "You may never need it, but you should have it in place, just in case.
"Small businesses are especially vulnerable to an outbreak because often you have just a handful of employees, sometimes working in close proximity, so if a bunch of people get sick at once, it's going to have a big impact on your operations."
