How Shanghai reduces faecal bacteria presence in hotels to less than 1%

Science ChinaScience How Shanghai reduces faecal bacteria presence in hotels to less than 1% Luxury hotels clean up their act after filthy sanitation practices, including using the same sponge to clean cups, toilets and showers When it comes to hotel rooms, “luxury” does not necessarily mean clean and hygienic. A number of studies have shown that light switches and television remote controls are among the objects with the highest levels of bacterial contamination, while toilets and bathroom sinks also contain high levels of microbial organisms. A 2012 survey in the United States – which is still cited by the travel industry 14 years later – found that 81 per cent of US hotel samples tested positive for surface faecal bacteria. The data was presented to a conference of the American Society of Microbiology, according to a Time magazine report in 2018. Also in 2018, 14 five-star luxury hotels in China were embroiled in a scandal when videos of unsanitary cleaning practices by their housekeeping staff were exposed, with seven of those hotels located in Shanghai. In the video, cleaning staff were seen using the same sponge to clean drinking cups, toilet seats and shower stalls as well as to wipe drinking cups, bathroom sinks and mirrors with towels or washcloths that guests had previously used. However, the situation in China has changed since, with a study by the Shanghai-municipal-centre-for-disease-control-and-prevention" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="117519" data-entity-type="organization">Shanghai Municipal Centre for Disease Control and Prevention finding just how clean the city’s hotels have become. The study, published in March in the Chinese-language Journal of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, examined the safety of disinfection for public items and utensils in 13,807 public places including hotels, gyms, barbershops, beauty salons, shopping malls, cinemas and hospitals in Shanghai between 2010 and 2024. The results showed that among all public places in Shanghai, hotel cleanliness levels varied, with some performing well while others lagged in certain indicators. Man in China leaves hotel room full of of rubbish after month-long stay Man in China leaves hotel room full of of rubbish after month-long stay By comparison, a smaller study led by Alberto Beiza, of the University of Houston, which sampled 10 guest rooms and 37 high-frequency contact surfaces in mid-range US hotels, found the rooms were more contaminated after being cleaned than before. “The results showed that several areas of the room had a higher Staphylococcus aureus, aerobic plate and E.coli/coliform bacteria levels after cleaning, suggesting that contaminated towels were being used to clean various surfaces in the rooms,” Beiza said in a 2024 report published in the Journal of Environmental Health. According to the US paper, concentrations of coliforms in the bed area before cleaning “significantly increased” in the bed area from a median 0.46 to 0.81. Microbial counts significantly increased on the phone dial pad and TV remote control, it said. Overall, the hygiene performance of public places can be divided into two parts: the pH value of cotton fabrics and microbial indicators. Further Reading Inside the shadowy practices plaguing China’s science awards 2 years on: China’s ‘desert wheat farms’ show the seeds of success China team introduced plant-based photosynthesis in sick animals. They recovered The pH value of cotton fabrics is an important indicator for assessing detergent residue. The average towel compliance rate across all public places in Shanghai was 87.81 per cent, while hotels had a rate of 77.66 per cent, according to the Chinese study. The compliance rate for hotel bedsheets was 86.36 per cent. This figure does not seem satisfactory, but it has already surpassed the average level in China, where the towel pass rate is 68.38 per cent. Previous studies have shown that the pass rate for outsourced cleaning and disinfection of hotel towels is higher in the eastern and western regions of China than in the central region. In the field of microorganisms in public places, hotels perform well – Shanghai’s average compliance rate is 97.25 per cent. By comparison, the compliance rate for coliform bacteria in hotels was close to 99 per cent, and the compliance rate for Staphylococcus aureus was nearly 99.9 per cent, with almost no detections. These figures are close to or slightly higher than the bacterial compliance rates of hotels in other major Chinese cities, according to the Shanghai study. However, the researchers noted that these figures were significantly higher than those recorded in a Canadian study published in 2015, which found 46 per cent of hotels tested positive for Staphylococcus aureus and 24 per cent for coliform bacteria. It should be noted that during the Covid-19 pandemic, between 2020 and 2022, the compliance rates for both indicators in Shanghai’s public places increased significantly and stayed high, indirectly reflecting the evident effectiveness of improved disinfection measures, according to the researchers. Shi Huang FOLLOW FOLLOW Shi is a science reporter based in Beijing, primarily covering life sciences, medicine, and frontier research. Previously, he worked for Sanlian Lifeweek and DXY. Science | Canada | Mainland China | United States | Shanghai Before you go Start Conversation scmp poll Discover MORE stories on Science FOLLOW Diamond coating nearly doubles Chinese AI data centre’s cooling efficiency 10,000 suns: mind-blowing power of black hole jets measured for the first time China’s Qingzhou tests space debris capture and clean-up Select Voice Select Speed 0.8x 0.9x1.0x 1.1x 1.2x 1.5x 1.75x 00:0000:00 1.00x