Floor cleaning: effect on bacteria and organic materials in hospital rooms.

In this study, four floor-mopping methods were compared using adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and by microbiological samples. All methods reduced organic material on the floors but wet and moist mopping seemed to be the most effective. Cleaning reduced organic material to 5-36% of the level present before cleaning, depending upon mopping method. All four mopping methods reduced bacteria on the floor from about 60-100 to 30-60 colony-forming units (cfu)/20 cm2 floor. Wet, moist and dry mopping seemed to be more effective in reducing bacteria on the floor, than the spray mopping. The burden of bacteria in air increased for all methods just after mopping. The best cleaning methods seemed to be moist and wet mopping. J Hosp Infect. 2009;71:57-65.