Skip to main content

Hand sanitizers and more toilets = a more sanitary jobsite

Date Posted: December 26 2003

Editor's note: An article we published last month said that with the worker-friendly Gov. Granholm Administration in place, appointees to the Michigan Construction Standards Commission may be more receptive to improve sanitary conditions on construction sites.

An improved federal OSHA sanitation standard came close to passage in the Clinton Administration, which would have simply required employers to install sanitizing gel dispensers near portable toilets on construction sites so workers could clean their hands, while lowering the ratio of toilets-per-worker to one in 10 from one in 40.

That didn't happen - but Michigan can pass its own such rule, and we're hoping it does. Following is a response to that article.

By F. Jay Brendel, owner
Brendel Septic Tank Service, LLC
President, Michigan Septic Tank Association

I have just finished reading your article in the November issue of The Building Tradesman regarding portable sanitation services on job sites. I myself am an owner of a portable sanitation company and felt compelled to respond to your article.

I agree that sanitation on construction sites definitely needs improvement. That is why I started my company in the first place, to improve worker conditions, not harm them. I don't agree with the portion of the article that seems to allude to sanitation being bad due to the lack of service from service providers.

Most sanitation service providers, my company included, provide all types of sanitation equipment. Not just the base construction rental units. Among the types of equipment available for rental are portable (free standing) sinks and hand sanitizers, which attach easily to the inside of the portable restroom units. The problem comes into play not so much from lack of laws, enforcement or even the equipment currently on the market for rent. The true issue stems from the contractors on job sites who are unwilling to make such a small investment in their workers' health and sanitation needs.

The cost of having a hand sanitizer included in a portable restroom is minimal. For this reason it never fails to baffle me just how few contractors are willing to have them available to their workers.

That is not the only issue. If some contractors could avoid the issue of sanitation, they wouldn't keep portable restrooms on the job site at all. Though MIOSHA might mandate that sanitation be provided for workers on job sites, enforcement is not readily pursued for these laws (when available). Therefore many contractors either skip the portable restroom equipment all together, requiring the worker(s) to fend for themselves, or simply place one unit on a job site that would require many more to accommodate the amount of workers and subcontractors on the job.

It is not unusual to see only one unit at a job site servicing some 50-plus workers, which in no way can do the job.

The rule of thumb that we use when renting units to customers is one unit for every 10 workers on the job site. And though the contractors are made aware of this, the answer is invariably, "I know, but I've done this before. I only need one unit."

When you get into the hand sanitation portion of the conversation they don't even want to discuss it.

I guess in the end, I just wanted to make you aware that really no matter what is done to improve the conditions for the workers on the job site nothing will really change until requirements placed upon the contractors start becoming more strictly enforced.