When passengers embark on a cruise, they usually prefer not to spend most it in their cabins, trying to throw off a debilitating bug that they’ve caught after boarding the ship.

And if the media get the slightest whiff of illnesses caused by a well-known vessel’s sanitation problems, all that hard work and investment in a cruise line can disappear as fast as bacteria in a bucket of bleach.

Which is why many of the world’s leading cruise lines have been seeking the help of specialist companies like Clorox Professional Products, to help clean up their act.

“There have been several health issues on cruise ships in recent years and these have raised awareness of the cleanliness and safety of the cruise ship environment, “said Craig Stevenson, vice president, Clorox Professional Products, a company which has offices overlooking San Francisco Bay and started working with the American cruise ship industry about six years ago. ”

“Cruise ships are really super-concentrated floating villages and they have all the same issues that any village would have, but in a much smaller space. ”

“Depending on the ship and how long it’s been out, you’ve got a constant inflow of new people, including new passengers, new staff and new visitors from the stopover ports. ”

“This tremendous traffic flow of people raises the level of difficulty to keep all the areas on a cruise ship clean.”

Unlike many teenagers I’ve encountered, most cruise ships have a well defined cleaning protocol. These days, what’s most important is that they (the ships AND the teenagers) add disinfecting or sanitising to that cleaning method..

“They should treat high-touch surfaces on a frequent enough basis to prevent cross-contamination, like stairway rails, doorknobs, and telephones,” said Stevenson.

“The biggest change that we’ve seen on cruise ships in the last couple of years is that they’re now regularly wiping down these high-touch areas with something that can actually kill germs and prevent cross-contamination.”

Apparently, the difference between sanitising and disinfecting is in the amount of germ-killing that occurs on a surface.

“To disinfect, you have to have what is called a 6-Log kill,” said Stevenson, “which means you have to kill 99.9999 per cent of micro-organisms. To sanitise, you have to have a 3-log kill, which means you have to kill 99.9 per cent of germs and bacteria – and this is in 30 seconds.”

But don’t just leave it all to the cruise ship’s highly trained cleaning operatives and specialist suppliers.

All passengers should remember to wash their hands before meals, after using the toilet, and last thing at night before they go to bed. Coughs and sneezes also spread diseases so it’s important as well as polite to cover your mouth, when necessary.

But don’t let your concern for a healthy cruise get in the way of actually enjoying your trip, for cruise operators are well aware of the potential problem of cross-contamination on their ships, and on the whole manage to avoid it.

And don’t give in to hypochondria, unlike a friend of mine who once went through a medical dictionary, decided he had every disease known (and unknown) to mankind, and arranged to be buried next to his doctor.

This was the same man whose ex-wife amazed him one day by cleaning out their wardrobe. She found things she hadn’t seen for ages – the vacuum cleaner, the iron, cleaning cloths, bucket, mop…

James Leavey

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