The addition of new Purell hand sanitizing dispensers in the Fitness Zone is opening up the concern of whether the Physical Resources Department is overlooking Student Association-run areas on campus.

Sarah Brown, health promotion nurse for Health Services, believes that more dispensers should be put in areas that support them best. She thinks wherever students come in contact with food or germs, dispensers are necessary.

“People need to be sanitizing their hands when they are handling food,” said Brown.

She went on to explain that people come in contact with germs over the course of the day and when they eat, they transfer these germs onto their food and consume them.

“It’s a great way to get bugs and viruses into your systems,” she said.

She commends Physical Resources for installing the hand sanitizers, but she would like to see them in areas that facilitate and attract germs. Brown thinks it would be a good idea to put the dispensers where students enter and exit the school and in common areas where students gather, such as the Observatory.

The Fitness Zone is one of the largest hosts for bacteria on campus; it was an oversight that the dispensers were not put in this area, considering there are over 100 dispensers elsewhere.

When an Algonquin Times reporter asked Martha Peak, manager of the Fitness Zone, why there are no Purell Dispensers in the Fitness zone she was unsure of the reason. She thought the suggestion was warranted and the issue should be looked into.

Peak guessed the reason for not having them was as simple as a communication problem.

The college, specifically the Physical Resources Department, is responsible for the upkeep and management of the dispensers, not the SA. Since the Fitness Zone is owned and operated by the SA, it is not Physical Resources’ responsibility to install the dispensers.

“We are separate entities, but we are partners and we all work together,” said Peak. The fact that the college manages the dispensers should have nothing to do with whether we see them in the Fitness Zone she said.

“I would love it if they would put them up. I don’t see why they couldn’t be put up,” said Peak.

Mike Rushton, director of Physical Resources, initially decided to implement the dispensers after the SARS outbreak in 2002. There was concern from students and staff that the college needed to directly address the problem of germ transfer.

Ever since the school has invested in the dispensers the usage of Purell among students and staff has steadily increased. “People definitely use them,” Rushton said. “We have had good feedback about them.”

The money to pay for these dispensers comes directly from the Physical Resources budget. The initial cost to implement the dispensers was $30,000. This included the installation fee, plus a year’s supply of the Purell liquid. About two years later it costs $15,000 per year to upkeep the dispensers.

“It’s an additional cost to our budget, but it’s worth it,” said Rushton. He thinks it is worthwhile to insure that students have the option to further prevent the spread of diseases and germs.

When asked why there are no Purell dispensers serving the Fitness Zone area, Rushton was stumped.

“That’s very interesting. I don’t know,” he said. “It was my understanding that the dispensers were put outside every washroom.”

He said that the dispensers should be serving every washroom, whether it is a college operated washroom or a SA operated washroom in the Fitness Zone.

“It appears this has been an oversight. We must have missed it,” said Rushton.

After the Times reporter suggested the issue to both Peak and Rushton, Glenda Corrigall, a janitor in the Physical Resources department, was contacted. She agreed with Peak and a few hours later, plans were put in place to install dispensers in the Fitness Zone the following week.