Sanitation and Infection Control
What the exam tests
Sanitation items test the difference between cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting, plus blood-exposure procedure and shop requirements. You must know what must be discarded, what can be reused, and how long a disinfectant must contact a tool.
Core rules
- Clean first: remove hair, skin, and product debris before disinfection. Organic matter inactivates many disinfectants.
- Use an EPA-registered hospital-grade disinfectant with a tuberculocidal claim for reusable implements, and follow the label contact time. Fully immerse tools in a covered wet sanitizer.
- Single-use items-razor blades, neck strips, towels, cotton, wooden sticks-are discarded after one client.
- Capes and linens must be clean for each client; keep clean and soiled items separate.
- Wash hands before and after each client and after glove removal. Wear gloves for blood or body-fluid contact.
- A UV cabinet is storage, not a substitute for cleaning and disinfection.
Worked example
A clipper blade nicks a client's neck and blood appears. Stop the service, put on gloves, remove the blade, clean visible debris, and immerse it in an EPA-registered disinfectant for the full label contact time. Discard disposable items, disinfect the chair and contact surfaces, wash hands, and document the incident per shop policy. Reasoning: blood is a bloodborne-pathogen risk; disinfectant needs prior cleaning and correct contact time.
Traps
Spraying a tool and calling it disinfected; not timing contact; storing clean tools in dirty disinfectant; reusing towels; confusing sanitizing with disinfecting; relying on UV.