The Janitors' Closet

Microfiber damp mops contribute credits to LEED certification

Caught a quick presentation by Dan Welton of Contracting Profits in the magazine's "CleanLink Minute" on Microfiber mops and the U. S. Green Building Council's LEED for Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance program.

Dan mentions sustainability requirements, and that microfiber mops use less water and chemical than string mops.  Doubtless because of the one minute format, he omits other advantages, some "environmental", some not: fewer workplace injuries (a lighter mop and less frequent mop bucket dumping); floors drying faster (because less solution is left on the floor) leading to fewer slip/fall injuries among both workforce and the public; less particle mass left on the floor, to be kicked up by foot traffic or airflow to contribute to poorer indoor air quality; less pathogen cross-contamination room to room or area to area; greater employee productivity; cleaner looking floors.

Not much to not like.  Used 'em for years.

The science of disinfectants

Here's a good article on the basic types of disinfectants, their properties, and their effectiveness in various applications.

Quats, for instance, are quite effective at disinfecting, but not at cleaning, particularly since the addition of a surfactant (needed to spread the solution) diminishes the effect of the disinfectant.  So we use a hospital grade quat product in restrooms and lunchrooms, as part of a two part process - clean first, and then disinfect.  We can apply the quat disinfectant liberally, on restroom fixtures, without worry about damage, and give it the 10 minutes dwell time required.  And we don't have to rinse it off - both a time saver and a help in not re-infecting the surface.

For touch-points around the office, we use a hydrogen peroxide based product - it's both a good cleaner, and a good sanitizer (not quite a disinfectant, but we don't need quite the level of pathogen kill on a door jamb that we do on a urinal).  And, it gives us effective sanitation with a dwell time of 30 to 60 seconds, achievable on touch-points.  So we can wipe with a saturated microfiber cloth (microfiber cleans quite well on its own), clean the surface, remove both dirt and most germs, and leave the surface moist enough to achieve sanitation - without spraying the chemical on the surface, and into the air, and having it run down the wall.

Pretty good all around system.  And a good article.

Hospital battles infections with robots

Interesting article in CNN Money, "Hospital battles infections with robots".  Nice video attached, too.

"At any given time, 1 in 20 hospital patients is battling an infection that they got on site, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Hospitals now pay greater attention to hand hygiene -- Purell dispensers have become ubiquitous -- but their main infection control methods haven't changed much for decades. Most rooms are still disinfected by housekeepers armed with chemical cleaners."

The "robot" showcased is a portable ultraviolet pulse generator, for use in patient rooms, bathrooms, and so on.  UV light kills pathogens.  After the anthrax scare a few years back, for instance, the Post Office explored treating mail with UV lights to kill such things as, well, anthrax.  Might have worked except for the long exposure time each side of every letter would have required (mail delivery is slow enough as it is).  UV lights are also what air conditioning firms use in AC ductwork to kill airborne germs as they blow by.

In janitorial, we mostly use chemicals to kill germs - a hydrogen peroxide product for touch-point sanitation, and a quat disinfectant for restrooms and lunchrooms.  We also use microfiber technology to remove most germs - dead or alive - from surfaces.  Where damp cleaning is not practical - think computer keyboards - we have available an inexpensive UV light that, when passed slowly over an item, kills the pathogens.

Which brings up the cost of the UV robot - about $80,000.00.  Reasonable for a hospital - think what a single hospital acquired infection costs to treat - but a bit less affordable for a janitorial firm.  Looking ahead, though, given that most technological innovations drop rapidly in price as they propegate, something similar could well be in our future.

Are schools making kids sick?

Caught an article in CNN Health on the links between students' health and indoor air quality: the debilitating presence of mold, airborne dust and other pollutants in schools.

According to author David S. Martin, "Figures are hard to come by, but studies have estimated that a third or more of U.S. schools have mold, dust and other indoor air problems serious enough to provoke respiratory issues like asthma in students and teachers.  A national survey of school nurses found that 40% knew children and staff adversely affected by indoor pollutants."

Mold is not quite the concern here in Arizona's dry Sonoran desert as it might be in moister locals, but we do perform a visual inspection for it when doing a Greenguard Environmental Institute based facility inspection for a client.

Dust (see above about a dry Sonoran desert), however, is a biggie.

Using HEPA filtration on our vacuums, vacuuming rather than dust mopping tile floors, using microfiber damp mops rather than string mops, and microfiber wipes rather than feather or lambs wool dusters, we've the systems in place to remove, rather than redistribute, dust, and to keep it out of the air.  We also measure indoor air quality - airborne dust particles in the size range of most allergens - and share results with our clients.  In a tightly sealed facility, cleaned multiple nights per week, we generally see a substantial reduction in airborne dust.  It's called "cleaning for health".  Clients appreciate the benefit.

If a school kid is home sick from a pathogen or allergen he inhaled at school, he cannot learn.  If a client is home sick from a particle he inhaled at work, he cannot sign our check...

Home Environment affects asthematic kids - in single parent homes.

Caught an article in USA Today (courtesy of the Indoor Air Quality Association's Digest) that "Home Environment affects asthmatic kids".

The article explores a study (not yet published or peer reviewed) claiming that "Children with asthma who live in single-parent homes are 50 percent more likely to return to the hospital for treatment within a year than those who live in two-parent homes".  Kids from low income families, as well as those from homes with "time constraints" , are also likely to face problems.  "Parents play an important role in controlling their child's asthma and it takes time, energy and resources to follow their physician's treatment plan, including reducing triggers and consistently giving medicines," Dr. Terri Moncrief said in a College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology news release.

While my firm combats asthma and allergy triggers in cleaning commercial facilities, clearly what folks breath at home is also an issue.  Cleaning ones home similarly to how we clean offices (HEPA filtered vacuums, microfiber mops and wipes, careful chemical selection, etc.) would doubtless benefit ones family, but many other factors are also in play.  Lower family income, and "time constraints" - that is, less parental time available to insure that the kid takes his medication or uses his inhaler - are clearly associated with single parent families, as are a variety of societal problems.  Statistically, the best indicator of a child's success in later life is the presence - or absence - of two parents.  Even the disparity of home mortgages granted to different races goes away if one corrects for single versus two adult households.

Society has become more accepting of divorce, and single-parenting; consequently, we've instituted no-fault divorce.  Many more families are single parent.  We see many programs, and suggestions of programs, to deal with the consequences.

Wonder if we might be treating the symptoms rather than the disease?

A nice new wetmop on the market

Got a call several months ago from a Todd Williams of CT Development, asking us to field test a new wet-mop he'd just designed.  As he offered several free mops for the test, I figured I had nothing to lose.

He calls his mop the "Maximizer".  Here's my response to him, after a few weeks in the field with several of my crews, including both janitorial and floor techs.

"We appreciated the opportunity to “field test” your new Maximizer wet-mop.  Compared to a conventional mop, it lays much flatter on the floor, thus giving much wider coverage for its weight.  Our crews, particular our women and lighter men, appreciate the ease of use.  It also rinses well, fits better into a standard wringer, and as a consequence seems to streak the floor less than a conventional mop.  Finally, it seems to hold up well under heavy use and high soil loads.  We’ll continue to use, and appreciate, the Maximizer."

(I should note that, for both quality and health reasons, we use flat microfiber mops for "damp-mopping"; a wet-mop, like the ones we tested, is used to lay more solution on the floor, let the solution dwell for a bit, and then pick it up; damp-mopping involves a dryer mop and just one pass over the floor.  Wet mopping is used for heavy soil build-up, damp-mopping for lighter work on a cleaner floor.  The Maximizer thus fills a niche for us.)

One interesting side light:  our initial response to Todd mentioned that the mop was producing a bit of lint.  A couple of weeks later, a few more mops arrived in my mail.  Todd had tweaked the manufacturing process; the new mops worked fine, with no lint.  An impressively quick fix.  And a neat product.

Health and Indoor Air Quality

I had a nice article on the health benefits of proper vacuuming procedure in the on-line edition of  
Contracting Profits.

I stressed HEPA filtration, microfiber wipes instead of feather dusters, vacuuming rather dust-mopping hard floors, microfiber damp mops - and their collective effect on indoor air quality, and the keeping allergens and other harmful particles out of the air we breath.

But heck - read the article.

Sometimes it takes a while...

Months ago, I quoted a mid-sized pediatric clinic.  The pediatrician I spoke with allowed that her partners preferred contracting with an individual, as opposed to a "business", in order to save money.

She was concerned that the VCT (90% of the facility) looks a bit dull, even though her "service" is stripping every couple of months (at extra charge) - probably because he doesn't own a burnisher.  I'll
bet if she added the stripping charges to her monthly fee, she'd find out that she's been paying more than a legitimate service would charge her to clean AND periodically burnish.

She was also concerned about the building's heavy dust load, but thinks it's unavoidable, because Arizona "is a dusty place".  Which it is. 

A quick look in the janitor closet revealed a dust-mop (filthy, as always) rather than a hard-floor vacuum, a string mop rather than microfiber, and a feather duster (kind of ratty) rather than microfiber wipes.  What with Arizona being a dusty place and all, you'd think it would be a good idea to work a bit on removing the dust from the building, instead of just recirculating it.

You'd also think that a place treating little kids would have some concern for the health of the kids.  But perhaps working to keep the airborne allergens and pathogens circulating in the building keeps the kids coughing, and business returning... 

Finally, you'd think that a firm subjected to various regulatory agencies would want to have the chemical bottles properly labeled, and an MSDS book on hand (both fineable OSHA violations), and maybe even a decent touch-point sanitizer available.  But not in this janitor closet.

It's been about eight months; finally got a call to begin service.  They've been putting up with quite inferior service for all that time, and their patients have been living with a less than satisfactory indoor environment.  I'm interested to see the janitor closet when I drop by to pick up the keys, and to compare Indoor Air Quality readings after a few weeks proper cleaning.

Air pollution more likely to trigger heart attack

"Air pollution can be more dangerous for your heart than stress or vigorous exercise" reports and article on a study published in "the Lancet" this month, which I found in a great source, the Indoor Air Quality
Association Digest.

The study deals with outdoor pollution caused by vehicle traffic, but notes "Polluted air is full of dust   particles and soot that can enter lungs and lead to inflammation."  Further, 'Jon Ayres, professor of environmental and respiratory medicine at the University of Birmingham, said, “Particles raise the risk of respiratory problems and also seem to increase the stickiness of the blood. So, if you’ve got coronary heart disease, it may contribute to causing a heart attack.”'

My take is that "particles are particles".  Fine dust, whether inhaled indoors or out, is not kind to ones innards.  In janitorial, HEPA filtered vacuums, microfiber dust wipes and damp mops, and sensible chemical selection make for a healthier indoor environment, and healthier people within it.

This does, however, call into question my resolve to protect my heart by avoiding vigorous exercise.  Guess I gotta run the dogs more often.

 

Sustainability in janitorial service

Got a note from one of our national trade associations, asking for a quick article about sustainability initiatives we have in place, for inclusion in an upcoming publication.  Here's what I sent:

    We do route work, about 140 smaller facilities, spread over a metro area 65 plus miles across, on a variety of schedules.  For years we've looked, quite aggressively, at drive time and distance, to conserve time and resources.
    In purchasing, we aim toward highly concentrated chemicals, to reduce shipping costs (and fuel), and minimal packaging (for instance, floor finish in a bagged box, not a plastic bucket).
    We feature Green Seal certified 100% recycled content paper products.    We recycle, both at our facility and for our clients; we've strategic alliances with a charity-run recycling center and a document and software shredding/recycling firm.  (We're a member of the Arizona Recycling Coalition, and I sit on the City of Phoenix's Environmental Quality Commission, so we're well placed to learn about and implement developments in the field.)
    Using HEPA filtration, microfiber and HP cleaner/sanitizer, we clean more thoroughly each visit, thus promoting health and safety with a minimum number of visits per month.
    Finally, in a slowly improving economy, we're "recycling" clients that were forced to suspend service, for cost reasons, months back.  Thank Goodness!