The Janitors' Closet

Teens drinking hand sanitizer

Never thought I'd see hand sanitizer as a substance abuse issue.

News out of California's San Fernando Valley emergency rooms has teens drinking hand sanitizer, which can contain 65% ethyl alcohol, for a cheap high, and sometimes also a call to their local poison control center.  Since many cutting edge social innovations that originate in California promptly make their way here to Arizona, I'm off to check the ingredients on the product we supply the occasional client.

This could present an inventory control issue I'd not anticipated.

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.

Photo ID and DOB to purchase cleaning chemicals

Caught an article on a new Illinois law requiring presentation of photo ID for one to purchase common cleaning and maintenance chemicals, such as Draino.  This will protect the public  from those criminals and terrorists who use such in their nefarious activities....

Conversely, a proposal to require the presentation of photo ID at the poling place languishes in the Illinois Legislature.  One is tempted to speculate on whether such legislation as the chemical purchase ID act might be a bit less common if voters were require to show ID.

On the security front, the chemical photo ID law also requires the purchaser to provide, and the store clerk to note down, his address and date of birth.  A good start on stealing someones identity involves acquiring his DOB, address and driver license information (what most folks present when asked for ID).  Perhaps we need some legislation to screen store clerks, and to safeguard the personal information that they are now required to acquire.  And maybe some background checking, and employment standards, on the state employees that would need to be made responsible for the implementation and oversight of the store clerk screening/personal information securing program.

This could be a whole new jobs creation program.

Good thing the carpet wasn't easy to ignite...

I see a lot of other firm's equipment in the janitor closets of places I'm quoting.  Besides the usual (and oft
remarked upon) safety and regulatory concerns of unlabeled squirt bottles and other chemical containers, lack of MSDS books, unfiltered vacuums, etc., one notices quite a few vacuum cleaner cords of questionable provenance.  Think twisted, nicked cords, taped up repairs, ungrounded (those pesky third prongs keep pulling out), perhaps of too small a gauge to support the length of cord or the vacuum.

Here's a fun video of the potential result.

We figure it's better to check our crew's equipment regularly, than to have to move the file cabinet.

"...To Stop The Spread of Disease"

Good article in Cleanlink, "Janitors Should Wear Gloves and Face Masks...."

Can't put it better myself:

"Frequent hand washing has been promoted universally by public health officials for many years; however, the importance of using gloves as an infection control tool goes along with hand washing. Hands are kept cleaner and do not spread harmful organisms nearly as often when protected by a glove barrier.  Gloves should be worn by all janitorial workers when cleaning and handling chemicals. OSHA requires that gloves be worn when using almost every commercial chemical. Certainly this is a good practice from a worker safety perspective but it is equally important regarding infection control."

We stress gloves (latex or other), most especially when cleaning restrooms and lunchrooms, and throughout the facility.  We also stress safety glasses, when cleaning restrooms (think splashing bowl acid in ones eyes) and when mixing chemicals.  Face-masks are useful when in contact with or working around others; as we only do after-hours cleaning, face-masks are of less benefit to our people or our clients.  (In passing, if doing day cleaning, I wonder about the decidedly mixed message one would be sending to the office workers one is working around, who generally do not wear face masks at their desks.) 

We clean for health.  When I keep my people healthy, they're at work and I don't have to be; when I keep my client healthy, he can send me checks.

Police officer died after inhaling noxious fumes...

...is the headline in a 9/20 Chicago Tribune article by Jeremy Gorner.

"Harmful fumes caused the death of a Chicago police officer in April after he was exposed weeks earlier to a cleaning substance...He told another officer he was coughing and having trouble breathing after inhaling a cleaning substance that a maintenance worker sprayed from an aerosol can on a desk at the district  station, according to a police report."

No indication in the article as to exactly what the "cleaning substance" was, or why it had to be delivered via aerosol; I cannot imagine what a conventional cleaning kit might contain that would cause such, save for an unusual allergic reaction.

Many "ma & pa" janitorial services have little chemical or safety knowledge; many firms (such as some of the franchising operations) employee "ma & pa" outfits, and do little to supervise, train or require proper chemical safety.  So the part of industry that uses other than "conventional cleaning kits" has lots of opportunity for foul-ups, including serious ones.

We're careful about such issues; we've carefully selected a safe chemical kit; keep to a small number of chemicals, so as to reduce confusion (our standard janitorial kit includes just five chemicals); follow OSHA mandates and labeling; train and re-train our people; and monitor compliance, partly through unannounced inspections.  We also stress squirting chemical on the cleaning cloth, not spraying on the surface, and we never use aerosols:  less chemical in the air means less to be inhaled.  Providing safety - for both our workers and the client - is not difficult, but does require planning and ongoing monitoring.  Thank goodness, we've never had a chemical-related injury.
 

 

More asbestos irrationality - I promise, my last on this subject.

"Asbestos Violations" are alleged, by the Wisconsin Department of Commerce, during a March 2010 University of Wisconsin project to remove floor tile, which was discovered on removal of some carpet in one room of the Communication Arts Building.   In passing, found the article in the Digest of the Indoor Air Quailty Association - an organization we've long participated in, and which I'd strongly recommend.

The University "...did not properly notify employees working in the area that asbestos would be removed, and didn't properly protect the employees during the work... The university also did not provide a "competent person" to protect employees."  The University was given until September 13, 2011, to "comply with corrective orders to each violation".

Given that the job was done over a year ago, it's hard to understand how the University can correct the failure to notify employees, or to provide a "competent person" to protect them, during the removal, a year ago last March.

Leave aside that asbestos-containing floor tile can generally be removed, quite easily and safely, without any asbestos becoming airborne, and that there usually is no good reason to remove the tile at all - just re-carpet over it, or even refinish and use it as the permanent floor.  Had anybody paid attention, 20 years ago, when the lack of danger to health from asbestos-containing building materials was first documented, we wouldn't be wasting money, and litigating, about it today.

We put a lot of thought into protecting employee, and client, safety.  We also try to be rational about it.

 

 

Asbestos - the cost of overkill.

The irrationality, and societal costs, of wholesale asbestos removal are finally getting notice in mainstream media; here's an article in USA Today - a good follow up to my recent post.

Mentioned is "incontrovertible scientific evidence that asbestos in buildings creates a  cancer risk so low that it barely can be measured. A person who spends a career inside a building rich with asbestos materials is more likely to die of a lightning bolt, a bee sting or a toothpick lodged in the throat than an asbestos-related cancer."

An EPA financed study, in 1991 (20 years ago), found "...the lifetime risk of cancer for someone who worked in a building containing asbestos was one in 250,000. By comparison, outdoor air in urban areas has enough asbestos fibers to create a one-in-25,000 lifetime risk of cancer. So an office worker is 10 times safer inside a building made with asbestos than outside it."  Add to that the studies showing that airborne asbestos tends to be higher in a building after asbestos removal than before.

Asbestos removal continues to cost America $3 billion per year, largely wasted.  You'd think we could find useful things to spent that kind of money on.  Like maybe cleaning for health (not that I'd want to seem self-serving...)

Close the skills gap

Interesting op. ed. in the August 10th Wall Street Journal, by Senators Landrieu and Murray, titled "How to close the skills gap".

They quote a study by the National Commission on Adult Literacy that 90 million American adults "have   literacy skills so low that success in post-secondary education and training is becoming more and more challenging";  further, a Wells Fargo/Gallup survey that 67% of small businesses report that finding skilled workers is difficult, and that they hire fewer new workers as a result.

I know the feeling.  I could use a janitorial sales person, but the skill set of building a coherent (and grammatical) proposal, and doing the arithmetic needed, is lately a hard one to find.  Even a route janitor, who needs the ability to read task descriptions, and also the message line on building alarms, is quite often hard to locate.  (And we could consider the benefits of being able to read safety instructions and MSDS information).  So far, I don't have the option of whatever might be the equivalent to putting pictures of hamburgers and sodas on the cash register keys, as another industry does...

Unfortunately, the solutions offered by the editorial's authors lean to funding "...labor market policies, including work force training and job search programs...", and "...programs that provide labor-market information to students and job seekers about in-demand jobs, and the skills and education necessary to get them...".

Doesn't sound like an approach that would impact literacy and numeracy in the grade schools.

More on lightning, and on mixing electricity and gasoline

A thoughtful follow-up on metal gates, safety and lightning storms, and the "Pastafarian" headgear, again from my friend Marla:

"The Pastafarian issue can be resolved by 1) pointing out that their dogma of no dogma is circular   reasoning and parodies of religious beliefs aren't religious beliefs themselves 2) plastic colanders 3) mental evaluations of all future employees.  Since 1) and 2) have been resolved by the courts, at least in one country that leaves 3). Colors could be coordinated with your uniforms."

I do like the idea of color-coordinating with our uniforms.

The following has nothing to do with janitorial service, my livelihood and the usual subject of this site, but the discussion reminded me of a conversation with a friend years ago.  He was an adjuster with an insurance firm that, among things, insured a number of gas stations over in rural New Mexico.

A claim crossed his desk.  Seemed an employee of one of the gas stations needed to check the level in a large, above ground metal gas tank.  He used a metal dip stick.  While standing on the metal tank, inserting the metal dip-stick into the gasoline, he hit (with the metal stick) the overhead power lines.  Surprisingly, he survived.  As I recall, the jolt from the power line threw him clear, and threw the stick clear of the gasoline, before either electrocution or explosion.

Because the fellow survived, he'd not be a candidate for the annual Darwin Awards - they only apply to folks who have improved the human gene pool by removing themselves from it.  But he at least deserves an honorable mention.