Organic Institute Products
Just
how safe is your institute anyway?
On the Subject of Cleaning
Products
Even that grand
old institute
of tradition, the U.S.
Navy, has wised up to the use of organic institute products.
Those big
battleships?
They're cleaned with a certified
toxin-free product.
Being an
institution that uses organic and eco-friendly products should
mean much more to you than having
furnishings made from recycled wood or metal materials. Or containers
and utensils made from recycled paper or plastics.
Not even the process of
recycling your institutional waste products fully qualifies you as an
organic institute!
Institutional
products also include the solutions or soaps used to
clean the floors and windows. When your staff or custodial service
dusts the furniture, or polishes the equipment, or sanitizes the
bathrooms? How about the window cleaning solution they use?
Custodial staff
or services routinely use non-organic institute
products to do their jobs. Products designed to get the job done in the
shortest amount of time, but not necessarily the safest way.
Excuse the pun,
but you may not be
fully aware of what's going on just below the surface...
Green
Institute
Cleaning Products
Green institute cleaning
products--also commonly called organic
institute
cleaning products--should play an important part of your role in
institutional management. Not only concerning daily operations, but in
maintenance of your facility and the health and safety of your staff
and visitors.
For instance, if I were to advise
your institute's staff or cleaning service on how to clean windows
organically, there is a specific window cleaning product available that
is very effective and safe--and 100% certified carcinogen-free.
For you and the environment!
A truly
organic institute product briefly means the product must be
biodegradable, has no toxic ingredients, emits no toxic fumes, leaves
no harmful residue, and has no negative environmental impact.
Let me
emphasize that:
Zero
negative
environmental impact. Nada. Zilch.
Zip.
With the United States
economy in a serious
recession,
these are times of cost controls and frugality. Going green with
an organic institutional cleaning product is cheaper in the long run
than buying most any of the "off-the-shelf" products that are available.
If It's Name-Brand,
It's Got To Be Good?
In general, most
commercially-produced institute cleaning and soap
products contain at least one synthetic chemical that may have been
toxically connected by scientists and researchers to a disease.
Often a life-threatening
disease...
And those products leave a residue that
continues to pollute the air
you breathe--long after the cleaning crew is gone!
The one chemical that
pops up in so many name-brand institute cleaning
products as a bleaching agent is dichloro-isocyanurate (easy
for you to say). This chemical agent often forms a toxic gas, called
nitrogen-trichloride.
This gas is, in fact,
known to be a threat to human health!
The
List Goes
On
The use of
synthetic
chemicals in so many of the non- organic institute products on the
market
today is common practice, and begs corporate accountability. And the
list of those chemicals is very long and getting longer every day.
Too long to go into here and now,
but I will pose a simple yet factual
statement for you to consider:
Suds
in cleaners and
detergents serve no cleaning purpose!
Nor does the ingredient that makes
for shiney surfaces...
Both are just for "show."
The
manufacturers' way of convincing you that
you're really getting your money's worth.
What the manufacturers don't want
you to know, though, is that the two
chemical agents that produce these two effects--suds and shine--have
been linked to potentially harmful effects on humans.Such as
cancer...
So, in the long run, how much
do their non- organic
products really cost?
But It's Not On
The Label
A good case can be made against
various products' labels, and the lack of
pertinent information. The kinds of information you need to make an
informed decision.
Take commercially-manufactured institutional furniture, for example.
Most materials and fabrics used on desks, chairs and sofas, and in
window coverings such as drapes, contain a flame retardant known as
PBDE. Flame retardants are a safety requirement made by OSHA and other
like-minded government agencies, and widely enforced.
You are
exposed to these
potentially toxic furnishings and decor each and every time you walk in
the front door at work.
"A growing body of research in laboratory animals has linked PBDE
exposure to an array of adverse health effects including thyroid
hormone disruption, permanent learning and memory impairment,
behavioral changes, hearing deficits, delayed puberty onset, decreased
sperm count, fetal malformations and, possibly, cancer."
(Reference: The Enviromental Working Group - "Bodyburden: Flame
Retardants")
Taking
Organic Steps
There are
measures you--as
an institute--can take to protect your own
and your employees' and your visitors' health almost immediately.
Require your institute's custodial staff or your contract cleaning
service to buy and use organic institute products only, such as organic
floor, window and equipment cleaning solutions and polishes (see the
link below).
Many manufacturers are becoming environmentally aware, and are finally
discontinuing the use of PBDE in their production processes. A case of
too little, too late.
That means you can now take steps to insure that all your furnishings
and decor are--or will be--free of PBDE, a chemical for which there are
environmentally-safe alternatives.
Even something as innocuous as a carpet cleaning solution requires your
attention. Is it leaving an invisible toxic cloud throughout your work
environment?
Organic institute products such as alternative carpet cleaning
solutions are those that can be
disposed of in a safe fashion. No toxic ingredients, no harmful
residues or fumes, no environmental impact whatsoever. Again, zero
impact.
Your family, your employees, your custodial staff or service--your
visitors--will all thank you.
Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon! Thanks, Bogey...
Click to read
up on:
Organic
School Products
Organic Library Products
