Some Toxic and possibly carcinogenic substances are not listed on the label
The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 9, 2010 – By Wendy Koch
Popular scented products – including those claiming to be “green” – Emit chemicals not listed on the label, including some considered toxic and possibly carcinogenic, a study says.
Each of the 25 tested products emitted at least one chemical classified as toxic or hazardous under U.S. law, and 11 gave off at least one chemical listed as a possible carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to the study published online in the journal Environmental Impact Assessment Review.
Lead author Anne Steinemann, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of Washington, says her study is the first to look at fragranced products.
The products emitted a total of 133 chemicals, about 17 each. But only ethanol was listed on labels. Manufacturers are not required to list ingredients in fragrances. A bill pending in the United States Senate would require it.
Half of the products tested made claims about being “green, organic or natural,” but “they emitted just as many toxic chemicals,” Steinemann said.
The study analyzed top-selling air fresheners, laundry products including detergents, and personal-care products such as soaps and cleaning products. It does not disclose brand names. “We don’t want to give people the impression that if we reported on product ‘A’ and they buy product ‘B,’ they’re safe,” said Steinemann. “The whole class is problematic.”
The researchers placed a sample of each product in a closed glass container at room temperature and tested the air for volatile organic compounds. Because product formulations are proprietary, they couldn’t determine whether a chemical came from the product base, the added fragrance or both.
The most common chemical was citrus-scented limonene, which Steinemann says can mix with air to create formaldehyde. Also emitted from at least half were three chemicals classified as toxic: pine-smelling alpha–pinene; ethanol; and acetone, a solvent in nail polis remover. “Yes, it’s low-level exposure, but low levels add up,” she said, adding the EPA sets no safe limit for many of the chemicals detected.
The International Fragrance Association North America says the report “unnecessarily alarms the public with insinuations of danger.” It says most materials can be toxic in high concentrations. The study does not discuss health effects, but two national surveys last year by Steinemann found 20 percent of people reported health problems from air fresheners; 10 per cent from laundry products. Complaints were twice as common in people with asthma. She suggests people clean with vinegar and baking soda, open windows for ventilation and use unscented products.
McClatchy – Tribune Newspapers
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Canadian meat, poultry plants dirty: U.S. audit
The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 9, 2010
Canadian Food Inspection Agency documents often painted an inaccurate picture of the conditions at some of Canada’s meat and poultry plants where sanitation problems persisted, an American audit has found.
A recently released audit by the United States Department of Agriculture’s inspection service revealed several areas of “systemic concern,” though the report notes the Canadian agency has taken significant steps to correct problems.
The audit, which looked at 23 of the 455 establishments certified to export to the U.S. between August 25 and October 1, 2009, identified weaknesses particularly in the areas of sanitation, oversight and record keeping.
A review of manuals and procedures at the food inspection agency’s administrative offices found acceptable controls for sanitation, but auditors found a different story at some plants.
“The actual conditions of these establishment visits were often not entirely consistent with the corresponding documentation,” the report says.
Among the sanitation issues flagged were: not consistently identifying contaminated product and inconsistently verifying that plants were taking adequate corrective actions to problems. “This audit is from a year ago and in that time our government has invested an additional $75 million to improve food safety and are hiring 170 new inspectors” Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Monday.
The head of the food inspection agency’s meat programs division said Canadian inspectors found similar problems when they visited American meat plants. Richard Arsenault said the U.S. auditors interpreted the requirements differently from Canadian authorities. “Essentially, I think what we had was a situation where the facilities were generally, with very small issues, in full compliance with our requirements,” Arsenault said in an interview Monday. He said the U.S. assessment was that some things were not “appropriate” for a plant eligible for the United States.
The Canadian Press
Canadian Food Inspection Agency documents often painted an inaccurate picture of the conditions at some of Canada’s meat and poultry plants where sanitation problems persisted, an American audit has found.
A recently released audit by the United States Department of Agriculture’s inspection service revealed several areas of “systemic concern,” though the report notes the Canadian agency has taken significant steps to correct problems.
The audit, which looked at 23 of the 455 establishments certified to export to the U.S. between August 25 and October 1, 2009, identified weaknesses particularly in the areas of sanitation, oversight and record keeping.
A review of manuals and procedures at the food inspection agency’s administrative offices found acceptable controls for sanitation, but auditors found a different story at some plants.
“The actual conditions of these establishment visits were often not entirely consistent with the corresponding documentation,” the report says.
Among the sanitation issues flagged were: not consistently identifying contaminated product and inconsistently verifying that plants were taking adequate corrective actions to problems. “This audit is from a year ago and in that time our government has invested an additional $75 million to improve food safety and are hiring 170 new inspectors” Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Monday.
The head of the food inspection agency’s meat programs division said Canadian inspectors found similar problems when they visited American meat plants. Richard Arsenault said the U.S. auditors interpreted the requirements differently from Canadian authorities. “Essentially, I think what we had was a situation where the facilities were generally, with very small issues, in full compliance with our requirements,” Arsenault said in an interview Monday. He said the U.S. assessment was that some things were not “appropriate” for a plant eligible for the United States.
The Canadian Press
Monday, December 13, 2010
True Clean Has No Odour – Cleaning with Steam leaves no smell behind!
Study: Some Green Products Emit Toxins
Cleanlink News November 1 2010
According to research from the University of Washington, some popular scented consumer products that claim to be "green," "organic" or "natural" actually emit just as many toxic chemicals as other fragranced products. The study analyzed 25 scented products; about half carried green health claims. All the products emitted at least one chemical classified as toxic or hazardous, say Chicago Tribune reports.
The research, published in the journal Environmental Impact Assessment Review, indicates that more than a third of the samples gave off one chemical classified as a probable carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has set no safe exposure level for possible carcinogens.
Overall, the products tested emitted more than 420 chemicals, but virtually none were disclosed to consumers, said the study's lead author, Anne Steinemann, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington. A single "fragrance" in a product can be a mixture of up to several hundred ingredients. But since manufacturers are not required to disclose all ingredients in cosmetics, cleaning supplies, air fresheners or laundry products, the majority of the chemicals are not listed on the labels.
The most common emissions the researchers found included limonene, a compound with a citrus scent; apha-pinene and beta-pinene, compounds with a pine scent; ethanol; and acetone, a solvent found in nail polish remover.
Brand names were not included in the data to avoid leaving the impression that products other than the ones reported in the study were safer. "We found potentially hazardous chemicals in all of the fragranced products we tested," said Steinemann.
While the study confirmed the ubiquitous presence of the chemicals, it doesn't look at whether the products are safe to use. Studies conducted by the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials maintain that the ingredients are safe. But previous research by Steinemann and a colleague showed that nearly 38 percent of Americans report adverse effects when exposed to some kind of fragranced products. Among asthmatics, such complaints were roughly twice as common.
The Household Product Labeling Act, currently being reviewed by the U.S. Senate, would require manufacturers to list ingredients in air fresheners, soaps, laundry supplies and other consumer products. Steinemann cautioned that products called "fragrance-free" and "unscented" are not necessarily non-toxic. The chemicals identified in the study could have been part of the added fragrance, the product base, or both; product formulations are confidential so the researchers had no way of discerning the source. Moreover, even if a product doesn't have a scent, it could still contain chemicals that are classified as toxic.
Cleanlink News November 1 2010
According to research from the University of Washington, some popular scented consumer products that claim to be "green," "organic" or "natural" actually emit just as many toxic chemicals as other fragranced products. The study analyzed 25 scented products; about half carried green health claims. All the products emitted at least one chemical classified as toxic or hazardous, say Chicago Tribune reports.
The research, published in the journal Environmental Impact Assessment Review, indicates that more than a third of the samples gave off one chemical classified as a probable carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has set no safe exposure level for possible carcinogens.
Overall, the products tested emitted more than 420 chemicals, but virtually none were disclosed to consumers, said the study's lead author, Anne Steinemann, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington. A single "fragrance" in a product can be a mixture of up to several hundred ingredients. But since manufacturers are not required to disclose all ingredients in cosmetics, cleaning supplies, air fresheners or laundry products, the majority of the chemicals are not listed on the labels.
The most common emissions the researchers found included limonene, a compound with a citrus scent; apha-pinene and beta-pinene, compounds with a pine scent; ethanol; and acetone, a solvent found in nail polish remover.
Brand names were not included in the data to avoid leaving the impression that products other than the ones reported in the study were safer. "We found potentially hazardous chemicals in all of the fragranced products we tested," said Steinemann.
While the study confirmed the ubiquitous presence of the chemicals, it doesn't look at whether the products are safe to use. Studies conducted by the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials maintain that the ingredients are safe. But previous research by Steinemann and a colleague showed that nearly 38 percent of Americans report adverse effects when exposed to some kind of fragranced products. Among asthmatics, such complaints were roughly twice as common.
The Household Product Labeling Act, currently being reviewed by the U.S. Senate, would require manufacturers to list ingredients in air fresheners, soaps, laundry supplies and other consumer products. Steinemann cautioned that products called "fragrance-free" and "unscented" are not necessarily non-toxic. The chemicals identified in the study could have been part of the added fragrance, the product base, or both; product formulations are confidential so the researchers had no way of discerning the source. Moreover, even if a product doesn't have a scent, it could still contain chemicals that are classified as toxic.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Study probes chemicals / cancer link
Newton, MA – One day after the release of a study linking cleaning compounds and pesticides to behavioural disorders in children, the non-profit research group Silent Spring Institute (SSI) says it will prepare a study to develop guidelines for testing of chemicals found in household cleaners and furniture finishes that may cause breast caner in women.
The study will compile a list of chemicals already identified as causing mammary tumors in animals and will develop guidelines for how additional chemicals should be tested.
About 100 compounds have been identified as priorities for breast cancer research because they cause mammary tumors in animals. Researchers suspect human breast cancer may be related to these compounds, pollutants found in household products, including some cleaners, furniture finishes, and pesticides.
“This new study is designed to search out the causes of breast cancer, offering hope that we will one day find ways to prevent this disease,” says Dr. Julia Brody, SSI executive director.
The study is being funded by a $30,000 donation from the Law Offices of James Sokolove.
“With breast cancer affecting one out of eight women, we need to take more aggressive steps to eradicate the disease,” says Sokolove. “As a husband and father, I am committed to supporting organizations examining environmental links to cancer and especially breast cancer.”
Copyright 2000 National Trade Publications, Inc.
The study will compile a list of chemicals already identified as causing mammary tumors in animals and will develop guidelines for how additional chemicals should be tested.
About 100 compounds have been identified as priorities for breast cancer research because they cause mammary tumors in animals. Researchers suspect human breast cancer may be related to these compounds, pollutants found in household products, including some cleaners, furniture finishes, and pesticides.
“This new study is designed to search out the causes of breast cancer, offering hope that we will one day find ways to prevent this disease,” says Dr. Julia Brody, SSI executive director.
The study is being funded by a $30,000 donation from the Law Offices of James Sokolove.
“With breast cancer affecting one out of eight women, we need to take more aggressive steps to eradicate the disease,” says Sokolove. “As a husband and father, I am committed to supporting organizations examining environmental links to cancer and especially breast cancer.”
Copyright 2000 National Trade Publications, Inc.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Report links cleaning agents to disorders
HARRISBURG, PA – Cleaning compounds and pesticides are among the chemicals listed in a report linked to developmental disabilities, including behavioural and learning disabilities.
The Clean Water Fund and Physicians for Social Responsibility released May 11 “In Harms W,” a study of lead, mercury, cadmium, and manganese; pesticides; dioxins and PCBs; solvents used in gasoline, glues and cleaning solutions; and nicotine and alcohol.
The report found that one million children in the United States now exceed the accepted level above which lead affects behaviour and cognition. The report also found that over 80 percent of adults and 90 percent of children in the United States have residues of one or more harmful pesticides in their bodies.
“it is critical that we understand and, as a matter of public policy, address the impactof these neurotoxic chemicals on developmental and learning disabilities,” says Dr. Ted Schettler, a practicing physician and one of the report’s co-authors. “The urgency of this issue is underscored by the dact that between 5 percent and 10 percent of school children in America have learning disabilities, and at least an equivalent amount have ADHD,” (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).
The concerns raised by this report suggest the need for a new precautionary approach that protects the health of future generations by reducing exposure to these neurotoxicants, says Robert Wendelgaa, Pennsylvania director of Clean Water Fund.
One place we can start is by passing state legislation that would reduce the use of pesticides in our schools, making sure that the school environment doesn’t put our children in harm’s way.”
Copyright 2000 National Tradre Publications, Inc.
The Clean Water Fund and Physicians for Social Responsibility released May 11 “In Harms W,” a study of lead, mercury, cadmium, and manganese; pesticides; dioxins and PCBs; solvents used in gasoline, glues and cleaning solutions; and nicotine and alcohol.
The report found that one million children in the United States now exceed the accepted level above which lead affects behaviour and cognition. The report also found that over 80 percent of adults and 90 percent of children in the United States have residues of one or more harmful pesticides in their bodies.
“it is critical that we understand and, as a matter of public policy, address the impactof these neurotoxic chemicals on developmental and learning disabilities,” says Dr. Ted Schettler, a practicing physician and one of the report’s co-authors. “The urgency of this issue is underscored by the dact that between 5 percent and 10 percent of school children in America have learning disabilities, and at least an equivalent amount have ADHD,” (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).
The concerns raised by this report suggest the need for a new precautionary approach that protects the health of future generations by reducing exposure to these neurotoxicants, says Robert Wendelgaa, Pennsylvania director of Clean Water Fund.
One place we can start is by passing state legislation that would reduce the use of pesticides in our schools, making sure that the school environment doesn’t put our children in harm’s way.”
Copyright 2000 National Tradre Publications, Inc.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Scented products emit harmful chemicals: study
Some Toxic and possibly carcinogenic substances are not listed on the label
The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 9, 2010 – By Wendy Koch
Popular scented products – including those claiming to be “green” – Emit chemicals not listed on the label, including some considered toxic and possibly carcinogenic, a study says.
Each of the 25 tested products emitted at least one chemical classified as toxic or hazardous under U.S. law, and 11 gave off at least one chemical listed as a possible carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to the study published online in the journal Environmental Impact Assessment Review.
Lead author Anne Steinemann, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of Washington, says her study is the first to look at fragranced products.
The products emitted a total of 133 chemicals, about 17 each. But only ethanol was listed on labels. Manufacturers are not required to list ingredients in fragrances. A bill pending in the United States Senate would require it.
Half of the products tested made claims about being “green, organic or natural,” but “they emitted just as many toxic chemicals,” Steinemann said.
The study analyzed top-selling air fresheners, laundry products including detergents, and personal-care products such as soaps and cleaning products. It does not disclose brand names. “We don’t want to give people the impression that if we reported on product ‘A’ and they buy product ‘B,’ they’re safe,” said Steinemann. “The whole class is problematic.”
The researchers placed a sample of each product in a closed glass container at room temperature and tested the air for volatile organic compounds. Because product formulations are proprietary, they couldn’t determine whether a chemical came from the product base, the added fragrance or both.
The most common chemical was citrus-scented limonene, which Steinemann says can mix with air to create formaldehyde. Also emitted from at least half were three chemicals classified as toxic: pine-smelling alpha–pinene; ethanol; and acetone, a solvent in nail polis remover. “Yes, it’s low-level exposure, but low levels add up,” she said, adding the EPA sets no safe limit for many of the chemicals detected.
The International Fragrance Association North America says the report “unnecessarily alarms the public with insinuations of danger.” It says most materials can be toxic in high concentrations. The study does not discuss health effects, but two national surveys last year by Steinemann found 20 percent of people reported health problems from air fresheners; 10 per cent from laundry products. Complaints were twice as common in people with asthma. She suggests people clean with vinegar and baking soda, open windows for ventilation and use unscented products.
McClatchy – Tribune Newspapers
The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 9, 2010 – By Wendy Koch
Popular scented products – including those claiming to be “green” – Emit chemicals not listed on the label, including some considered toxic and possibly carcinogenic, a study says.
Each of the 25 tested products emitted at least one chemical classified as toxic or hazardous under U.S. law, and 11 gave off at least one chemical listed as a possible carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to the study published online in the journal Environmental Impact Assessment Review.
Lead author Anne Steinemann, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of Washington, says her study is the first to look at fragranced products.
The products emitted a total of 133 chemicals, about 17 each. But only ethanol was listed on labels. Manufacturers are not required to list ingredients in fragrances. A bill pending in the United States Senate would require it.
Half of the products tested made claims about being “green, organic or natural,” but “they emitted just as many toxic chemicals,” Steinemann said.
The study analyzed top-selling air fresheners, laundry products including detergents, and personal-care products such as soaps and cleaning products. It does not disclose brand names. “We don’t want to give people the impression that if we reported on product ‘A’ and they buy product ‘B,’ they’re safe,” said Steinemann. “The whole class is problematic.”
The researchers placed a sample of each product in a closed glass container at room temperature and tested the air for volatile organic compounds. Because product formulations are proprietary, they couldn’t determine whether a chemical came from the product base, the added fragrance or both.
The most common chemical was citrus-scented limonene, which Steinemann says can mix with air to create formaldehyde. Also emitted from at least half were three chemicals classified as toxic: pine-smelling alpha–pinene; ethanol; and acetone, a solvent in nail polis remover. “Yes, it’s low-level exposure, but low levels add up,” she said, adding the EPA sets no safe limit for many of the chemicals detected.
The International Fragrance Association North America says the report “unnecessarily alarms the public with insinuations of danger.” It says most materials can be toxic in high concentrations. The study does not discuss health effects, but two national surveys last year by Steinemann found 20 percent of people reported health problems from air fresheners; 10 per cent from laundry products. Complaints were twice as common in people with asthma. She suggests people clean with vinegar and baking soda, open windows for ventilation and use unscented products.
McClatchy – Tribune Newspapers
Monday, November 15, 2010
There is no greener way of cleaning and disinfecting than using only Tap Water
Study: Misleading Green Claims in 95% of Home/Family Products
Cleanlink News October 29 2010
More than 95 per cent of consumer products claiming to be green are committing at least one of the “sins” of greenwashing, according to The Sins of Greenwashing: Home and Family Edition, released by TerraChoice, an environmental marketing company. The study also finds big box retailers stock more “green” products and more products that provide legitimate environmental certifications than smaller “green” boutique-style stores. Greenwashing is defined as the act of misleading consumers about the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service. The 2010 study reveals that greenwashing has declined slightly since 2009, with 4.5 per cent of products now “sin-free”, compared to only 2 per cent in 2009. The study also finds that marketers and product manufacturers are getting better, with greenwashing down among those who have been focused on environmentally preferable practices longer than others. The proportion of “sin- free” products is five times greater in “mature” categories like building, construction and office products than in “immature” categories like toys and baby products. “We found 73 per cent more ‘green’ products on the market today than in 2009,” said Scott McDougall, President, TerraChoice. “This is great news and it shows that consumers are changing the world by demanding greener goods and that marketers and manufacturers are taking note.” The TerraChoice study, the third since 2007, surveyed 5,296 products in the U.S. and Canada that make an environmental claim. Between March and May 2010, TerraChoice visited 19 retail stores in Canada and 15 in the United States. “The increase from just 2 per cent to 4.5 per cent may seem small, but we see it as early evidence of a positive and long lasting trend,” said McDougall. “We are also pleased with the finding that those home and family product categories that are more mature have less greenwashing and more reliable green certification.” Product categories studied in the 2010 report include baby care products, toys, office products, building and construction products, cleaning products, house wares, health and beauty products, and consumer electronics. “’Greenwashing’ is an issue that touches many industries, and education and awareness play a key role in helping to prevent it,” said Stephen Wenc, President, UL Environment. “We’re hopeful that the trends and tips identified in this study will help our business partners confidently and appropriately share their environmental achievements with their consumers.”
Cleanlink News October 29 2010
More than 95 per cent of consumer products claiming to be green are committing at least one of the “sins” of greenwashing, according to The Sins of Greenwashing: Home and Family Edition, released by TerraChoice, an environmental marketing company. The study also finds big box retailers stock more “green” products and more products that provide legitimate environmental certifications than smaller “green” boutique-style stores. Greenwashing is defined as the act of misleading consumers about the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service. The 2010 study reveals that greenwashing has declined slightly since 2009, with 4.5 per cent of products now “sin-free”, compared to only 2 per cent in 2009. The study also finds that marketers and product manufacturers are getting better, with greenwashing down among those who have been focused on environmentally preferable practices longer than others. The proportion of “sin- free” products is five times greater in “mature” categories like building, construction and office products than in “immature” categories like toys and baby products. “We found 73 per cent more ‘green’ products on the market today than in 2009,” said Scott McDougall, President, TerraChoice. “This is great news and it shows that consumers are changing the world by demanding greener goods and that marketers and manufacturers are taking note.” The TerraChoice study, the third since 2007, surveyed 5,296 products in the U.S. and Canada that make an environmental claim. Between March and May 2010, TerraChoice visited 19 retail stores in Canada and 15 in the United States. “The increase from just 2 per cent to 4.5 per cent may seem small, but we see it as early evidence of a positive and long lasting trend,” said McDougall. “We are also pleased with the finding that those home and family product categories that are more mature have less greenwashing and more reliable green certification.” Product categories studied in the 2010 report include baby care products, toys, office products, building and construction products, cleaning products, house wares, health and beauty products, and consumer electronics. “’Greenwashing’ is an issue that touches many industries, and education and awareness play a key role in helping to prevent it,” said Stephen Wenc, President, UL Environment. “We’re hopeful that the trends and tips identified in this study will help our business partners confidently and appropriately share their environmental achievements with their consumers.”
Monday, November 8, 2010
Study Reveals Germiest Hot Spots at School
Cleanlink News October 21 2010
In the cafeteria, the biggest threat may not be the kid that wants to eat your French fries or what is truly inside a hotdog. A recent study conducted by Dr. Charles Gerba and the University of Arizona in a K-12 school system found that the germiest place at school is the cafeteria table.
Researchers from the University of Arizona swabbed classrooms and common area surfaces at six schools in a K-12 school system to determine the relative numbers of total heterotrophic bacteria and coliform bacteria on frequently touched hard, non-porous surfaces.
In addition to the cafeteria table, the most contaminated sites include:
• the computer mouse, which harbored nearly twice as many bacteria than desktops
• the bathroom paper towel handle
• water fountain
• bathroom sink faucets
• library table
• computer keyboard.
Of the top eight most contaminated surfaces out of twelve sampled in the schools, six were in common areas demonstrating the need for a joint prevention effort among teachers, students and other school personnel.
Each day, about 55 million students and 7 million staff attend the more than 130,000 public and private schools in the United States(1) – in fact, more than seven in 10 children (38 million) of school-aged children (aged 5-17 years) in the United States missed school in the past 12 months due to illness or injury(2).
"Some bacteria, are capable of causing infections and tend to collect on frequently touched surfaces – particularly in areas where there is a lot of hand-to-mouth contact like the cafeteria table," explains Dra. Aliza Lifshitz, internist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and editor of VidaySalud.com. "To help your children minimize the spread of germs, encourage them to wash their hands frequently or use an alcohol-based hand rub, especially when sharing school supplies or taking turns using the computer."
Dr. Aliza has the following suggestions to help keep a cleaner classroom:
• Disinfect hot spots: Even if a classroom starts out clean, germs can – and do – build up all day. In fact, evidence of Influenza A virus was found on 13.6% of swabbed surfaces in the morning and jumped to about 50% by the afternoon(3). That's why teachers should implement a routine of frequently disinfecting germ hot spots in the classroom, like desktops and doorknobs, with disinfecting wipes, as directed. This can help supplement what the custodian is already doing.
• Arm them with the right tools: Parents should consider bringing teachers hand sanitizer or canisters to help make clean-up easier.
• Avoid Touching Surfaces in the Bathroom: Parents should teach kids to use paper towels to press the flush lever on the toilet and when turning water faucets on and off. If there are lids on the toilets, kids should learn to put them down before flushing.
• Walk the walk at home: children may be bringing more than just homework home to their families. That's why it is important for parents to adopt the same routines at home, such as wiping down frequently-touched surfaces like the remote control, countertops, phones and light switches.
(1) CDC. Guidance for School Administrators to Help Reduce the Spread of Seasonal Influenza in K-12 Schools during the 2010-2011 School Year. http://www.cdc.gov/flu/school/guidance.htm. 2010.
(2) CDC. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Children: National Health Interview Survey, 2008.
(3) University of Arizona workplace study, Fall 2005, Dr. Charles P. Gerba Unpublished
SOURCE Clorox
In the cafeteria, the biggest threat may not be the kid that wants to eat your French fries or what is truly inside a hotdog. A recent study conducted by Dr. Charles Gerba and the University of Arizona in a K-12 school system found that the germiest place at school is the cafeteria table.
Researchers from the University of Arizona swabbed classrooms and common area surfaces at six schools in a K-12 school system to determine the relative numbers of total heterotrophic bacteria and coliform bacteria on frequently touched hard, non-porous surfaces.
In addition to the cafeteria table, the most contaminated sites include:
• the computer mouse, which harbored nearly twice as many bacteria than desktops
• the bathroom paper towel handle
• water fountain
• bathroom sink faucets
• library table
• computer keyboard.
Of the top eight most contaminated surfaces out of twelve sampled in the schools, six were in common areas demonstrating the need for a joint prevention effort among teachers, students and other school personnel.
Each day, about 55 million students and 7 million staff attend the more than 130,000 public and private schools in the United States(1) – in fact, more than seven in 10 children (38 million) of school-aged children (aged 5-17 years) in the United States missed school in the past 12 months due to illness or injury(2).
"Some bacteria, are capable of causing infections and tend to collect on frequently touched surfaces – particularly in areas where there is a lot of hand-to-mouth contact like the cafeteria table," explains Dra. Aliza Lifshitz, internist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and editor of VidaySalud.com. "To help your children minimize the spread of germs, encourage them to wash their hands frequently or use an alcohol-based hand rub, especially when sharing school supplies or taking turns using the computer."
Dr. Aliza has the following suggestions to help keep a cleaner classroom:
• Disinfect hot spots: Even if a classroom starts out clean, germs can – and do – build up all day. In fact, evidence of Influenza A virus was found on 13.6% of swabbed surfaces in the morning and jumped to about 50% by the afternoon(3). That's why teachers should implement a routine of frequently disinfecting germ hot spots in the classroom, like desktops and doorknobs, with disinfecting wipes, as directed. This can help supplement what the custodian is already doing.
• Arm them with the right tools: Parents should consider bringing teachers hand sanitizer or canisters to help make clean-up easier.
• Avoid Touching Surfaces in the Bathroom: Parents should teach kids to use paper towels to press the flush lever on the toilet and when turning water faucets on and off. If there are lids on the toilets, kids should learn to put them down before flushing.
• Walk the walk at home: children may be bringing more than just homework home to their families. That's why it is important for parents to adopt the same routines at home, such as wiping down frequently-touched surfaces like the remote control, countertops, phones and light switches.
(1) CDC. Guidance for School Administrators to Help Reduce the Spread of Seasonal Influenza in K-12 Schools during the 2010-2011 School Year. http://www.cdc.gov/flu/school/guidance.htm. 2010.
(2) CDC. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Children: National Health Interview Survey, 2008.
(3) University of Arizona workplace study, Fall 2005, Dr. Charles P. Gerba Unpublished
SOURCE Clorox
Monday, November 1, 2010
Cover Story - Quirky stuff
Toronto Star – Saturday March 31, 2007
Shelly Sanders Greer – Special to the Star
Funky flooring, speakers tucked away in the wall and a sensitive toilet fan – meet a few home goodies that are oddly practical.
They may be quirky household items, but they’re also useful.
I didn’t set out to find a toilet fan or invisible speakers at the recent Metro Home Show. And I didn’t go looking for flooring that looks like it should be hanging on the walls of a modern art gallery.
But these products, with their unusual appeal and functions, were hard to miss. And when I looked more closely at them, I found they were actually quite practical.
Toilet Fan
The Panfan is a product that gets right to the heart of what can be a big problem – toilet odours. It attaches to the toilet. With a fan that draws air from the rim holes, odours are removed.
Manfred Dietrich, owner / general manager of Intersteam Technologies, the Hamilton based business that distributes the Panfan, says this product not only gets rid of odours, it also creates a healthier environment with the elimination of airborne spores.
“The hospitality industry as well as residential consumers are interested in this product, especially with the consciousness of public hygiene being much higher today than in the past,” Dietrich says.
Dietrich explains that when the automatic sensor senses an occupant, it sends a signal to engage the Panfan. The fan draws air up through the ports from the bowl and sucks the air out of the bowl. This air moves up into the tank through a charcoal filter. The sensor then recognizes the absence of the occupant and shuts off the fan.
The Panfan also means ceiling fans and deodorizers are not required. This can even help lower your energy bills as Dietrich says “ceiling fans use a lot more power than the Panfan and they remove heated air from homes. The Panfan directly targets odour, is energy-efficient and creates a healthier environment.”
There are two Panfan models available: the Plug-in version which can be wired in for $169; and a battery model, which costs $209 and includes the battery and charger.
For More information call 1-800-281-4413 or visit www.intersteam.com .
Shelly Sanders Greer – Special to the Star
Funky flooring, speakers tucked away in the wall and a sensitive toilet fan – meet a few home goodies that are oddly practical.
They may be quirky household items, but they’re also useful.
I didn’t set out to find a toilet fan or invisible speakers at the recent Metro Home Show. And I didn’t go looking for flooring that looks like it should be hanging on the walls of a modern art gallery.
But these products, with their unusual appeal and functions, were hard to miss. And when I looked more closely at them, I found they were actually quite practical.
Toilet Fan
The Panfan is a product that gets right to the heart of what can be a big problem – toilet odours. It attaches to the toilet. With a fan that draws air from the rim holes, odours are removed.
Manfred Dietrich, owner / general manager of Intersteam Technologies, the Hamilton based business that distributes the Panfan, says this product not only gets rid of odours, it also creates a healthier environment with the elimination of airborne spores.
“The hospitality industry as well as residential consumers are interested in this product, especially with the consciousness of public hygiene being much higher today than in the past,” Dietrich says.
Dietrich explains that when the automatic sensor senses an occupant, it sends a signal to engage the Panfan. The fan draws air up through the ports from the bowl and sucks the air out of the bowl. This air moves up into the tank through a charcoal filter. The sensor then recognizes the absence of the occupant and shuts off the fan.
The Panfan also means ceiling fans and deodorizers are not required. This can even help lower your energy bills as Dietrich says “ceiling fans use a lot more power than the Panfan and they remove heated air from homes. The Panfan directly targets odour, is energy-efficient and creates a healthier environment.”
There are two Panfan models available: the Plug-in version which can be wired in for $169; and a battery model, which costs $209 and includes the battery and charger.
For More information call 1-800-281-4413 or visit www.intersteam.com .
Monday, October 25, 2010
Drought Could Impact Jan/San Industry
Cleanlink News October 15 2010
A once unthinkable day of reckoning is looming on the Colorado River, which provides water for 28 million people in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, neighboring communities, as well as farming locations throughout the Southwest.
The Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. agency directly involved with water distribution in the country, estimates that for the first time Lake Mead-the heart of the lower Colorado River basin's water system-could drop below 1,075 feet, a crucial demarcation line. This is the result of an 11-year drought, according to Terry Fulp, who is the Bureau's director of the Lower Colorado Region."This is the lowest 11-year average in the 100-year-plus history of flows on the basin," Fulp says.The water shortage could impact all water customers, home and industry, as well as cleaning professional who use water for a variety of cleaning tasks from cleaning carpets to mopping floors.An emergency option the plan allows is to draw more water from Lake Powell in Utah, the river's other key reservoir. At this time, Lake Powell has actually risen 60 feet over its 2004 low, mainly because certain states, such as Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, have not been accessing their full allocation.Adding to the concerns, scientists predict that prolonged droughts will likely be even more frequent in decades to come."Really the only answer is conservation," says Klaus Reichardt, president and founder of Waterless No-Flush Urinals. "In the last ten years, the average per-capita household use of water in Phoenix and Las Vegas has dropped more than 20 percent, but it looks like even more will be necessary." Reichardt attributes this reduction mainly to:• Less water being used for landscaping• The introduction of more advanced low-flow/no-water restroom fixtures• More responsible use of water in manufacturing facilities."Technology is on our side, we are developing more ways to reduce water use," Reichardt adds. "I just hope Mother Nature will give us a little more time to get these systems up and running."
A once unthinkable day of reckoning is looming on the Colorado River, which provides water for 28 million people in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, neighboring communities, as well as farming locations throughout the Southwest.
The Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. agency directly involved with water distribution in the country, estimates that for the first time Lake Mead-the heart of the lower Colorado River basin's water system-could drop below 1,075 feet, a crucial demarcation line. This is the result of an 11-year drought, according to Terry Fulp, who is the Bureau's director of the Lower Colorado Region."This is the lowest 11-year average in the 100-year-plus history of flows on the basin," Fulp says.The water shortage could impact all water customers, home and industry, as well as cleaning professional who use water for a variety of cleaning tasks from cleaning carpets to mopping floors.An emergency option the plan allows is to draw more water from Lake Powell in Utah, the river's other key reservoir. At this time, Lake Powell has actually risen 60 feet over its 2004 low, mainly because certain states, such as Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, have not been accessing their full allocation.Adding to the concerns, scientists predict that prolonged droughts will likely be even more frequent in decades to come."Really the only answer is conservation," says Klaus Reichardt, president and founder of Waterless No-Flush Urinals. "In the last ten years, the average per-capita household use of water in Phoenix and Las Vegas has dropped more than 20 percent, but it looks like even more will be necessary." Reichardt attributes this reduction mainly to:• Less water being used for landscaping• The introduction of more advanced low-flow/no-water restroom fixtures• More responsible use of water in manufacturing facilities."Technology is on our side, we are developing more ways to reduce water use," Reichardt adds. "I just hope Mother Nature will give us a little more time to get these systems up and running."
Monday, October 18, 2010
BED BUG FEVER
Reports of the bloodsuckers are up – and so is the paranoia
By Dakshana Bascaramurty – The Globe and Mail – September 20, 2010
When Ottawan Lisa Vod traveled to Toronto, this past weekend, she brought the grubbiest contents of her wardrobe to the hotel: a ripped hoodie, an old sweatshirt and worn-out sweatpants. Before she left Ms. Vod, a 34-year-old factory worker, knew she’d trash those clothes before she went home. She kept her nice outfits in the car to change into right before she went out on the town.
They may seem like extreme measures, but Ms. Vod has been bitten by the bed-bug hysteria infesting major Canadian cities in recent months. Last year, Toronto Public Health received 1,500 reports of bed bugs. As of the end of August, they’d already racked up 1,334 reports for 2010, including 258 that month alone.
Rising even faster than the reports is bloodsucker paranoia. Victims trade stories about the lasting psychological effects on online bed bug forums, those in charitable organizations business have become leery of donations, and people who have infestations keep mum among friends and colleagues out of fear they’ll be stigmatized.
Exterminators and entomologists have floated various theories of why bed bugs – whose numbers had declined in the past few decades only to tick upward recently - are back.
Susan Sperling, a spokeswoman for Toronto Public Health, says their increase could be due to the fact that people are traveling more and taking the critters with them in their suitcases from one city to another. Another reason could be the ban of broad-spectrum residual pesticides – which were found to have other serious negative health effects. A built-up resistance to chemicals could also be to blame, she says.
Ms. Vod researched hotels on Trip Advisor before finding one she hoped was bed bug free. “I will inspect the room … to make sure,” Ms. Vod wrote in an email before she left for Toronto. “Now because it seams to be all over the news, I’m overstressed.”
Adam Radomsky, an associate psychology professor at Montreal’s Concordia University who is completing a three year body of work on contamination fears, likens bed-bug disgust and discomfort to what happened with SARS and H1N1.
“Things were very narrow in the beginning for those problems. The anxiety, the fear, the panic spread much further and I think it’s the same phenomenon happening here.” Fear can take shape even when there isn’t clear evidence of contamination, he says. “We can feel contaminated thinking about something, remembering something.”
Another problem with bed bugs, says Andrew Keddie, an insect pathologist at the University of Alberta, is that “as a rule, you don’t find them.”
Their shape – they’re small, dark and have flattened bodies – make them hard to detect, he says. In many cases the bites are the only evidence of bed bug presence. They’re often flat and itchy and appear in arcs of three on the skin, which are nauseatingly described as “breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
After a sleepless night in her Toronto condo in April, Jessica showed up to work groggy and on edge. When her co-workers asked if she was ok, she broke down into tears and confessed she might have bed bugs.
“They said, ‘We’re going to support you, but we’re not going to touch you or go near you,’ “ she recalls.
For Jessica, 26, who did not want her last name used for fear of seeing her property value decline, the pests not only consumed her blood (as evidenced by the bite marks all over her body), but also her thoughts. Could she hug her colleagues? Could she have guests over? Was it ok for her to sleep at a friend’s place?
While she dealt with her share of cockroach, mice and ant infestations in previous Toronto apartments, the bed bugs affected her the most, she says.
For weeks, even after two visits by an exterminator who sprayed her apartment, she’d come home from work and search every nook and cranny in the house for bed bug carcasses.
“I just wanted to find evidence, to find proof they were there,” she says.
On websites such as Bedbugger.com, users – cloaked in anonymity – share tales of how their own bed bug problems affected their sleep and their ability to concentrate at work. Many confess to feeling shame about their infestations and being labeled as unhygienic despite the fact that even luxury condos and five-star hotels have been sites of infestations.
In Michelle Heath’s Winnipeg apartment, there’s a light sprinkling of white power around all the baseboards. “I look like a cocaine addict,” the 24-year-old office manager says with a laugh. “I just need to know there’s something there.” A year ago, at her previous residence, Ms. Heath discovered bed bugs just a few weeks after she moved in. Her apartment was sprayed, but it didn’t solve the problem, so she found a new place to live.
During the ordeal, she only told her bosses about the problem - and that was just because she needed time off to deal with it. She feared others at the office would treat her differently if they knew. “I felt like a total freak because I had bed bugs,” she says. “Do I go to work, do I not go to work?”
While she gets more shut-eye now than she did a year ago – when it was only three or four hours a night – she says thoughts about the bloodsuckers keep her up and have caused her to over think everything.
“[Bed bugs] poo on your bedding and it’s like little black spots. So any time I see a little black spot , nine times out of 10 it’s lint or something, but I have to look at it right away and figure out what it is,” she says.
In Toronto, the fact that bed bugs are on the rise has alarmed some non-profit organizations and second hand merchants, as well. Red Door Family Shelter, a Toronto charity, stopped accepting donations of upholstered furniture and mattresses this spring because of the city’s bed-bug problem. “We were receiving complaints from our ex-residents who had received [furniture],” Bernnitta Hawkins, the organization’s executive director, says. The cost of testing furniture for bed bugs is so high that it just made more sense to turn down all couches, armchairs and mattresses, putting the onus on residents to use what money they have to make such purchases themselves.
Ms. Heath trashed her brand new $1,000 mattress and all other furniture when she moved to a new apartment, but she still sometimes worries bed bugs may be lurking in various corners of her apartment: hiding in shoes, burrowing under her box spring, scurrying up her bedroom walls at night. “Even if there hasn’t been one, you’re totally psychologically like, ‘I can feel it! I can feel it!’”
By Dakshana Bascaramurty – The Globe and Mail – September 20, 2010
When Ottawan Lisa Vod traveled to Toronto, this past weekend, she brought the grubbiest contents of her wardrobe to the hotel: a ripped hoodie, an old sweatshirt and worn-out sweatpants. Before she left Ms. Vod, a 34-year-old factory worker, knew she’d trash those clothes before she went home. She kept her nice outfits in the car to change into right before she went out on the town.
They may seem like extreme measures, but Ms. Vod has been bitten by the bed-bug hysteria infesting major Canadian cities in recent months. Last year, Toronto Public Health received 1,500 reports of bed bugs. As of the end of August, they’d already racked up 1,334 reports for 2010, including 258 that month alone.
Rising even faster than the reports is bloodsucker paranoia. Victims trade stories about the lasting psychological effects on online bed bug forums, those in charitable organizations business have become leery of donations, and people who have infestations keep mum among friends and colleagues out of fear they’ll be stigmatized.
Exterminators and entomologists have floated various theories of why bed bugs – whose numbers had declined in the past few decades only to tick upward recently - are back.
Susan Sperling, a spokeswoman for Toronto Public Health, says their increase could be due to the fact that people are traveling more and taking the critters with them in their suitcases from one city to another. Another reason could be the ban of broad-spectrum residual pesticides – which were found to have other serious negative health effects. A built-up resistance to chemicals could also be to blame, she says.
Ms. Vod researched hotels on Trip Advisor before finding one she hoped was bed bug free. “I will inspect the room … to make sure,” Ms. Vod wrote in an email before she left for Toronto. “Now because it seams to be all over the news, I’m overstressed.”
Adam Radomsky, an associate psychology professor at Montreal’s Concordia University who is completing a three year body of work on contamination fears, likens bed-bug disgust and discomfort to what happened with SARS and H1N1.
“Things were very narrow in the beginning for those problems. The anxiety, the fear, the panic spread much further and I think it’s the same phenomenon happening here.” Fear can take shape even when there isn’t clear evidence of contamination, he says. “We can feel contaminated thinking about something, remembering something.”
Another problem with bed bugs, says Andrew Keddie, an insect pathologist at the University of Alberta, is that “as a rule, you don’t find them.”
Their shape – they’re small, dark and have flattened bodies – make them hard to detect, he says. In many cases the bites are the only evidence of bed bug presence. They’re often flat and itchy and appear in arcs of three on the skin, which are nauseatingly described as “breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
After a sleepless night in her Toronto condo in April, Jessica showed up to work groggy and on edge. When her co-workers asked if she was ok, she broke down into tears and confessed she might have bed bugs.
“They said, ‘We’re going to support you, but we’re not going to touch you or go near you,’ “ she recalls.
For Jessica, 26, who did not want her last name used for fear of seeing her property value decline, the pests not only consumed her blood (as evidenced by the bite marks all over her body), but also her thoughts. Could she hug her colleagues? Could she have guests over? Was it ok for her to sleep at a friend’s place?
While she dealt with her share of cockroach, mice and ant infestations in previous Toronto apartments, the bed bugs affected her the most, she says.
For weeks, even after two visits by an exterminator who sprayed her apartment, she’d come home from work and search every nook and cranny in the house for bed bug carcasses.
“I just wanted to find evidence, to find proof they were there,” she says.
On websites such as Bedbugger.com, users – cloaked in anonymity – share tales of how their own bed bug problems affected their sleep and their ability to concentrate at work. Many confess to feeling shame about their infestations and being labeled as unhygienic despite the fact that even luxury condos and five-star hotels have been sites of infestations.
In Michelle Heath’s Winnipeg apartment, there’s a light sprinkling of white power around all the baseboards. “I look like a cocaine addict,” the 24-year-old office manager says with a laugh. “I just need to know there’s something there.” A year ago, at her previous residence, Ms. Heath discovered bed bugs just a few weeks after she moved in. Her apartment was sprayed, but it didn’t solve the problem, so she found a new place to live.
During the ordeal, she only told her bosses about the problem - and that was just because she needed time off to deal with it. She feared others at the office would treat her differently if they knew. “I felt like a total freak because I had bed bugs,” she says. “Do I go to work, do I not go to work?”
While she gets more shut-eye now than she did a year ago – when it was only three or four hours a night – she says thoughts about the bloodsuckers keep her up and have caused her to over think everything.
“[Bed bugs] poo on your bedding and it’s like little black spots. So any time I see a little black spot , nine times out of 10 it’s lint or something, but I have to look at it right away and figure out what it is,” she says.
In Toronto, the fact that bed bugs are on the rise has alarmed some non-profit organizations and second hand merchants, as well. Red Door Family Shelter, a Toronto charity, stopped accepting donations of upholstered furniture and mattresses this spring because of the city’s bed-bug problem. “We were receiving complaints from our ex-residents who had received [furniture],” Bernnitta Hawkins, the organization’s executive director, says. The cost of testing furniture for bed bugs is so high that it just made more sense to turn down all couches, armchairs and mattresses, putting the onus on residents to use what money they have to make such purchases themselves.
Ms. Heath trashed her brand new $1,000 mattress and all other furniture when she moved to a new apartment, but she still sometimes worries bed bugs may be lurking in various corners of her apartment: hiding in shoes, burrowing under her box spring, scurrying up her bedroom walls at night. “Even if there hasn’t been one, you’re totally psychologically like, ‘I can feel it! I can feel it!’”
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
New drug – resistant superbugs spreading
Hamilton Spectator September 14, 2010 P.A7
BOSTON - An infectious-disease nightmare is unfolding: A new gene that can turn many types of bacteria into superbugs resistant to nearly all antibiotics has sickened people in three states, has popped up in Canada and worldwide, health officials reported yesterday.
The U.S. cases and two others in Canada all involve people who had recently received medical care in India, where the problem is wide spread. A British medical journal revealed the risk last month in an article describing dozens of cases in Britain in people who had gone to India for medical procedures. How many deaths the gene may have caused is unknown.
Scientists have long feared this – a very adaptable gene that hitches onto many types of common germs and confers broad drug resistance. “It’s a great concern,” because drug resistance has been rising and few new antibiotics are in development, said Dr. M. Lindsay Grayson, director of infectious diseases at the University of Melbourne in Australia. “It’s just a matter of time” until the gene spreads more widely person-to-person.
Grayson heads an American Society for Microbiology conference in Boston, which was buzzing with reports of the gene, called NDM-1 and named for New Delhi.
The U.S. cases occurred in 2010 in people from California, Massachusetts and Illinois. Three types of bacteria were involved, and three different mechanisms let the gene become part of them.
What can people do? Don’t add to the drug resistance problem, experts say. Don’t pressure your doctors for antibiotics if they say they aren’t needed, use the ones you are given properly, and try to avoid infections by washing your hands.
The Associated Press
BOSTON - An infectious-disease nightmare is unfolding: A new gene that can turn many types of bacteria into superbugs resistant to nearly all antibiotics has sickened people in three states, has popped up in Canada and worldwide, health officials reported yesterday.
The U.S. cases and two others in Canada all involve people who had recently received medical care in India, where the problem is wide spread. A British medical journal revealed the risk last month in an article describing dozens of cases in Britain in people who had gone to India for medical procedures. How many deaths the gene may have caused is unknown.
Scientists have long feared this – a very adaptable gene that hitches onto many types of common germs and confers broad drug resistance. “It’s a great concern,” because drug resistance has been rising and few new antibiotics are in development, said Dr. M. Lindsay Grayson, director of infectious diseases at the University of Melbourne in Australia. “It’s just a matter of time” until the gene spreads more widely person-to-person.
Grayson heads an American Society for Microbiology conference in Boston, which was buzzing with reports of the gene, called NDM-1 and named for New Delhi.
The U.S. cases occurred in 2010 in people from California, Massachusetts and Illinois. Three types of bacteria were involved, and three different mechanisms let the gene become part of them.
What can people do? Don’t add to the drug resistance problem, experts say. Don’t pressure your doctors for antibiotics if they say they aren’t needed, use the ones you are given properly, and try to avoid infections by washing your hands.
The Associated Press
Monday, October 4, 2010
Bedbugs take bites out of peoples' mental health
By JENNY YUEN, Toronto Sun. Friday, October 1, 2010
The stigma of having bedbugs might be too much for some to bear.
In a packed conference room inside Queen’s Park during the city’s first bedbug summit Wednesday, registered nurse Betty Graham recalls the mental meltdown she encountered speaking to residents in a St. Clair Ave. apartment who were dealing with the blood-sucking pests. Many of them contemplated suicide.
“One lady said to me, 'I was so afraid of living like a hermit, I thought about jumping off my balcony,’ and another lady said, 'If only they could exterminate me',” Graham recalled.
“We need to do something, because bedbug bites may not pose something to someone’s physical health, but the threat to people’s mental health is potentially disastrous.”
The bedbug summit – which attracted experts from the pest control industry, municipal public health units, landlords and politicians – was spearheaded by Liberal MPP Mike Colle. He is calling for a national plan to help shoot down the tiny bloodsuckers.
“We know nothing about how widespread this is because there’s no scientific research or quantification that’s been done,” Colle said at the conference.
“We need to find out why they’re coming here and how do we prevent this.”
Colle said he will present information gathered at the summit to provincial health and government officials in hopes it will lead to an education program and standards for pesticides to kill the bugs.
“We’ll say, 'Here’s what the evidence is, what can we do to help?’ ” he said.
“It’s a way of reinforcing the case people are making.”
The number of bedbug cases in Toronto has skyrocketed from about 190 cases in 2005 to almost 10 times that number, according to Toronto Public Health.
Some speakers at the meeting said prevention and education are key to defeating the rising bed bug infestation in Ontario and called for more provincial money to deal with the problem.
The stigma of having bedbugs might be too much for some to bear.
In a packed conference room inside Queen’s Park during the city’s first bedbug summit Wednesday, registered nurse Betty Graham recalls the mental meltdown she encountered speaking to residents in a St. Clair Ave. apartment who were dealing with the blood-sucking pests. Many of them contemplated suicide.
“One lady said to me, 'I was so afraid of living like a hermit, I thought about jumping off my balcony,’ and another lady said, 'If only they could exterminate me',” Graham recalled.
“We need to do something, because bedbug bites may not pose something to someone’s physical health, but the threat to people’s mental health is potentially disastrous.”
The bedbug summit – which attracted experts from the pest control industry, municipal public health units, landlords and politicians – was spearheaded by Liberal MPP Mike Colle. He is calling for a national plan to help shoot down the tiny bloodsuckers.
“We know nothing about how widespread this is because there’s no scientific research or quantification that’s been done,” Colle said at the conference.
“We need to find out why they’re coming here and how do we prevent this.”
Colle said he will present information gathered at the summit to provincial health and government officials in hopes it will lead to an education program and standards for pesticides to kill the bugs.
“We’ll say, 'Here’s what the evidence is, what can we do to help?’ ” he said.
“It’s a way of reinforcing the case people are making.”
The number of bedbug cases in Toronto has skyrocketed from about 190 cases in 2005 to almost 10 times that number, according to Toronto Public Health.
Some speakers at the meeting said prevention and education are key to defeating the rising bed bug infestation in Ontario and called for more provincial money to deal with the problem.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Study: Green Buildings Improve Employee Health
Cleanlink News September 9, 2010
A recent study found that employees who move from buildings with poor indoor environmental quality to more healthful "green" buildings may reap some benefits, including less absenteeism and higher productivity.
According to an article from the Los Angeles Times, the green building movement isn't just concerned with constructing buildings that are more energy efficient and environmentally responsible — they're supposed to improve indoor surroundings as well, making it more healthful and pleasant for those who work there, via lighting, ventilation, acoustics and ergonomic design.
Researchers from Michigan State University did two case studies evaluating the physical and mental health status of people who moved from traditional to green office buildings. One scenario involved 56 people and the other 207, and employees were asked through surveys about absenteeism from work in both types of buildings for asthma, allergies, depression and stress-related conditions. They were also asked about productivity in the two settings.
Both green buildings received high ratings from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a green building certification organization.
Being absent from work for asthma, allergies, depression and stress decreased following the move into the green buildings; for example, hours absent from work due to asthma and allergies was on average 1.12 per month in conventional buildings and 0.49 in green buildings. The average number of work hours affected by illness per month also declined after the move. Productivity improved.
Using the numbers, researchers estimated that better health and higher productivity could translate into more work hours per year.
Researchers plan to do additional research at other sites as well as follow these employees to assess changes in health and productivity and to make sure that the results aren't due to the Hawthorne effect, a phenomenon in which people change the behavior that's being evaluated because they know they're being studied.
A recent study found that employees who move from buildings with poor indoor environmental quality to more healthful "green" buildings may reap some benefits, including less absenteeism and higher productivity.
According to an article from the Los Angeles Times, the green building movement isn't just concerned with constructing buildings that are more energy efficient and environmentally responsible — they're supposed to improve indoor surroundings as well, making it more healthful and pleasant for those who work there, via lighting, ventilation, acoustics and ergonomic design.
Researchers from Michigan State University did two case studies evaluating the physical and mental health status of people who moved from traditional to green office buildings. One scenario involved 56 people and the other 207, and employees were asked through surveys about absenteeism from work in both types of buildings for asthma, allergies, depression and stress-related conditions. They were also asked about productivity in the two settings.
Both green buildings received high ratings from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a green building certification organization.
Being absent from work for asthma, allergies, depression and stress decreased following the move into the green buildings; for example, hours absent from work due to asthma and allergies was on average 1.12 per month in conventional buildings and 0.49 in green buildings. The average number of work hours affected by illness per month also declined after the move. Productivity improved.
Using the numbers, researchers estimated that better health and higher productivity could translate into more work hours per year.
Researchers plan to do additional research at other sites as well as follow these employees to assess changes in health and productivity and to make sure that the results aren't due to the Hawthorne effect, a phenomenon in which people change the behavior that's being evaluated because they know they're being studied.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Bedbugs biting nationwide, but who's tracking?
Sat Sep 11,2010 - By Pat Hewitt, The Canadian Press
TORONTO - The creepy comeback of bedbugs in Canada has an Ontario politician calling for a national health strategy to track the tiny bloodsuckers.
They're crawling into homes, apartments, hospitals, hotels and student residences nationwide. They prefer human blood and their bites can leave itchy, red bumps. Reports from the pest control industry and hotel and housing organizations suggest infestations have risen dramatically in recent years, the Public Health Agency of Canada says. Still, the agency and more than a dozen municipal public health units and provincial health ministries contacted across the country say they don't track infestations. Bedbugs aren't a public health issue and don't have to be reported to health authorities, they say.
Ontario Liberal Michael Colle, who's organizing a bedbug summit on Sept. 29 at the Ontario legislature, disagrees. "It's almost debilitating. People tell me they can't sleep, it's very expensive and they don't know what to do, what works," said Colle.
While public health officials say there are no known cases of infectious disease transmitted by bedbugs, scratching the bitten areas can lead to infection. Eradicating the wingless, 6-mm long bugs can cost thousands of dollars. Within its one-year life span a female bedbug can lay 200 to 400 eggs — making them a real threat to homeowners and businesses alike.
"You can see what happens when there was this bedbug scare at the Toronto film festival," said Colle. A posting on Twitter about bedbugs at a theatre got entertainment websites buzzing, but it turned out to be a false alarm. Colle said it's tough to battle the bugs when nobody is tracking their march into the beds of sleeping Canadians.
"This is the problem. There's no data or hard scientific facts about the proliferation, the concentration," said Colle. "Hopefully the summit will get attention and resources paid for provincially, but also asking the federal government. They've got to be involved in getting a national health strategy to deal with this thing."
The U.S.-based website bedbugregistry.com logs complaints from users across North America, but there's no verification process provincially or Canada-wide, said Colle. Toronto is seeing a resurgence of bedbugs and has more than other jurisdictions, according to Toronto Public Health. It responded to more than 1,500 complaints or requests for service from the public in 2009. There were 1,076 complaints from January through July alone this year.
Ottawa's health unit has had 70 to 75 calls so far this year from people who've reported bedbugs at hotels or from tenants or landlords, compared to 60 in 2009 and 70 the year before. Montreal and other big cities in Quebec have seen a comeback in the past three to four years.
"What seems to be transpiring from the field is that there's more and more infestations," said Dr. Stephane Perron with Montreal Public Health. In 2007, 20 buildings of the 700 managed by Montreal's municipal housing corporation were infested with bedbugs. A year later, the number had jumped to 120 buildings. But bedbug infestations in private homes are dramatically under-reported because there's a stigma attached to having them. Most people, for example, didn't answer survey questions in Montreal about the issue, Perron said. Edmonton and Regina have seen more calls this year about bedbugs. Vancouver and Calgary officials say there have been some reports of bedbugs but nothing significant. Victoria has seen occasional problems with bedbugs in homeless shelters. Newfoundland had bedbugs in some rooms for rent.
Anyone can get bedbugs, Colle noted. "I always vividly recall a 90-year-old woman who essentially had gotten rid of her furniture, fumigated, bought new furniture then they came back again. She was at her wit's end," said Colle.
Thornhill, Ont.-based Purity Pest Control gets 50 to 60 calls a week for inspections with its sniffer dogs, a service that costs about $350, said owner Michael Goldman. Treatment for a four-bedroom house is about $1,500, which includes steaming and vacuuming. Even then, some bugs or their eggs may still lurk in walls, under baseboards or in mattresses, said Goldman. Some companies use thermal heating. Swedish researchers think they might have an answer. A recent study from that country found that immature bedbugs — known as nymphs — secrete an anti-aphrodisiac pheromone that deter male bedbugs from mating. Researchers suggest using that pheromone in an insecticide could stop bedbugs from reproducing. Many broad-spectrum, long-lasting pesticides that kill bedbugs have been banned and ones that remain are less effective, Goldman said.
Mattress encasement covers cost about $75 and do work, Goldman said, if you can get over the squeamishness of knowing what lies beneath you when you sleep. Curbside shoppers and garage sale groupies should beware. "I just came from an inspection... that the people bought a used couch and unbeknownst to them there were bedbugs in it," said Goldman. He suggests ripping holes in infested couches or mattresses left at the curb so no one drags them — and the creepy crawlers inside — home.
TORONTO - The creepy comeback of bedbugs in Canada has an Ontario politician calling for a national health strategy to track the tiny bloodsuckers.
They're crawling into homes, apartments, hospitals, hotels and student residences nationwide. They prefer human blood and their bites can leave itchy, red bumps. Reports from the pest control industry and hotel and housing organizations suggest infestations have risen dramatically in recent years, the Public Health Agency of Canada says. Still, the agency and more than a dozen municipal public health units and provincial health ministries contacted across the country say they don't track infestations. Bedbugs aren't a public health issue and don't have to be reported to health authorities, they say.
Ontario Liberal Michael Colle, who's organizing a bedbug summit on Sept. 29 at the Ontario legislature, disagrees. "It's almost debilitating. People tell me they can't sleep, it's very expensive and they don't know what to do, what works," said Colle.
While public health officials say there are no known cases of infectious disease transmitted by bedbugs, scratching the bitten areas can lead to infection. Eradicating the wingless, 6-mm long bugs can cost thousands of dollars. Within its one-year life span a female bedbug can lay 200 to 400 eggs — making them a real threat to homeowners and businesses alike.
"You can see what happens when there was this bedbug scare at the Toronto film festival," said Colle. A posting on Twitter about bedbugs at a theatre got entertainment websites buzzing, but it turned out to be a false alarm. Colle said it's tough to battle the bugs when nobody is tracking their march into the beds of sleeping Canadians.
"This is the problem. There's no data or hard scientific facts about the proliferation, the concentration," said Colle. "Hopefully the summit will get attention and resources paid for provincially, but also asking the federal government. They've got to be involved in getting a national health strategy to deal with this thing."
The U.S.-based website bedbugregistry.com logs complaints from users across North America, but there's no verification process provincially or Canada-wide, said Colle. Toronto is seeing a resurgence of bedbugs and has more than other jurisdictions, according to Toronto Public Health. It responded to more than 1,500 complaints or requests for service from the public in 2009. There were 1,076 complaints from January through July alone this year.
Ottawa's health unit has had 70 to 75 calls so far this year from people who've reported bedbugs at hotels or from tenants or landlords, compared to 60 in 2009 and 70 the year before. Montreal and other big cities in Quebec have seen a comeback in the past three to four years.
"What seems to be transpiring from the field is that there's more and more infestations," said Dr. Stephane Perron with Montreal Public Health. In 2007, 20 buildings of the 700 managed by Montreal's municipal housing corporation were infested with bedbugs. A year later, the number had jumped to 120 buildings. But bedbug infestations in private homes are dramatically under-reported because there's a stigma attached to having them. Most people, for example, didn't answer survey questions in Montreal about the issue, Perron said. Edmonton and Regina have seen more calls this year about bedbugs. Vancouver and Calgary officials say there have been some reports of bedbugs but nothing significant. Victoria has seen occasional problems with bedbugs in homeless shelters. Newfoundland had bedbugs in some rooms for rent.
Anyone can get bedbugs, Colle noted. "I always vividly recall a 90-year-old woman who essentially had gotten rid of her furniture, fumigated, bought new furniture then they came back again. She was at her wit's end," said Colle.
Thornhill, Ont.-based Purity Pest Control gets 50 to 60 calls a week for inspections with its sniffer dogs, a service that costs about $350, said owner Michael Goldman. Treatment for a four-bedroom house is about $1,500, which includes steaming and vacuuming. Even then, some bugs or their eggs may still lurk in walls, under baseboards or in mattresses, said Goldman. Some companies use thermal heating. Swedish researchers think they might have an answer. A recent study from that country found that immature bedbugs — known as nymphs — secrete an anti-aphrodisiac pheromone that deter male bedbugs from mating. Researchers suggest using that pheromone in an insecticide could stop bedbugs from reproducing. Many broad-spectrum, long-lasting pesticides that kill bedbugs have been banned and ones that remain are less effective, Goldman said.
Mattress encasement covers cost about $75 and do work, Goldman said, if you can get over the squeamishness of knowing what lies beneath you when you sleep. Curbside shoppers and garage sale groupies should beware. "I just came from an inspection... that the people bought a used couch and unbeknownst to them there were bedbugs in it," said Goldman. He suggests ripping holes in infested couches or mattresses left at the curb so no one drags them — and the creepy crawlers inside — home.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Canada braces for spread of medical-tourism bug
Two cases of resistant superbug confirmed in patients who had traveled to India
By Jill Mahoney - The Globe and Mail, August 12, 2010
At least two Canadians have become infected with a dangerous new superbug from India that is spreading around the world, partly due to medical tourism.
The superbug, which is resistant to almost all antibiotics, has Canadian public-health experts bracing for out outbreaks. “There will be others. It’s just a matter of time,” said Dylan Pillai, a medical microbiologist at the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. “It’s just the nature of the beast.”
Researchers reported dozens of cases of British, Indian and Pakistani patients who got infections caused by bacteria harbouring an enzyme called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1, in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases on Wednesday.
Of 29 Britons, more than half had recently traveled to India or Pakistan and 14 had been admitted to hospitals in the subcontinent, where the drug resistant enzyme originated, including for kidney transplants and cosmetic surgery.
Two cases have been confirmed among Canadians who spent time in India. In addition, the drug resistant infection has been found in patients from the United States, Sweden, the Netherlands and Australia.
The Lancet researchers called the superbug’s spread a “clear and frightening” potential “major global health problem,” nothing that drug companies are not producing new antibiotics for NDM-1 sufferers.
“At a global level, this is a real concern,” lead author Timothy Walsh, a professor of medical microbiology and antimicrobial resistance at Cardiff University in Wales, told Reuters.
“Because of medical tourism and international travel in general, resistance to these types of bacteria has the potential to spread around the world very, very quickly. And there is nothing in the [drug development] pipeline to tackle it.” With only a couple of effective antibiotics, NDM-1 is one of the most difficult superbugs to treat. There are many more medications available for other drug-resistant infections, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE).
“It’s quite concerning because there are very limited treatment options,” Dr. Pillai said. “We’re really in a tight spot here.”
In a commentary accompanying The Lancet study, Johann Pitout, a University of Calgary professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, urged screening patients who undergo medical procedures in India before they receive treatment in their home countries.
“The consequences will be serious if family doctors have to treat infections caused by the multi-resistant bacteria on a daily bases,” he wrote.
In an interview, Dr. Pitout, a medical microbiologist, was unaware of the new superbug. He said he “put two and two together” after reading medical reports out of Britain, where NDM-1 was first detected in 2008. He plans to publish a paper on the case.
As well, a Vancouver woman contracted NDM-1 in India, where she was hospitalized and treated without success, said Howard Njoo, director general of the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Centre for Communicable Diseases and Infection Control. In February, the woman came to Vancouver, where doctors found an effective combination of antibiotics, he said.
“This case was, in a sense, not unusual because of the association and travel to India. It still underscores the fact that we haven’t had a case of this bug actually circulating in Canada,” he said.
Dr. Njoo said he was not aware of the details of the Alberta case.
NDM-1 is an enzyme that is produced by bacteria that renders most antibiotics inactive. It is commonly harboured in E.coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. People infected with NDM-1 producing bacteria often contract urinary tract infections, pneumonia or blood infections. “If you get it in the hospital, this could be certainly a tipping point, and if the doctors don’t have good antibiotics to resort to, it could be very, very dangerous,” Dr. Pillai said.
The spread of NDM-1 within health-care facilities can be curbed through strict infection-control measures, including patient isolation and hand washing.
By Jill Mahoney - The Globe and Mail, August 12, 2010
At least two Canadians have become infected with a dangerous new superbug from India that is spreading around the world, partly due to medical tourism.
The superbug, which is resistant to almost all antibiotics, has Canadian public-health experts bracing for out outbreaks. “There will be others. It’s just a matter of time,” said Dylan Pillai, a medical microbiologist at the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. “It’s just the nature of the beast.”
Researchers reported dozens of cases of British, Indian and Pakistani patients who got infections caused by bacteria harbouring an enzyme called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1, in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases on Wednesday.
Of 29 Britons, more than half had recently traveled to India or Pakistan and 14 had been admitted to hospitals in the subcontinent, where the drug resistant enzyme originated, including for kidney transplants and cosmetic surgery.
Two cases have been confirmed among Canadians who spent time in India. In addition, the drug resistant infection has been found in patients from the United States, Sweden, the Netherlands and Australia.
The Lancet researchers called the superbug’s spread a “clear and frightening” potential “major global health problem,” nothing that drug companies are not producing new antibiotics for NDM-1 sufferers.
“At a global level, this is a real concern,” lead author Timothy Walsh, a professor of medical microbiology and antimicrobial resistance at Cardiff University in Wales, told Reuters.
“Because of medical tourism and international travel in general, resistance to these types of bacteria has the potential to spread around the world very, very quickly. And there is nothing in the [drug development] pipeline to tackle it.” With only a couple of effective antibiotics, NDM-1 is one of the most difficult superbugs to treat. There are many more medications available for other drug-resistant infections, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE).
“It’s quite concerning because there are very limited treatment options,” Dr. Pillai said. “We’re really in a tight spot here.”
In a commentary accompanying The Lancet study, Johann Pitout, a University of Calgary professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, urged screening patients who undergo medical procedures in India before they receive treatment in their home countries.
“The consequences will be serious if family doctors have to treat infections caused by the multi-resistant bacteria on a daily bases,” he wrote.
In an interview, Dr. Pitout, a medical microbiologist, was unaware of the new superbug. He said he “put two and two together” after reading medical reports out of Britain, where NDM-1 was first detected in 2008. He plans to publish a paper on the case.
As well, a Vancouver woman contracted NDM-1 in India, where she was hospitalized and treated without success, said Howard Njoo, director general of the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Centre for Communicable Diseases and Infection Control. In February, the woman came to Vancouver, where doctors found an effective combination of antibiotics, he said.
“This case was, in a sense, not unusual because of the association and travel to India. It still underscores the fact that we haven’t had a case of this bug actually circulating in Canada,” he said.
Dr. Njoo said he was not aware of the details of the Alberta case.
NDM-1 is an enzyme that is produced by bacteria that renders most antibiotics inactive. It is commonly harboured in E.coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. People infected with NDM-1 producing bacteria often contract urinary tract infections, pneumonia or blood infections. “If you get it in the hospital, this could be certainly a tipping point, and if the doctors don’t have good antibiotics to resort to, it could be very, very dangerous,” Dr. Pillai said.
The spread of NDM-1 within health-care facilities can be curbed through strict infection-control measures, including patient isolation and hand washing.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Bedbug ‘pandemic’ predicted
By Marsha Lederman (Vancouver) and Adrian Morrow (Toronto)
The Globe and Mail, Friday July 30, 2010
Bedbugs are making a comeback around the world, prompting city officials and pest control companies to step up the fight against their spread.
An 81-per-cent increase in bedbugs call to the U.S. National Pest Management Association in the past 10 years prompted the group to conduct its first comprehensive global bedbug study. “The results … suggest that we are on the threshold of a bedbug pandemic, not just in the United States, but around the world,” said the NPMA’s Missy Henricksen.
This week, New York committed $500,000 to its infestation. The money will go to creating a website that will educate people on how to eradicate the bugs, employing inspectors for apartment buildings and training city staff in the latest eradication techniques. A city survey suggests one in 15 New Yorkers (About 400,000 people) have suffered an infestation in the past year, with the critters showing up everywhere from an Abercrombie & Fitch outlet to Bill Clinton’s office.
Canada is not immune – a study by Insight Pharmaceuticals ranked Toronto as the third-worst afflicted city in North America, and Vancouver eighth (Columbus, Ohio and New York took the No. 1 and No. 2 spots).
Previous studies have pinned the increase in infestations to the banning of DDT and the increase of international travel, but Sean Rollo, president of the Structural Pest Management Association of B.C., says the primary reason is a change in the way pest control operators (PCOs) deal with cockroaches. The cockroach treatments used pre-1990s also killed bedbugs, but since PCOs moved to a food-based bait for the roaches, the bedbugs, which only feast on blood, have thrived.
In Vancouver, an online bedbug registry clocks almost daily additions, but neither the city nor the public health department is tracking the spread. Vancouver Coastal Health says it’s not a health issue, as bedbugs have not been found to carry any infectious diseases.
Mr. Rollo attests that there has been a “dramatic increase” in Lower Mainland B.C. since the 1990s, adding they’ve been an issue in local hotels, hospitals, movie theatres, daycare centres, summer camps, libraries and airplanes. The problem is escalating in Vancouver, he says. “There’s no question about it … every time there’s an Olympics, there’s a boom of bed bugs,” noting a similar pattern emerged in Sydney and Bejing.
In Toronto, the tiny insects have been reported in schools, offices and public transit. In June, an Etobicoke hospital beat back a small outbreak and downtown hotels booked by G20 delegates hired dogs to scour their rooms for the bugs.
The Globe and Mail, Friday July 30, 2010
Bedbugs are making a comeback around the world, prompting city officials and pest control companies to step up the fight against their spread.
An 81-per-cent increase in bedbugs call to the U.S. National Pest Management Association in the past 10 years prompted the group to conduct its first comprehensive global bedbug study. “The results … suggest that we are on the threshold of a bedbug pandemic, not just in the United States, but around the world,” said the NPMA’s Missy Henricksen.
This week, New York committed $500,000 to its infestation. The money will go to creating a website that will educate people on how to eradicate the bugs, employing inspectors for apartment buildings and training city staff in the latest eradication techniques. A city survey suggests one in 15 New Yorkers (About 400,000 people) have suffered an infestation in the past year, with the critters showing up everywhere from an Abercrombie & Fitch outlet to Bill Clinton’s office.
Canada is not immune – a study by Insight Pharmaceuticals ranked Toronto as the third-worst afflicted city in North America, and Vancouver eighth (Columbus, Ohio and New York took the No. 1 and No. 2 spots).
Previous studies have pinned the increase in infestations to the banning of DDT and the increase of international travel, but Sean Rollo, president of the Structural Pest Management Association of B.C., says the primary reason is a change in the way pest control operators (PCOs) deal with cockroaches. The cockroach treatments used pre-1990s also killed bedbugs, but since PCOs moved to a food-based bait for the roaches, the bedbugs, which only feast on blood, have thrived.
In Vancouver, an online bedbug registry clocks almost daily additions, but neither the city nor the public health department is tracking the spread. Vancouver Coastal Health says it’s not a health issue, as bedbugs have not been found to carry any infectious diseases.
Mr. Rollo attests that there has been a “dramatic increase” in Lower Mainland B.C. since the 1990s, adding they’ve been an issue in local hotels, hospitals, movie theatres, daycare centres, summer camps, libraries and airplanes. The problem is escalating in Vancouver, he says. “There’s no question about it … every time there’s an Olympics, there’s a boom of bed bugs,” noting a similar pattern emerged in Sydney and Bejing.
In Toronto, the tiny insects have been reported in schools, offices and public transit. In June, an Etobicoke hospital beat back a small outbreak and downtown hotels booked by G20 delegates hired dogs to scour their rooms for the bugs.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Study: Bulk Soap in Schools Contaminated
The following article is an illustration of the vulnerability of chemical products. Whether it’s hand soap, or hospital disinfectants, there is a lack of stability through the production, delivery, application and storage processes. A benefit of choosing Steam Disinfection is that even if there were a contamination of the water, the boiling process to create steam eliminates bacteria – just as we would boil unsafe tap water for drinking.
Cleanlink News February 16 2010
Cleanlink News February 16 2010
Study: Bulk Soap in Schools Contaminated
Approximately 23% of the soap from open refillable (bulk soap) dispensers in public restrooms is highly contaminated with bacteria. A recent study confirms that bulk soap dispensers in schools are similarly tainted.
The findings of a study of bulk soap dispensers in a school were recently presented at a meeting of the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) held in Boston. Among other things, the study found that washing with soap from bulk dispensers left ten times as many bacteria on students’ hands as was found on hands washed with soap from sealed refills. The research also suggests that contaminated bulk soap may play a role in the transmission of bacteria in schools, particularly among children.
The findings of a study of bulk soap dispensers in a school were recently presented at a meeting of the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) held in Boston. Among other things, the study found that washing with soap from bulk dispensers left ten times as many bacteria on students’ hands as was found on hands washed with soap from sealed refills. The research also suggests that contaminated bulk soap may play a role in the transmission of bacteria in schools, particularly among children.
Problem:
Bulk dispensers are refilled by pouring soap from a large container into an open reservoir. Typically the nozzle that dispenses the soap is not replaced. In contrast, sealed dispensing systems utilize sealed bags or cartridges that contain soap, along with a new nozzle.
Soap in bulk dispensers is prone to contamination because the soap is constantly exposed to bacteria from the environment, such as from the hands and body of the person refilling the soap, the spray of toilet water after flushing, or even from dust in the air.
In previous studies, soap from more than 500 dispensers across the United States was tested to evaluate the prevalence of contaminated soap in public restrooms.1 “We were surprised to learn that the soap from one in four bulk dispensers are contaminated with an average of more than three million bacteria, many of which are known to be opportunistic pathogens,” said Carrie Zapka, microbiology scientist, GOJO Industries. She continued, “Exposure to such high levels of these organisms can be a significant health risk to individuals with compromised immune systems – estimated to be at least 20% of the population.2 In contrast, soap from sealed dispensing systems was free from contamination.”
In addition to Zapka, others who were involved in helping to conduct the study include Dr. Charles P. Gerba and Sheri L. Maxwell, both from the University of Arizona; David R. Macinga, microbiology principal scientist; Michael J. Dolan, senior advisor/science and technology vice president and James W. Arbogast, skin care science and technology director, all from GOJO Industries.
Since contaminated bulk soap has caused outbreaks in hospitals, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends against the use of “topping off” dispensers in healthcare settings. However, no such guidelines exist to protect patrons of public restrooms in the community or students in schools.
Soap in bulk dispensers is prone to contamination because the soap is constantly exposed to bacteria from the environment, such as from the hands and body of the person refilling the soap, the spray of toilet water after flushing, or even from dust in the air.
In previous studies, soap from more than 500 dispensers across the United States was tested to evaluate the prevalence of contaminated soap in public restrooms.1 “We were surprised to learn that the soap from one in four bulk dispensers are contaminated with an average of more than three million bacteria, many of which are known to be opportunistic pathogens,” said Carrie Zapka, microbiology scientist, GOJO Industries. She continued, “Exposure to such high levels of these organisms can be a significant health risk to individuals with compromised immune systems – estimated to be at least 20% of the population.2 In contrast, soap from sealed dispensing systems was free from contamination.”
In addition to Zapka, others who were involved in helping to conduct the study include Dr. Charles P. Gerba and Sheri L. Maxwell, both from the University of Arizona; David R. Macinga, microbiology principal scientist; Michael J. Dolan, senior advisor/science and technology vice president and James W. Arbogast, skin care science and technology director, all from GOJO Industries.
Since contaminated bulk soap has caused outbreaks in hospitals, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends against the use of “topping off” dispensers in healthcare settings. However, no such guidelines exist to protect patrons of public restrooms in the community or students in schools.
Test Methodology:
To determine whether or not bulk soap dispensers in a school setting contain bacteria, 10 staff members and 10 students in an elementary school participated in a hand washing study. The objective of this study as to evaluate bacterial hand contamination and hand transmission among children and adults in an lementary school with a contaminated bulk soap problem.
In a particular elementary school in Ohio, it was determined that the antibacterial soap in all of the schools dispensers were highlight contaminated with 19 different species of bacteria, including seudomonas, Providencia, Citrobacter, Stenotrophomonas, Aeromonas, Enterobacter, Pasteurella, andSerratia.
Each of the 20 students and staff participated in up to four hand washes each, using one of 14 contaminated bulk soap. Participants were instructed to wash and dry their hands as they normally would after using the restroom. All hands were tested both before and after handwashing using two different methods: the number of bacteria on one hand of each participant was measured; and the bacterial transfer to a surface was measured with the opposite hand using a technique known as “the hand stamp procedure”.
In a follow-up study conducted four months after the contaminated bulk soap dispensers were replaced with sealed soap dispensing systems, 11 staff participated in up to two hand washes each.
In a particular elementary school in Ohio, it was determined that the antibacterial soap in all of the schools dispensers were highlight contaminated with 19 different species of bacteria, including seudomonas, Providencia, Citrobacter, Stenotrophomonas, Aeromonas, Enterobacter, Pasteurella, andSerratia.
Each of the 20 students and staff participated in up to four hand washes each, using one of 14 contaminated bulk soap. Participants were instructed to wash and dry their hands as they normally would after using the restroom. All hands were tested both before and after handwashing using two different methods: the number of bacteria on one hand of each participant was measured; and the bacterial transfer to a surface was measured with the opposite hand using a technique known as “the hand stamp procedure”.
In a follow-up study conducted four months after the contaminated bulk soap dispensers were replaced with sealed soap dispensing systems, 11 staff participated in up to two hand washes each.
Results:
The results of the school study demonstrated that washing with contaminated bulk soap increased the number of bacteria on hands, and also increased the number of bacteria transferred from hands to surfaces. Among the findings:
• Washing with contaminated bulk soap significantly increased the number of pathogenic bacteria per hand from 179 to 2047 on average for all students and staff. Students’ hands retained significantly more bacteria than the staff.
• Washing with contaminated bulk soap significantly increased the number of bacteria transferred to a surface from one before washing to 27 after washing on average for all students and staff. Also, students transferred significantly more bacteria to the surface they touched after washing with contaminated bulk soap than the staff did, specifically 38 vs. 9 bacteria.
• Washing with sealed soap significantly reduced the number of bacteria from 821 to 135.
• Hands washed with contaminated bulk soap transferred a significantly higher number of opportunistic pathogens to touched surfaces compared to hands washed with soap from a sealed refill.
The study also concluded that contaminated bulk soap may play a role in the transmission of bacteria in schools, particularly among children. It was noted that schools using bulk soap dispensers could reduce the spread of bacteria simply by changing to dispensers which utilize only sealed soap refills.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Violations up in Canadian flight kitchens
By: Bert Archer
As if being charged for the bland airplane food we once choked down for free wasn’t reason enough for business travelers to pack a lunch, a Health Canada report reveals inspectors found more significant violations in the preparation of food in this country’s massive flight kitchens this past year than in the year before.
Health Canada inspectors found what the report terms “critical violations” in four out of the ten of the facilities that prepare meals for both domestic and international airlines operating out of Canada from April 2009 to March 2010. Given the recent industry trend away from in-flight meals for short flights, the food prepared in these kitchens is mostly consumed by long-haul travelers.
Though Health Canada refused to divulge specific details about the violations or offending kitchens, citing a non-disclosure agreement it has with the flight kitchens, spokeswoman Ashley Lemire did say that it was a “noted increase.”
Last week a USA Today story, based on Freedom of Information Act requests to the U.S Food and Drug Administration, reported on inspections of flight kitchens in the United States that found ants, flies, live cockroaches and roach carcasses “too numerous to count.”
According to Lemire, in 22 announced inspections of 10 flight kitchens here, Health Canada found six critical violations (compared with just one in the previous 12-month period), including raw and cooked food being stored together, best-before dates not being properly marked, staff unfamiliar with how long and what temperatures the food they were handling had to be stored, and improper disinfecting of washing equipment. Sightings of insects or rodents, and the proper documentation of such sightings are considered critical violations – there were none.
Though there is no reported evidence of passenger illness directly linked to any of these six violations, Brita Ball, interim director of the Food Safety Network at the University of Guelph, says that’s not the point. “In food safety, we talk about the potential,” she says. “It’s all about risk.”
As if being charged for the bland airplane food we once choked down for free wasn’t reason enough for business travelers to pack a lunch, a Health Canada report reveals inspectors found more significant violations in the preparation of food in this country’s massive flight kitchens this past year than in the year before.
Health Canada inspectors found what the report terms “critical violations” in four out of the ten of the facilities that prepare meals for both domestic and international airlines operating out of Canada from April 2009 to March 2010. Given the recent industry trend away from in-flight meals for short flights, the food prepared in these kitchens is mostly consumed by long-haul travelers.
Though Health Canada refused to divulge specific details about the violations or offending kitchens, citing a non-disclosure agreement it has with the flight kitchens, spokeswoman Ashley Lemire did say that it was a “noted increase.”
Last week a USA Today story, based on Freedom of Information Act requests to the U.S Food and Drug Administration, reported on inspections of flight kitchens in the United States that found ants, flies, live cockroaches and roach carcasses “too numerous to count.”
According to Lemire, in 22 announced inspections of 10 flight kitchens here, Health Canada found six critical violations (compared with just one in the previous 12-month period), including raw and cooked food being stored together, best-before dates not being properly marked, staff unfamiliar with how long and what temperatures the food they were handling had to be stored, and improper disinfecting of washing equipment. Sightings of insects or rodents, and the proper documentation of such sightings are considered critical violations – there were none.
Though there is no reported evidence of passenger illness directly linked to any of these six violations, Brita Ball, interim director of the Food Safety Network at the University of Guelph, says that’s not the point. “In food safety, we talk about the potential,” she says. “It’s all about risk.”
Monday, July 26, 2010
Breast Cancer Linked to Cleaning Products
Cleanlink News July 20 2010
According to recent reports cleaning products have been linked to breast cancer in a new study. Scientists also found a link between an increased risk of developing the cancer to air fresheners and insect repellents. Women who regularly used a combination of cleaning products were twice as likely to have breast cancer, with the strongest link emerging between cancer and mold and mildew removers, and air freshener, the independent reports.
Researchers pointed out that many of the products contained "endocrine-disrupting" chemicals linked to breast cancer in lab experiments on mice. The head of a breast cancer organization particularly warned women already diagnosed with the disease to take a "precautionary approach and review the levels of potentially-hazardous chemicals in the products they use." An industry group dismissed the findings, and said the study was tainted by "recall bias" because women were asked to remember which products they used.
According to recent reports cleaning products have been linked to breast cancer in a new study. Scientists also found a link between an increased risk of developing the cancer to air fresheners and insect repellents. Women who regularly used a combination of cleaning products were twice as likely to have breast cancer, with the strongest link emerging between cancer and mold and mildew removers, and air freshener, the independent reports.
Researchers pointed out that many of the products contained "endocrine-disrupting" chemicals linked to breast cancer in lab experiments on mice. The head of a breast cancer organization particularly warned women already diagnosed with the disease to take a "precautionary approach and review the levels of potentially-hazardous chemicals in the products they use." An industry group dismissed the findings, and said the study was tainted by "recall bias" because women were asked to remember which products they used.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Health/Safety of Cleaning Products Analyzed
Cleanlink News July 2 2010
According to the Green Clean Institute, the professional cleaning industry strives to make the indoor environment clean, safe, and hygienic. Unfortunately, harmful side effects on human health and safety are associated with certain cleaning products and practices. For these reasons, environmental considerations should be a large part of janitorial management.
Health impacts from traditional cleaning practices and products affect both product users and building occupants. Janitorial staffs often have direct contact with high concentrations of cleaning chemicals and therefore may suffer serious and direct injury. Occupants might be exposed to lower levels but over longer periods of time (longer hours each day and more days per year).
Both cleaning staff and building occupants can receive either "acute" or "chronic" exposure. Acute exposure means a single large exposure to a toxic substance, which may result in severe health problems or death. Acute exposures usually last no longer than a day, as compared to chronic exposures, which refer to many exposures over an extended period of time or over a significant fraction of a human's lifetime (7 years or more). Chronic exposure can cause long-term serious health effects.
What Are the Environmental Impacts of Traditional Cleaning Products?
Not only do many traditional cleaning products affect human health and safety, but many also contain ingredients that are harmful to the environment. A number of environmental impacts - including effects on fish, birds, other wildlife, and ecosystems can result from these products, depending upon the specific chemical ingredients, manufacturing methods, use, and disposal practices.
Cleaning products can contaminate the environment in many ways, from pouring chemicals and wastewater down the drain and into the local water supply, gas emissions into the air via circulation through the indoor ventilation system, and during the treatment and disposal of chemical wastes. These are known as "downstream" effects, as they happen during or after the use of the products. Many of the same environmental effects are also created "upstream," during the initial development and manufacture of the products in laboratories and factories. Thus, as janitors reduce their use of hazardous products, they can reduce the environmental effects at a number of different stages of the products' life cycle. Cleaning Products
Because so many different cleaning chemicals exist and because different janitorial crews can use different practices and quantities, it is important to note that hazards are best evaluated on a product-by-product or chemical-by-chemical basis. This type of evaluation provides users with complete information about the product, including the risks of individual ingredients and their combined effect in one product.
Several standard-setting organizations develop guidance to assist in evaluating cleaning products. Environment Canada’s Environmental ChoiceTM Program (ECP) provides consumers with a level of assurance that the product bearing the EcoLogoTM, ECP’s symbol of environmental excellence, meets stringent environmental criteria. The mark also tells the consumer that the manufacturer of the product has been audited by a credible third party.
Janitorial mangers and purchasers should carefully review the ECP’s standards and adapt or expand them to meet local needs and concerns. Green cleaning is still a relatively new concept, and managers who follow the ECP standards will be on the cutting edge of green cleaning and have a head start on standards that will more than likely be mandatory in the future. A product may receive the EcoLogoTM if it is made or offered in a way that:
• Improves energy efficiency
• Reduces hazardous by-products
• Uses recycled materials
• Is re-usable
• Provides some other environmental benefit
Environmentally Preferable Attributes of Cleaning Products
Attributes differ for every green cleaning program depending upon a variety of factors, such as local and regional environmental issues; health, safety, or environmental priorities; provincial and local regulations; building characteristics; and availability of alternative products. The following environmental attributes are some examples of those that appear in Green Seal standards and other green janitorial specifications.
• Must not be corrosive to skin or inanimate surfaces
• Must not be a severe skin or eye irritant
• Must be free of any know human carcinogens, mutagens or teratogens
• Must not contain any ozone-depleting compounds, greenhouse gases, or substances that contribute to photochemical smog and poor indoor air quality
• Must not be delivered in single use aerosol cans or cans using ozone depleting propellants
• Must not contain petroleum-derived or petrochemical blended fragrances
• Must not contain heavy metals that are toxic to humans, animal/aquatic life or the environment
• Must not contain petroleum distillates unless no natural alternative is available, and then only if the distillate meets the human safety and environmental profile outlined by the governing regulatory body
• Must have a pH between 4 and 9 wherever possible
• Must have a flash point higher that 200°F
• Should not be combustible below 105°F
• Must not contain dyes
• Must not contain chlorine, chlorinated or brominated solvents
• Must not contain endocrine modifiers, alkyl phenyl ethoxylates, dibutyl phthalate, or heavy metals (e.g. arsenic, lead, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, mercury, nickel, selenium)
• Must not contain more than 0.5% by weight of phosphorous
• Must not contain compounds that persist or bio-accumulate in human or animal tissue or in the environment
• Should be readily biodegradable at greater than 90% in thirty days without the need of being run through a municipal effluent treatment process. If not biodegradable due to inorganic content, the ingredient must be chemically inert
• Must be bio-based (i.e., utilize biological products or renewable, domestic agricultural [plant, animal, or marine] or forestry materials) wherever possible
• Should be as concentrated as possible to green the supply chain
• Products should be capable of being dispensed through automatic systems in order to reduce user and environmental contact.
According to the Green Clean Institute, the professional cleaning industry strives to make the indoor environment clean, safe, and hygienic. Unfortunately, harmful side effects on human health and safety are associated with certain cleaning products and practices. For these reasons, environmental considerations should be a large part of janitorial management.
Health impacts from traditional cleaning practices and products affect both product users and building occupants. Janitorial staffs often have direct contact with high concentrations of cleaning chemicals and therefore may suffer serious and direct injury. Occupants might be exposed to lower levels but over longer periods of time (longer hours each day and more days per year).
Both cleaning staff and building occupants can receive either "acute" or "chronic" exposure. Acute exposure means a single large exposure to a toxic substance, which may result in severe health problems or death. Acute exposures usually last no longer than a day, as compared to chronic exposures, which refer to many exposures over an extended period of time or over a significant fraction of a human's lifetime (7 years or more). Chronic exposure can cause long-term serious health effects.
What Are the Environmental Impacts of Traditional Cleaning Products?
Not only do many traditional cleaning products affect human health and safety, but many also contain ingredients that are harmful to the environment. A number of environmental impacts - including effects on fish, birds, other wildlife, and ecosystems can result from these products, depending upon the specific chemical ingredients, manufacturing methods, use, and disposal practices.
Cleaning products can contaminate the environment in many ways, from pouring chemicals and wastewater down the drain and into the local water supply, gas emissions into the air via circulation through the indoor ventilation system, and during the treatment and disposal of chemical wastes. These are known as "downstream" effects, as they happen during or after the use of the products. Many of the same environmental effects are also created "upstream," during the initial development and manufacture of the products in laboratories and factories. Thus, as janitors reduce their use of hazardous products, they can reduce the environmental effects at a number of different stages of the products' life cycle. Cleaning Products
Because so many different cleaning chemicals exist and because different janitorial crews can use different practices and quantities, it is important to note that hazards are best evaluated on a product-by-product or chemical-by-chemical basis. This type of evaluation provides users with complete information about the product, including the risks of individual ingredients and their combined effect in one product.
Several standard-setting organizations develop guidance to assist in evaluating cleaning products. Environment Canada’s Environmental ChoiceTM Program (ECP) provides consumers with a level of assurance that the product bearing the EcoLogoTM, ECP’s symbol of environmental excellence, meets stringent environmental criteria. The mark also tells the consumer that the manufacturer of the product has been audited by a credible third party.
Janitorial mangers and purchasers should carefully review the ECP’s standards and adapt or expand them to meet local needs and concerns. Green cleaning is still a relatively new concept, and managers who follow the ECP standards will be on the cutting edge of green cleaning and have a head start on standards that will more than likely be mandatory in the future. A product may receive the EcoLogoTM if it is made or offered in a way that:
• Improves energy efficiency
• Reduces hazardous by-products
• Uses recycled materials
• Is re-usable
• Provides some other environmental benefit
Environmentally Preferable Attributes of Cleaning Products
Attributes differ for every green cleaning program depending upon a variety of factors, such as local and regional environmental issues; health, safety, or environmental priorities; provincial and local regulations; building characteristics; and availability of alternative products. The following environmental attributes are some examples of those that appear in Green Seal standards and other green janitorial specifications.
• Must not be corrosive to skin or inanimate surfaces
• Must not be a severe skin or eye irritant
• Must be free of any know human carcinogens, mutagens or teratogens
• Must not contain any ozone-depleting compounds, greenhouse gases, or substances that contribute to photochemical smog and poor indoor air quality
• Must not be delivered in single use aerosol cans or cans using ozone depleting propellants
• Must not contain petroleum-derived or petrochemical blended fragrances
• Must not contain heavy metals that are toxic to humans, animal/aquatic life or the environment
• Must not contain petroleum distillates unless no natural alternative is available, and then only if the distillate meets the human safety and environmental profile outlined by the governing regulatory body
• Must have a pH between 4 and 9 wherever possible
• Must have a flash point higher that 200°F
• Should not be combustible below 105°F
• Must not contain dyes
• Must not contain chlorine, chlorinated or brominated solvents
• Must not contain endocrine modifiers, alkyl phenyl ethoxylates, dibutyl phthalate, or heavy metals (e.g. arsenic, lead, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, mercury, nickel, selenium)
• Must not contain more than 0.5% by weight of phosphorous
• Must not contain compounds that persist or bio-accumulate in human or animal tissue or in the environment
• Should be readily biodegradable at greater than 90% in thirty days without the need of being run through a municipal effluent treatment process. If not biodegradable due to inorganic content, the ingredient must be chemically inert
• Must be bio-based (i.e., utilize biological products or renewable, domestic agricultural [plant, animal, or marine] or forestry materials) wherever possible
• Should be as concentrated as possible to green the supply chain
• Products should be capable of being dispensed through automatic systems in order to reduce user and environmental contact.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Bed bugs back with a vengeance: The blood-sucking critters on rise in T.O
By DON PEAT, SUN MEDIA
Daniel Rozak’s life has been torn apart by bed bugs.
“It’s been a nightmare, an absolute nightmare,” Rozak said.
The 37 – year-old HBC employee came home last month to the creepy crawlers nesting around his bed and even in the corners of his ceiling and said he has since spent more than $7,000 trying to get rid of the pests.
‘ON THE RISE’
He has lost furniture, had his apartment sprayed with pesticide and even been relocated in his building to another apartment.
Rozak isn’t the only one that has been fighting bed bugs. According to Reg Ayre, the city’s Healthy Environments manager, Toronto Public Health received 194 calls for bed bug inquiries in 2004, 147 calls in 2005 and 160 in the first nine months of 2006.
“That is just the tip of the iceberg,” Ayre said.
Bed bugs were on the decline in the western world by World War II, but they’ve come back with a vengeance because of its increased global travel and the use of less lethal pesticides.
The little insects are spreading their non-existent wings and once again showing up in beds, and homes, across Canada, making them a significant issue of public concern.
“We started receiving anecdotal reports that bed bugs were on the rise,” Ayre said. “prior to 2003-2004 it was a non-issue for us.
Four years later, Ayre says they are constantly sending investigators out to bed bug calls around the city.
From surveys of pest control companies, Ayre said it is clear all communities are seeing an increase in bed bugs this year.
One company said it performs 1,200 bed bug treatments per year while another said it’s spraying 400-500 homes per month.
One of the reasons Toronto Health is concerned about bed bugs is the stigma attached to them.
Toronto’s shelter system takes bed bugs so seriously, the city funded the re[placement of 62% of all beds in the service shelter system in December 2005.
THEY DON’T DISCRIMINATE
They also replaced more than half of the beds and mattresses in the six city-managed facilities last year. All the replacement beds are bed bug resistant.
Ayre is adamant bed bugs don’t just affect the poor. Although he has seen cases of bed bugs in shelters and low income areas, the health unit has received bed bug complaints from all socioeconomic areas of the city.
Last month, one city concillor even called for bed bugs to be considered a health hazard. Ayre said the unit considers them a “nuisance pest” not a health hazard.
Under legislation, a health hazard would give Public Health the power to take legal action, but Ayre said it’s not needed.
“It’s not about enforcement,” he said. “It’s a nuisance pest that has significant implications and there are some dramatic cases but it doesn’t meet the legal definition of a health hazard.
One of the good things about bed bugs – if there is anything good about them – is that they don’t spread infectious disease, he said.
Adult bed bugs have oval-shaped bodies with no wings. Before they feed, they are a quarter-inch long and aa flat as paper. After they suck your blood, they turn dark red and become bloated. A female can lay 200-400 eggs depending on food supply and temperature. The little critters hatch in 10 days and live for one year. And they can go without feeding on blood for six months. Worse yet, they can hide anywhere, not just in the seams, creases and folds of your bed. They can be found in your bed frame, chairs, couches and electronics. Under your carpet or rug, there may be a bug. In your curtains and drawers, behind your baseboards and even in the cracks of the wall.
Health officials said bed bugs can also travel from apartment to apartment along pipes, electrical wiring and other openings.
Toronto Sun: December 21, 2007
BATTLING BED BUGS IN SENSITIVE PLACES.
Researchers from the University of Kentucky discuss treatment options for bed bugs when insecticides may not be desirable.
By: Michael F. Potter, Alcaro Romero, Kenneth F. Haynes and Erich Hardebeck
Subheading: Steamers
“If bed bugs have a weakness, it’s elevated temperature. Temperatures of 120° F are lethal to most insects provided they cannot escape to a cooler location. The advantage of steam is that heating is intense and immediate, killing both bugs and eggs on contact.
The types of steamers used for bed bug treatment are those used for sanitizing floor drains. When targeting bed bugs though, the less moisture emitted the better, especially when treating mattresses and other slow-drying materials where mold growth is a possibility.”
Daniel Rozak’s life has been torn apart by bed bugs.
“It’s been a nightmare, an absolute nightmare,” Rozak said.
The 37 – year-old HBC employee came home last month to the creepy crawlers nesting around his bed and even in the corners of his ceiling and said he has since spent more than $7,000 trying to get rid of the pests.
‘ON THE RISE’
He has lost furniture, had his apartment sprayed with pesticide and even been relocated in his building to another apartment.
Rozak isn’t the only one that has been fighting bed bugs. According to Reg Ayre, the city’s Healthy Environments manager, Toronto Public Health received 194 calls for bed bug inquiries in 2004, 147 calls in 2005 and 160 in the first nine months of 2006.
“That is just the tip of the iceberg,” Ayre said.
Bed bugs were on the decline in the western world by World War II, but they’ve come back with a vengeance because of its increased global travel and the use of less lethal pesticides.
The little insects are spreading their non-existent wings and once again showing up in beds, and homes, across Canada, making them a significant issue of public concern.
“We started receiving anecdotal reports that bed bugs were on the rise,” Ayre said. “prior to 2003-2004 it was a non-issue for us.
Four years later, Ayre says they are constantly sending investigators out to bed bug calls around the city.
From surveys of pest control companies, Ayre said it is clear all communities are seeing an increase in bed bugs this year.
One company said it performs 1,200 bed bug treatments per year while another said it’s spraying 400-500 homes per month.
One of the reasons Toronto Health is concerned about bed bugs is the stigma attached to them.
Toronto’s shelter system takes bed bugs so seriously, the city funded the re[placement of 62% of all beds in the service shelter system in December 2005.
THEY DON’T DISCRIMINATE
They also replaced more than half of the beds and mattresses in the six city-managed facilities last year. All the replacement beds are bed bug resistant.
Ayre is adamant bed bugs don’t just affect the poor. Although he has seen cases of bed bugs in shelters and low income areas, the health unit has received bed bug complaints from all socioeconomic areas of the city.
Last month, one city concillor even called for bed bugs to be considered a health hazard. Ayre said the unit considers them a “nuisance pest” not a health hazard.
Under legislation, a health hazard would give Public Health the power to take legal action, but Ayre said it’s not needed.
“It’s not about enforcement,” he said. “It’s a nuisance pest that has significant implications and there are some dramatic cases but it doesn’t meet the legal definition of a health hazard.
One of the good things about bed bugs – if there is anything good about them – is that they don’t spread infectious disease, he said.
Adult bed bugs have oval-shaped bodies with no wings. Before they feed, they are a quarter-inch long and aa flat as paper. After they suck your blood, they turn dark red and become bloated. A female can lay 200-400 eggs depending on food supply and temperature. The little critters hatch in 10 days and live for one year. And they can go without feeding on blood for six months. Worse yet, they can hide anywhere, not just in the seams, creases and folds of your bed. They can be found in your bed frame, chairs, couches and electronics. Under your carpet or rug, there may be a bug. In your curtains and drawers, behind your baseboards and even in the cracks of the wall.
Health officials said bed bugs can also travel from apartment to apartment along pipes, electrical wiring and other openings.
Toronto Sun: December 21, 2007
BATTLING BED BUGS IN SENSITIVE PLACES.
Researchers from the University of Kentucky discuss treatment options for bed bugs when insecticides may not be desirable.
By: Michael F. Potter, Alcaro Romero, Kenneth F. Haynes and Erich Hardebeck
Subheading: Steamers
“If bed bugs have a weakness, it’s elevated temperature. Temperatures of 120° F are lethal to most insects provided they cannot escape to a cooler location. The advantage of steam is that heating is intense and immediate, killing both bugs and eggs on contact.
The types of steamers used for bed bug treatment are those used for sanitizing floor drains. When targeting bed bugs though, the less moisture emitted the better, especially when treating mattresses and other slow-drying materials where mold growth is a possibility.”
Friday, July 9, 2010
Let's Go Feed The Bugs
"Moviegoers in New York," United Press International reports, "could be snuggling up with bedbugs, bug experts say. Experts warned theatre seats pose a bigger bedbug threat than clothing racks despite last week's reports about bedbug infestations at two popular clothing stores, the New York Daily News reported Monday. 'In a movie theatre, you are sitting in one spot for two hours. They have the opportunity to feed on you,' said Jennifer Erdogen, director of Bell Environmental Services, a pest control company that fumigates movie theatres, offices and stores.' "
Monday, July 5, 2010
Daycare dust to be analyzed for toxins
By: Wency Leung – Taken from The Globe and Mail – April 1, 2010 – page L4
Your baby has been scooting around on the daycare floor all morning. Meanwhile, your toddler has been playing hide-and-seek in the curtains.
Their daycare may look spotless and tidy, but could invisible chemical toxins be lurking in the dust?
Health Canada is conducting a study to find out. Researchers at the Environmental Health, Science and Research Bureau plan to collect dust samples from 300 licensed daycare centres in Ontario and Quebec and analyze them for potentially hazardous chemicals, according to an online government procurement notice.
“This study will investigate young children’s potential exposure to many widely – used chemicals,” it says. “Residues of many of these chemicals settle on indoor dust and could potentially become a source of exposure for children.”
Household dust can contain a multitude of harmful synthetic chemicals, including flame retardants known as PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers), which are found in common consumer electronics such as televisions and computers, as well as in upholstered sofas and chairs and rugs, says Rick Smith, executive director of the Toronto based activist group Environmental Defense.
These PBDEs, which can disrupt hormones, escape from the prducts and accumulate in dust, he says.
He notes that Phthalates, another hormone-disrupting chemical that is found in flexible vinyl toys, can wind up in household dust as products degrade. Phthalates also present potential risks, especially to young children.
“The Particular vulnerability of this pollution lies in the fact that kids are closer to the ground. They’re more apt to roll around in dusty corners. Younger children are very fond of putting their fingers in their mouths after they’ve handled things,” Mr. Smith says, adding that children’s developing bodies also make them more susceptible.
Hormone-disrupting chemicals have been linked to problems including childhood asthma, diabetes, obesity and even attention deficit disorder, he says.
But just how dangerous are these chemicals in dust, and how concerned should parents be?
Erica Phipps of the Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health and Environment, says parents and daycare providers should take precautions, such as buying products that are free of potentially harmful chemicals, and wet dusting and wet-mopping to capture dust. But, she says they need not be alarmed.
“We certainly don’t want to give people the impression that daycare centres or homes are some toxic wasteland and the kids are going to be at high risk,” she says.
She added that parents can do more harm than good by trying to rid their children’s environment of pollutants. For instance, some fragranced cleaning products can actually contain phthalates and other chemicals that can be particularly harmful to children with allergies and sensitivities, she says.
“A centre that looks or smells sparkling clean may actually, depending on what cleaning products they’re using…. Be another source of chemical exposures.”
Your baby has been scooting around on the daycare floor all morning. Meanwhile, your toddler has been playing hide-and-seek in the curtains.
Their daycare may look spotless and tidy, but could invisible chemical toxins be lurking in the dust?
Health Canada is conducting a study to find out. Researchers at the Environmental Health, Science and Research Bureau plan to collect dust samples from 300 licensed daycare centres in Ontario and Quebec and analyze them for potentially hazardous chemicals, according to an online government procurement notice.
“This study will investigate young children’s potential exposure to many widely – used chemicals,” it says. “Residues of many of these chemicals settle on indoor dust and could potentially become a source of exposure for children.”
Household dust can contain a multitude of harmful synthetic chemicals, including flame retardants known as PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers), which are found in common consumer electronics such as televisions and computers, as well as in upholstered sofas and chairs and rugs, says Rick Smith, executive director of the Toronto based activist group Environmental Defense.
These PBDEs, which can disrupt hormones, escape from the prducts and accumulate in dust, he says.
He notes that Phthalates, another hormone-disrupting chemical that is found in flexible vinyl toys, can wind up in household dust as products degrade. Phthalates also present potential risks, especially to young children.
“The Particular vulnerability of this pollution lies in the fact that kids are closer to the ground. They’re more apt to roll around in dusty corners. Younger children are very fond of putting their fingers in their mouths after they’ve handled things,” Mr. Smith says, adding that children’s developing bodies also make them more susceptible.
Hormone-disrupting chemicals have been linked to problems including childhood asthma, diabetes, obesity and even attention deficit disorder, he says.
But just how dangerous are these chemicals in dust, and how concerned should parents be?
Erica Phipps of the Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health and Environment, says parents and daycare providers should take precautions, such as buying products that are free of potentially harmful chemicals, and wet dusting and wet-mopping to capture dust. But, she says they need not be alarmed.
“We certainly don’t want to give people the impression that daycare centres or homes are some toxic wasteland and the kids are going to be at high risk,” she says.
She added that parents can do more harm than good by trying to rid their children’s environment of pollutants. For instance, some fragranced cleaning products can actually contain phthalates and other chemicals that can be particularly harmful to children with allergies and sensitivities, she says.
“A centre that looks or smells sparkling clean may actually, depending on what cleaning products they’re using…. Be another source of chemical exposures.”
Monday, June 28, 2010
Have you checked into a ‘green room’ yet?
Just as one would ask for a no-smoking room, in a growing number of hotels in British Columbia, business travelers with a concern for the environment can request a “green” room.
Make that request at Vancouver’s upscale Westin Bayshore, and here is what you get: a water-conserving toilet and shower head, aerators in all the taps, energy-saving light fixtures and heating systems, biodegradable wheat-germ soap and shampoo in a wall dispenser rather than in disposable bottles, paper products and room stationary made from recycled paper, and a recycling box to put used bottles and paper.
The Westin Bayshore is one of the 16 hotels in British Columbia that are now part of the B.C. Hydro Power Smart Green Hotels program, the first of its kind in the world. Under the program, B.C. Hydro Power Smart inspectors scrutinize hotels that have applied to the program and award points to those that implement and follow good environmental practices in their guest rooms and day-to-day operations.
To be “green” the hotels must have minimum of 2 per cent of their rooms as completely “green rooms” and 50 per cent of the remaining rooms with water-saving tap and shower devices. Points are awarded for each environmentally sound practice; a minimum of 120 points gives them the designation Power Smart Green Hotel. If they earn 180 points they are given the “plus” designation. Hotels that meet the criteria that are listed as “green” in the B.C. Accommodations Guide and on B.C. Hydro’s Web site, and are part of B.C. Hydro’s Power Smart promotional campaigns.
Richard Wohl, key account manager for B.C. Hydro who oversees the green hotel program, says a number of hotels are in the process of qualifying for the designation. “Because many hotels will have to do some renovations, it can take a couple of years to qualify,” he said.
The Westin Bayshore has earned the Green Hotel Plus designation. Although strict “green” rooms make up just 75 of the hotel’s 750 rooms, The Bayshore has adopted other environmentally friendly policies and practices throughout the entire hotel. The kitchen composts and recycles everything possible and unused foods are donated to the local food banks; requirements for heating and light for meeting rooms and common areas throughout the hotel are programmed on a computer so that they are turned off when not in use. Towels, bedding and furniture, when too worn for use in the hotel, are donated to the Salvation Army. Even left-over soap is donated to the Sally Ann, which melts it down to make new soap.
“It costs a lot initially to do the conversion, particularly for the lights, showers, and toilets, but now in energy costs alone we are saving more than $100,000 a year,” said Denis Forristal who also noted that the amount the hotel must haul to the landfill has dropped “500 per cent.”
Most of their clients have welcomed the change, but Mr. Forristal acknowledges receiving a few complaints from clients who expect a hotel experience to include lots of disposable luxuries. European visitors, however, have been very positive, he said.
Sherry McCutcheon, general manager of the Best Western Collingwood Inn in Courtenay, B.C., the only Power Smart Green Hotel now on Vancouver Island, says the savings for her hotel have been just a small aspect of the change.
“I think the biggest advantage is the positive comments we get from clients and the way it makes our staff feel. The staff is really into it. It makes them feel good. We think this is the wave of the future,” Ms. McCutcheon said.
By Anne Mullens: Special to The Globe and Mail
Make that request at Vancouver’s upscale Westin Bayshore, and here is what you get: a water-conserving toilet and shower head, aerators in all the taps, energy-saving light fixtures and heating systems, biodegradable wheat-germ soap and shampoo in a wall dispenser rather than in disposable bottles, paper products and room stationary made from recycled paper, and a recycling box to put used bottles and paper.
The Westin Bayshore is one of the 16 hotels in British Columbia that are now part of the B.C. Hydro Power Smart Green Hotels program, the first of its kind in the world. Under the program, B.C. Hydro Power Smart inspectors scrutinize hotels that have applied to the program and award points to those that implement and follow good environmental practices in their guest rooms and day-to-day operations.
To be “green” the hotels must have minimum of 2 per cent of their rooms as completely “green rooms” and 50 per cent of the remaining rooms with water-saving tap and shower devices. Points are awarded for each environmentally sound practice; a minimum of 120 points gives them the designation Power Smart Green Hotel. If they earn 180 points they are given the “plus” designation. Hotels that meet the criteria that are listed as “green” in the B.C. Accommodations Guide and on B.C. Hydro’s Web site, and are part of B.C. Hydro’s Power Smart promotional campaigns.
Richard Wohl, key account manager for B.C. Hydro who oversees the green hotel program, says a number of hotels are in the process of qualifying for the designation. “Because many hotels will have to do some renovations, it can take a couple of years to qualify,” he said.
The Westin Bayshore has earned the Green Hotel Plus designation. Although strict “green” rooms make up just 75 of the hotel’s 750 rooms, The Bayshore has adopted other environmentally friendly policies and practices throughout the entire hotel. The kitchen composts and recycles everything possible and unused foods are donated to the local food banks; requirements for heating and light for meeting rooms and common areas throughout the hotel are programmed on a computer so that they are turned off when not in use. Towels, bedding and furniture, when too worn for use in the hotel, are donated to the Salvation Army. Even left-over soap is donated to the Sally Ann, which melts it down to make new soap.
“It costs a lot initially to do the conversion, particularly for the lights, showers, and toilets, but now in energy costs alone we are saving more than $100,000 a year,” said Denis Forristal who also noted that the amount the hotel must haul to the landfill has dropped “500 per cent.”
Most of their clients have welcomed the change, but Mr. Forristal acknowledges receiving a few complaints from clients who expect a hotel experience to include lots of disposable luxuries. European visitors, however, have been very positive, he said.
Sherry McCutcheon, general manager of the Best Western Collingwood Inn in Courtenay, B.C., the only Power Smart Green Hotel now on Vancouver Island, says the savings for her hotel have been just a small aspect of the change.
“I think the biggest advantage is the positive comments we get from clients and the way it makes our staff feel. The staff is really into it. It makes them feel good. We think this is the wave of the future,” Ms. McCutcheon said.
By Anne Mullens: Special to The Globe and Mail
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Hotels take on a greener hue
By Anne Mullens: taken from The Globe and Mail – Thursday March 5, 1998
CRISP sheets and fresh towels every day, unlimited hot water, little bottles of shampoo, tiny soaps wrapped in paper. These are some of the luxuries that travelers expect when staying in a nice hotel.
But when it comes to the environment, those hotels niceties add up to waste on a huge scale.
In fact, the inherent workings of a large hotel seem to dictate one immense drain on the environment, with rooms to heat in winter or cool in summer and clean spotless every day, TVs running, lights burning, toilets flushing almost constantly. Plus there are pools and saunas to heat, kitchens, bars and restaurants churning out mounds of garbage, and laundry, laundry, laundry.
“I really get offended at the astounding amount of waste I see in most hotels,” says Ian Gill, president of Ecotrust, a conservation organization operating in Canada and the United States. “That little bar of soap in your hotel room, you unwrap it, use it once. When you come back that night, they have removed it and replaced it with another one wrapped in paper.”
Mr. Gill spends at least half of his working life traveling through the United States and Canada, and he echoes other environment-minded travelers in his desire for more “green” hotels to choose from while on the road.
“As a business traveler, what I want most is a modem hook-up that works, not a little bottle of peach shampoo. Hotels could do so much to reduce their waste without reducing their service.”
That message has been getting out to hotels. In fact making hotels environmentally friendly is emerging as the latest trend in the hospitality industry. And Canada is on the leading edge. Witness the following recent developments:
- The Hotel Association of Canada recently launched its “Eco-rating” program, the first of its kind in the world. Like stars given for luxury, eco-rating will give from one to four “green leaves” to hotels that have environmental policies and programs in operation.
- Canadian Pacific Hotels, one of the world leaders in environmental programs, has announced the next phase of its “Green Partnerships” by introducing plans for industrial composting to its kitchens, the availability of no-waste “green conferences” and environmentally friendly golf-course management to its chain of 26 hotels
- B.C. Hydro, in conjunction with the B.C. and Yukon Hotel Association, launched a “green Hotel” accreditation program in November, 1996. Today, 16 hotels in British Columbia have undergone a B.C. Hydro inspection and have in place programs and equipment to reduce energy consumption, conserve water and reduce waste, earning them the designation “power Smart Green Hotel,” which they can advertise and promote to customers.
In short, many hotels are realizing that not only is a “green” hotel good for the environment, it can be good for business by reducing operating costs and promoting efficiency while attracting customers.
“That is the great thing about – everybody benefits,” says Ann Layton, vice-president of communications at Canadian Pacific Hotels, which since 1990 has been putting environmental practices in all 26 of its hotels, including making changes to lighting, toilets and taps, introducing environmentally friendly cleaning products and putting recycling boxes in every room, as well as donating excess soap, worn linens and unused food to charitable organizations.
A 1995 retrofit of the Banff Springs Hotel, for example, introduced energy-efficient lighting in 95 per cent of the hotel, which has reduced electricity costs by $140,000 a year. No complaints were received from guests about a change in ambience or light quality. In fact, guests didn’t even seem to notice, Ms. Layton says.
Elsewhere, the Sheraton Centre Toronto, operated by ITT Sheraton, modified the toilets in its 1,400 rooms to reduce the flushing volume by two litres per flush and now saves 35,000 litres of water daily on the estimated 17,000 flushes that occur each day in the hotel and meeting areas.
“We tried it out on the Club Floor first, because those are some of our most discriminating customers and we didn’t want to do it for the whole hotel if quality was going to be affected,” says Cynthia Bond, spokeswoman for Sheraton Centre. “No one complained and we are saving thousands of litres a day.”
It is now common in many hotels for guests to be given the option of keeping their towels rather than laundering them if they are staying more than one night. Hotels with this program report about 45 per cent of guests keep one or more towels by hanging them up rather than throwing them in the tub.
“It could probably be higher, but our housekeeping staff, if they have any doubt, changes the towels,” Ms. Layton says. “Still the reduction in laundry is significant.”
Eight years ago, when CP Hotels first surveyed its 10,000 employees about putting environmental policies in place, 95 per cent said they wanted hotels to go green and 85 per cent said they would even be willing to work harder without compensation to make it happen. With that mandate, CP Hotels drafted a 16-point action plan to target areas of highest concern to employees: waste reduction and recycling, water and energy conservation, green purchasing, and the elimination of toxic chemicals in the workplace, Ms. Layton says.
Extra Staff effort, at times, was indeed needed. At Hotel Newfoundland in St. John’s, no community recycling program at first was available, so staff negotiated with the local liquor control board to drop off hundreds of wine and spirit bottles at liquor stores for reuse by home wine makers.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Sprays, Disinfectants Might Increase the Risk of Asthma
According to TopNews.us, cleaning sprays utilized around the house and office is stimulating an increase in asthma, a health specialist cautioned.
Chlorine, bleach and antiseptics can ignite the situation or make present symptoms shoddier, with putting cleaners and health employees, who make use of products in hospitals at maximum risk. Inhalation in bleach and disinfectants more than once a week, was related to a 20 percent increase in asthma or wheezing.
Dr. Jan Paul Zock, of the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona, supported earlier studies. He said that their research reveals that cleaning-connected asthma is a public health problem and is potentially avoidable. Paul added, “Not only are those whose work involves cleaning at risk, but we also need to consider the ubiquitous use of products at home". He said that additional studies were required on household exposure.
Dr. Elaine Vickers of Asthma UK said that it is essential to keep windows open when cleaning, use products carefully and if feasible, make use of natural options.
The London allergy convention also discussed that it might be viable to avoid asthma in babies at high risk by keeping away from dairy, soya and nuts.
Measures were also executed to restrict exposure to dust mites, together with dozing off on vinyl covers.
Article taken from Top News.US via CleanLink. June 7, 2010
Written by: Jayden Roberts
Chlorine, bleach and antiseptics can ignite the situation or make present symptoms shoddier, with putting cleaners and health employees, who make use of products in hospitals at maximum risk. Inhalation in bleach and disinfectants more than once a week, was related to a 20 percent increase in asthma or wheezing.
Dr. Jan Paul Zock, of the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona, supported earlier studies. He said that their research reveals that cleaning-connected asthma is a public health problem and is potentially avoidable. Paul added, “Not only are those whose work involves cleaning at risk, but we also need to consider the ubiquitous use of products at home". He said that additional studies were required on household exposure.
Dr. Elaine Vickers of Asthma UK said that it is essential to keep windows open when cleaning, use products carefully and if feasible, make use of natural options.
The London allergy convention also discussed that it might be viable to avoid asthma in babies at high risk by keeping away from dairy, soya and nuts.
Measures were also executed to restrict exposure to dust mites, together with dozing off on vinyl covers.
Article taken from Top News.US via CleanLink. June 7, 2010
Written by: Jayden Roberts
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Cleaning With Water - Electrolyzed water and steam vapor systems allow end users to clean without chemicals
Article from Sanitary Maitenance via Cleanlink.
By Nick Bragg, Deputy Editor
Steam Cleaning
Another example of chemical-free floor cleaning is steam cleaning, a process that heats tap water to 300 degrees and creates a gas vapor. This method isn’t new, but has been growing in popularity during the last five years.
With steam cleaning, end users are able to penetrate the pores of any surface in their respective facilities. As the vapor enters into the pore, it expands and forces all the dirt from the bottom of the surface up to the top.
Cleaning professionals use these machines to clean and restore a variety of naturally hard surfaces, including tile, stone, marble, granite and hardwood floors, says Gosson.
The process is quite simple. Because water has an ability to hold energy, steam is a very efficient vehicle for transmitting heat energy to a surface. The transfer disrupts the bonds holding the dirt to surfaces and, in many cases, liquefies the soil itself, making it easier for removal and the surface is disinfected.
Steam systems are especially effective on irregular, uneven or textured surfaces, distributors say. Since steam penetrates pores that many chemicals and abrasive cleaners cannot, it is a thorough, reliable means of surface disinfection.
The fact that end users can achieve these results using tap water also frees them from any concerns related to chemical safety. With training, labor costs are equal to or less than conventional methods, and results last longer because no chemical residue remains on the surface of the floor, says Gosson.
Cleaning professionals are no longer exposed to potentially corrosive or allergenic compounds that may be found in traditional chemical disinfectants. Thus, Gosson says the technology presents an opportunity to improve and enhance disinfection programs in a variety of settings, while also reducing costs and greatly improving indoor air quality and the health of building occupants.
Despite the benefits for end users, distributors say the chemical-free market has not been fully tapped yet. Because budget constraints have hit end users hard during this current recession, many companies cannot indulge in these high-ticket items. However, distributors say their customers have expressed interest and are expected to take the leap sooner than later.
By Nick Bragg, Deputy Editor
Steam Cleaning
Another example of chemical-free floor cleaning is steam cleaning, a process that heats tap water to 300 degrees and creates a gas vapor. This method isn’t new, but has been growing in popularity during the last five years.
With steam cleaning, end users are able to penetrate the pores of any surface in their respective facilities. As the vapor enters into the pore, it expands and forces all the dirt from the bottom of the surface up to the top.
Cleaning professionals use these machines to clean and restore a variety of naturally hard surfaces, including tile, stone, marble, granite and hardwood floors, says Gosson.
The process is quite simple. Because water has an ability to hold energy, steam is a very efficient vehicle for transmitting heat energy to a surface. The transfer disrupts the bonds holding the dirt to surfaces and, in many cases, liquefies the soil itself, making it easier for removal and the surface is disinfected.
Steam systems are especially effective on irregular, uneven or textured surfaces, distributors say. Since steam penetrates pores that many chemicals and abrasive cleaners cannot, it is a thorough, reliable means of surface disinfection.
The fact that end users can achieve these results using tap water also frees them from any concerns related to chemical safety. With training, labor costs are equal to or less than conventional methods, and results last longer because no chemical residue remains on the surface of the floor, says Gosson.
Cleaning professionals are no longer exposed to potentially corrosive or allergenic compounds that may be found in traditional chemical disinfectants. Thus, Gosson says the technology presents an opportunity to improve and enhance disinfection programs in a variety of settings, while also reducing costs and greatly improving indoor air quality and the health of building occupants.
Despite the benefits for end users, distributors say the chemical-free market has not been fully tapped yet. Because budget constraints have hit end users hard during this current recession, many companies cannot indulge in these high-ticket items. However, distributors say their customers have expressed interest and are expected to take the leap sooner than later.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Cleaning To Blame For C-diff Outbreak
According to the Nanaimo Daily News, infection-control experts with the Vancouver Island Health Authority largely blamed inadequate housekeeping practices for the deadly 2008 outbreak of Clostridium difficile at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.
Documents previously withheld by VIHA and obtained this week by the Nanaimo Daily News through the Freedom of Information Act show health officials knew by July 2008 that the virus, which first appeared at NRGH in April of that year, rapidly spread to five different hospital floors because of inadequate cleaning. Personal contact was an issue, but "housekeeping is really the biggest problem," the documents reveal.
Some members of the public questioned the effectiveness of the private housekeeping contractor, Compass Group Canada, but VIHA signed a second five-year contract in 2009. This time, however, the health authority created an escape clause that allowed health officials to retender the contract at any time. VIHA announced this week that it is looking for another private company to take over the housekeeping and food services for Island hospitals and residential care facilities.
Compass and its subsidiaries have held the Island contracts for six years, during which time hospitals had regular infection outbreaks, failed housekeeping audits and damaging WorkSafe B.C. inspections. This led VIHA to explore other options, according to Joe Murphy, vice-president of operations and support services.
"We need to find a provider to consistently hit quality standards that are written into the contract and that we would expect everywhere in the province," he said.
Other factors led to the spread of C. difficile in 2008, including overcrowding, but improper cleaning methods and insufficient cleaner strength had a significant effect in the 11-month outbreak that began in 2008 and infected 94 people.
Article Taken From "Cleanlink News" May 21, 2010
Documents previously withheld by VIHA and obtained this week by the Nanaimo Daily News through the Freedom of Information Act show health officials knew by July 2008 that the virus, which first appeared at NRGH in April of that year, rapidly spread to five different hospital floors because of inadequate cleaning. Personal contact was an issue, but "housekeeping is really the biggest problem," the documents reveal.
Some members of the public questioned the effectiveness of the private housekeeping contractor, Compass Group Canada, but VIHA signed a second five-year contract in 2009. This time, however, the health authority created an escape clause that allowed health officials to retender the contract at any time. VIHA announced this week that it is looking for another private company to take over the housekeeping and food services for Island hospitals and residential care facilities.
Compass and its subsidiaries have held the Island contracts for six years, during which time hospitals had regular infection outbreaks, failed housekeeping audits and damaging WorkSafe B.C. inspections. This led VIHA to explore other options, according to Joe Murphy, vice-president of operations and support services.
"We need to find a provider to consistently hit quality standards that are written into the contract and that we would expect everywhere in the province," he said.
Other factors led to the spread of C. difficile in 2008, including overcrowding, but improper cleaning methods and insufficient cleaner strength had a significant effect in the 11-month outbreak that began in 2008 and infected 94 people.
Article Taken From "Cleanlink News" May 21, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
INFORMATION REGARDING BEST PRACTICE GUIDELINES AND STEAM VAPOUR CLEANING
INFORMATION REGARDING BEST PRACTICE GUIDELINES AND STEAM VAPOUR CLEANING
In a continued effort to provide the best and most responsible practices to the Healthcare industry, the Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee (PIDAC) has recently released the Best Practices for Environmental Cleaning for Prevention and Control of Infections. The latest updated document - December 2009, provides guidelines and recommendations for cleaning the environmental surfaces in a healthcare setting. In addition to practices recognized as effective and traditional, this document includes a Section (6.4) on New and Evolving Technologies in an effort to provide those entrusted with the maintenance of facilites with a tool set to most effectively achieve the best results.
With regards to New and Evolving Technolgies, the recommendations concerning implementation can be summarized as follows:
In a continued effort to provide the best and most responsible practices to the Healthcare industry, the Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee (PIDAC) has recently released the Best Practices for Environmental Cleaning for Prevention and Control of Infections. The latest updated document - December 2009, provides guidelines and recommendations for cleaning the environmental surfaces in a healthcare setting. In addition to practices recognized as effective and traditional, this document includes a Section (6.4) on New and Evolving Technologies in an effort to provide those entrusted with the maintenance of facilites with a tool set to most effectively achieve the best results.
With regards to New and Evolving Technolgies, the recommendations concerning implementation can be summarized as follows:
- Efficacy of New Product versus Current Method
- Ease to Implement New Technology in the Healthcare Setting
- Is the New Technology Non-Toxic
- Are there any resulting effects on patient care from implementing the New Technology
- Is the New Technology Ergonomic, Safe for Staff Use and in compliance with Occupational Health and Safety requirements
- Cost Implications of implementing New Technolgy
The PIDAC document reinforces the importance of involving all areas - Infection Prevention and Control, Environmental Services and Occupational Health and Safety - in all decision making processes relating to changes in cleaning and disinfection procedures and products.
Part D of Section 6.4 follows:
Reference 160 cites the study in the American Journal of Infection Control, performed with a portable steam vapour cleaning system equipped with the TANCS disinfection system. TANCS offers lab proven performance against C.diff spores, MRSA, VRE and more.
Using the tools supplied with a steam vapour cleaning system equipped with TANCS, cracks, crevices, large surfaces (vertical and horizontal), soft and hard surfaces and equipment can be cleaned and disinfected in one step.
Table 1 in the document lists the items found to harbour microorganisms in the Healthcare Environment. The use of steam on these items will disrupt the transmission of microorganisms. Eliminating the need for dwell time on bed frames, bed rails, door and faucet handles combined with the unique ability of steam to reach areas such as bed frames, all areas of overbed tables, crevices in hoist/lift and slings, mattressess, sink drains, and hinges on toilet seats and commode chairs provides the opportunity for a thorough clean and disinfection.
The process of cleaning with steam eliminates several concerns addressed in the document associated with chemical methods:
- Dilution ratios
- Dwell times
- The need to appropriatley label and safely store cleaning chemicals
- Risk of contamination, inhalation, skin contact or personal injury
- Requirement for MSDS and WHIMIS Training
- The belief that no one product is compatible with all surfaces or effective against all viruses, bacteria, fungi and spores.
- Effectiveness at varying temperatures
- Irritant and allergy concerns
- Reactions with other chemical products existing on surfaces
- Environmental Responsibility
- Requirement for automated dispensing systems
- The need for pre-cleaning prior to disinfection
The use of this broad spectrum cleaning method also aids in the ability to improve the accuracy of a visual assessment to measure cleanliness. When steam is used to provide a visibly clean surface, the heat transfer associated ensures removal of residues (organic or inorganic).
Box 16 offers a sample procedure for room cleaning. All critera are met with a steam vapour cleaning system, including the following concerns:
- Eliminate ‘double-dip’ concerns
- Eliminate need to monitor cloth saturation
- Perform tasks such as tape removal, stain removal and glass cleaning with one tool
- Refresh privacy curtains
- Perform bed and mattress cleaning and pest control without a prolonged bed drying time
- Clean bathroom and shower
- Clean floors
Box 19 is another example of tasks made easier and safer with a steam vapour system:
- No need for cleaning solution, PPE or MSDS
- No wet floor is created with steam
- Avoid repetitive action of wringing out mop
- Eliminate concern over splashed walls and furniture
- No need to change mop head
- No need to monitor cleaning solution in bucket.
Box 30 is the Sample Procedure for VRE Situations - again made simpler and more efficient and thorough using a steam vapour cleaning system.
Within the document, many disadvantages and comments are presented to provide an unbiased and thorough evaluation, allowing for best informed decisions and best practices to be followed in our Healthcare system. The disadvantages of all chemical applications are listed, and should be evaluated. The use of tap water to create steam vapour continues to be the most environmentally responsible and broad spectrum cleaning option available. Lab reports and clinical trial updates are available upon request to verify the efficacy of steam vapour in Healthcare settings.
Further information is available from the writer.
Elle Dietrich
Intersteam Technologies
1-800-281-4413
www.intersteam.com
elle@intersteam.com
Article taken from PIDAC "Best Practices for Environmental Cleaning for Prevention and Control of Infections" December 2009.
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