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.

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.

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.”

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.' "

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.”

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

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.