IAQ: Nothing to Sneeze At

Editor’s note — This is the first in a two-part series examining indoor air quality issues. Next month, find out how to financially justify cleaning for health.

For an issue that nobody knew about five years ago, indoor air quality (IAQ) seems to be getting a lot of attention these days — Students picketed in Philadelphia because of the toxic mold growing in their schools. Sick building syndrome has been discussed on major television newsmagazines. Office managers are starting to tout clean, healthy buildings as a job perk.

Cleaning contractors are becoming increasingly more aware of their role as not just beautifiers of buildings, but protectors of the occupants. “Cleaning for health” has become less of a buzzword, and more of a mantra in recent years.

There are contaminants in the building that affect people’s health and their productivity, explains

Stephen Ashkin, director of product development and environmental affairs for Seventh Generation Inc., Burlington, Vt.

“People complain of bad smells, or they sit at their desk and wonder if the smell is hurting their health,” says Ashkin. And occasionally, the smell or its source — dust, mold or chemicals — does hurt their health, leading to sick days, turnover and higher insurance costs.

The situation is even worse for children in schools, day-care centers and other similar settings, says Claire Barnett, executive director of the Healthy Schools Network, Albany, N.Y. That’s because children breathe more air per pound of body weight than adults do, so they get hit harder by inhaling toxins, she explains.

However, the very people entrusted with making buildings clean and safe places to work and learn may be unknowingly sabotaging the very environments they try to protect. And those who design, build and manage the facilities also may be unwitting accomplices.

Chemical confusion
One of the most well-known saboteurs of indoor-air quality is cleaning chemicals. Common ingredients in cleaning products, including solvents, fragrances and aerosol propellants, can impact IAQ.

Ashkin recommends BSCs stay away from petroleum distillates (often found in furniture polish); Barnett says keep fragrances, solvents and turpines to a minimum.

The much-maligned aerosol spray, too, should be avoided indoors if possible, says Ashkin. Although most aerosols no longer contain ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, they still can pose a risk to the indoor environment.

“The aerosol is a wonderful dispensing unit. When there’s a wasp nest in the playground, I’ll use an aerosol and stand 20 feet away,” Ashkin explains. In the outdoor environment, hydrocarbon propellants disperse quickly; but inside the building, they linger.

Most cleaning chemicals can be dispensed using a trigger spray without propellants, he points out.

In addition to replacing aerosols with trigger sprays, BSCs can try to find less-toxic chemicals. Barnett advises BSCs to check material safety data sheets (MSDS) carefully, and to select products with a “1” or (preferably) “0” rating under “health,” and to check out the health-hazard data for specific effects.

And chemicals made deliberately with health and environmental protection in mind — “green” chemicals — are becoming more and more available, says Barnett.
Of course, BSCs in low-bid, low-margin situations might balk at adding IAQ-friendly chemicals, but Ashkin says many don’t cost much more than their more polluting counterparts.

“In the janitorial industry, 80 to 90 percent of the cost is labor,” Ashkin says. “IAQ-friendly isn’t necessarily more labor-intensive.”

However, Chris Steele, manager of the toxicology group for NSF International, Ann Arbor, Mich, isn’t so sure about that.
“Some of them [green chemicals] work very well. Others don’t,” he explains. “It may take significantly more labor, or significantly more of the chemical itself, to get the job done properly.”

Beyond choosing specially formulated chemicals, BSCs also must make sure they use these and any other products correctly.

“Assuming you have control over the products you use, make sure you have knowledge of how to use the product properly, as well as the consequences for misuse,” says Steele.

Most products, even those with organic solvents or other volatile organic compounds (VOCs), are formulated to balance effectiveness with safety. However, if the products are used improperly, the toxicity increases, usually without any improvement in performance.

“It’s the dose that makes them poisons,” Steele explains. “Even water can be poisonous in high quantities.”

For example, any chemical that comes in a concentrate form — floor finish, bowl sanitizer, glass cleaner — is supposed to be diluted with a precise amount of water. Sometimes, janitors believe that if the proper concentration of a chemical is good, more is better — but more often causes fumes and even chemical burns.

And, of course, using more of a chemical means more odors and fumes disperse into the air, and more compounds end up in the drain and in the water supply.

Know your job
Part of IAQ abatement is knowing how to clean.

Improper cleaning also can have a cascade effect, says Barnett. For instance, if a bathroom isn’t cleaned often enough, odors build up. Contractors may try to use a lot of deodorizers in the restroom to cover up the odors, but some people are extremely sensitive to perfumes. Some odor-control products can be poisonous if concentrated and inhaled.

Also, if you don’t know how to perform a procedure, don’t accept the job, especially if it involves removing water, sewage or other restoration work, says Mac Pearce, an environmental health consultant based in St. Paul, Minn.

“Know what you can and can’t do,” he advises. Don’t take on any job you’re not comfortable doing, and don’t let a facility manager pressure you into performing water restoration or sewage extraction unless you’re qualified.

For instance, when sewage backs up into a building, some insurance adjusters tend to focus on cost containment more than on proper repairs, Pearce says. The adjusters might ask a contractor to try to clean sewage out of carpets instead of ripping out and replacing the carpet. It is impossible, he says, to fully remove sewage that way. Instead, it allows microbes, mold and mildew to grow.

More importantly, if someone in the building suffers an ill health effect from the mold, BSCs may be liable for performing an improper procedure — even if the customer or insurance company told them to do it.

Nix the dust
Chemicals often enter the indoor environment artificially, but dust — a known allergen — occurs naturally from normal activity.

“When people dust, they tend to move dirt from one place to another instead of removing it,” Ashkin says. He suggests replacing feather dusters with microfiber cloths, which trap dust better.

For the dust on the floor, pay attention to vacuum selection. Some vacuums, says Ashkin, are not well constructed, and allow small particles to leak back into the air.

Choose a well constructed vacuum with microfiltration, he suggests. However, true HEPA filters aren’t needed for most applications; some other filters capture almost as many small particles, and don’t cost as much. Vacuum distributors can help sort out available filters.

Also, some cleaning procedures, such as floor refinishing, create dust. Although the dust may not be avoidable, take precautions to avoid exposing building occupants to the dust. Make sure the building is as empty as possible, and use dust barriers, such as plastic sheets, to isolate the work area from the rest of the building.

For schools, Barnett suggests only performing refinishing work during school breaks. Also, since any dust that affects the building occupants also will affect the workers, make sure all cleaners wear proper dust masks or other respiratory protection when refinishing floors.

Bad buildings
Possibly the most frustrating contributors to poor IAQ are issues concerning building construction itself. These are things that can’t be changed without significant renovations to the structure itself, but reducing the risks still may fall on BSCs’ shoulders.

“The main forces in building construction today are quick and cheap,” Pearce explains. “The building looks like brick, but that’s usually just a veneer.”

In the past, builders used quality materials such as wood, brick and plaster and took ample time to construct the building. But in the 1970s, Pearce explains, builders began to take the quick-and-cheap route, using inferior materials and cutting corners procedurally, by hanging drywall before the concrete has time to cure, which sets up a moisture problem almost immediately. Proper drainage wasn’t installed, causing window assemblies to leak and drain into the walls. Water also could wick through the brick veneer and become trapped.

“The problem is that a thimbleful of water on a piece of sheetrock can make it grow mold,” Pearce explains.

Many mold strains, including common penicillium, aspergillus and cladosporium, are at least mildly toxic when inhaled. And unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to detect the mold in the walls until there’s a renovation, fire, flood or someone gets sick.

To minimize the risk, moisture management is key. While contractors can’t change the building drainage, there are some things they can do to help keep moisture to a minimum.

Vacuum carpets often to keep them clean, so they don’t need extraction as frequently, says Pearce. He also recommends seeking out the driest possible methods of carpet cleaning to prevent fibers from staying wet.

Also, BSCs should keep an eye on the windows, especially during the winter. There should be no moisture accumulation on the glass, Pearce says. While contractors can wipe up the water to help prevent an immediate problem, they should try to find the cause of the problem

Often, that accumulation comes from water gravitating from the less-dry interior to the dry exterior of the building. Often, the culprit is a building humidifier. Sometimes, in the name of comfort to the building occupants, they’re set too high for the facility. The EPA recommends keeping buildings at 30 to 60 percent humidity; Pearce suggests setting the humidistat even lower.

Need to vent
Ventilation is another common contributor to IAQ problems. Some buildings may have inadequate ventilation, while others have the infrastructure, but managers don’t know how to use it.

“Many facilities are run on timer ventilation,” Susan Womble, a director in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s indoor air department, explains. “At 6 p.m., the ventilation is turned off. If you’re cleaning at night, products will be used without ventilation until morning.”

Overnight, chemicals can be absorbed into porous surfaces, such as carpet, upholstery and cubicle walls. When the ventilation is turned back on, the products are released back into the air, she says.

“Improving ventilation can be as simple as opening some windows, keeping the door open or using a fan — none of which are very expensive,” says Ashkin. Also, make sure to notify the building manager that the HVAC may not be working properly or needs to be set for different on-and-off times.

Failing that, Ashkin suggests using the “stream” setting, rather than the “mist” setting, on a trigger-spray bottle, to more accurately direct the spray and reduce the amount of chemical released into the breathing zone.

Poor ventilation also may lead to odor buildup.
“If the bathroom has no vent, it’ll smell bad, and the BSC will get blamed,” Ashkin says. “If the vent is working, and the bathroom is clean, there’s no odor, which eliminates the need for chemicals.”

People problems
Building occupants also contribute to indoor air quality in just about everything they do, says Ashkin. For instance, when an office worker changes a toner cartridge, often tiny particles of the toner compound are released into the air.

Even tracking in mud, soot and other contaminants from the outdoor environment can impact the air inside. Barnett suggests installing walk-off mats and waste receptacles at building entrances to keep as much dirt out of the building as possible.

BSCs can help by educating their customers on the need to keep the building clean. Often, if they know their health is at stake, employees will be more than happy to help, and building managers should agree.

“Large corporations, especially in a time of low unemployment, see a good environment as a competitive issue,” Ashkin says.

For instance, he suggests BSCs work with the building occupants to ensure spills are taken care of immediately, instead of left to linger.

“Often, when spills are wet, paper towels can pick them up,” he explains. However, if they dry, extra chemicals and time may be needed.

“Encourage the building occupants to call someone immediately if there’s a spill,” he says. BSCs also may be able to offer day-porter service to customers to help between overnights.

“All people who impact the building need to share responsibility for the solutions that make the building a healthier workspace,” Ashkin says.