In today's diverse market, the cleaning industry is faced with the challenge of balancing two important goals: 1) Creating effective cleaning products and processes for a wide variety of applications, while protecting public health, and 2) not adding pollutants into our environment. While manufacturers are under pressure to create "green" products for today's market place with reduced environmental impact on our natural resources, facility managers and consumers are particularly concerned about the impact of cleaning chemicals and their impact on the air within our buildings. Cleaning chemicals, in particular, have been identified as sources of volatile organic compound (VOC) and particulate emissions, which can contribute to poor indoor air quality and trigger allergy and asthma attacks.
 
"Manufacturers, building owners, facility managers, and commercial cleaning companies have made significant and commendable progress in recent years in their efforts to maintain healthier indoor environments through environmentally friendly cleaning products and deep cleaning processes. However, results of indoor air quality tests in today's environments, particularly schools and homes, show that VOCs associated with cleaning chemicals are prevalent in the air," said Tony Worthan, president of Air Quality Sciences (AQS).

A new AQS report, "Cleaning Chemicals and Their Impact on Indoor Environments and Health," looks at the health impacts associated with cleaning products and systems, especially chemicals and particulate emissions that can be inhaled. It also discusses the importance of cleaning products in the green building movement and examines the various third party certification programs that are used to ensure products are safe for both the outdoor and indoor environments. Technologies for testing cleaning products for chemical emissions and evaluating potential health risks are highlighted.

In particular, the report describes a new testing methodology that gives cleaning product manufacturers a clear advantage for demonstrating that their products are safe and effective. This method uses environmental chamber technology, the most reliable and scientifically proven way to test for VOC emissions and product performance, and for testing and monitoring VOC emissions to ensure products emit low levels of VOCs. This test method also allows a product to produce VOC emissions similar to the way the product would emit in a home, office, or school. In other words, this new test method provides real world data that can then be mathematically modeled to determine exposure concentrations produced by a product application in many different indoor environments.

"Air Quality Sciences helps manufacturers understand the sources of VOCs and other contaminants emitted from their products and recommends methods for altering processes or materials to achieve acceptable emissions levels. This is important, because results of AQS studies indicate that 'green' does not guarantee that a product or its application process will emit low levels of VOCs. The benefits for manufacturers include more effective, safer products that appeal to growing green markets, reduced product liability, and increased ability to differentiate offerings," Mr. Worthan said. This research report is available free of charge from the Aerias-AQS IAQ Resource Center website, under Premium Content (www.aerias.org).

Air Quality Sciences, Inc. is a fully integrated indoor air quality (IAQ) company that provides solutions to create healthy indoor environments and avoid potentially dangerous indoor pollution.