Health Issues Underfoot

Carpet is both an ally and an enemy to indoor air quality (IAQ). Distributors are wise to know both sides of the issue in order to best help their customers clean safely and effectively. As is often the case with IAQ, what seems invisible in carpet care can end up being a big issue.

“On the one hand, carpet is an excellent ‘sink,’ or reservoir, that captures the fine particles,” says Stephen Ashkin, an environmental business consultant as well as a board member for the U.S. Green Building Council. “When there is no carpet, people walk across the floor and stir up the dust particles. So carpet can actually have a very positive effect on IAQ levels.”

But carpet can negatively affect IAQ levels when it is not properly maintained. The carpet is only able to hold particulates up to a point. After that, the particles are released into the air, and the carpet itself can be worn out quickly.

IAQ has become a concern for building managers in recent years. And it looks like it’s not going to go away anytime soon, according to George Benda, editor-in-chief of INvironment Professional, the environmental newsletter published by Chelsea Group, Itasca, Ill.

“All of our indicators show us that even though general awareness has been at a very high level recently, the IAQ issue is still growing in importance and in people’s minds,” he says. “At some point, a carpet can no longer hold all the dirt that has been tracked into a building. The particles are then made airborne, and health officials are pointing to these particles as the cause for a variety of health problems.”

The Dirt on Carpet
The soil that is in a carpet can be divided into two categories, says Ruth Travis, vice chairperson of the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC). First, 79 percent of the soil in a carpet is vacuumable — small and loose enough to be removed when people do regular carpet cleaning. The other 21 percent is composed of oil-based soil that can be made up of bacteria, mold and other elements that need to be cleaned out separately.

Both kinds of soil can cause IAQ problems, but the vacuumable soil will eventually break into microscopic particles that can cause serious lung damage.

Each facility presents different IAQ concerns that influence the way the carpet needs to cleaned. In helping end users prevent indoor air pollution, distributors can provide their customers with measurable value. For example, schools are often victims of mold growth because of misguided carpet cleaning, says Benda.

“The No. 1 problem for schools, in regards to carpet care, is that they use large carpet-extraction machines at the end of the school year, and then they close all the doors and windows for the summer,” he says. “Theoretically, steam extraction doesn’t wet the carpet, but in actuality the carpet is gaining moisture. As the temperatures rise in the summer and the air is not circulating, that carpet can grow a forest of mold and fungi.”

Travis agrees that end users who leave carpets wet are asking for trouble. “Sometimes the schools think that they’re saving money by turning off the air-conditioning systems during school vacations,” she says. “It’s so important to have good air circulation or the carpet will be ruined quickly.”

Distributors can help their customers avoid mold problems by providing carpet blowers and other similar machines that increase air circulation. However, distributors need to help customers with more than just dirt and mold when it comes to carpet care, says Martin.

“This year, we’ve sold a lot of lead-vacs to contractors who are specializing in cleaning older buildings that originally had lead-based paint,” he says. Tiny particles from the paint create a kind of lead dust that affects the lungs similarly to breathing in asbestos. Manufacturers have started making lead-vacs that use HEPA filters, trapping particles as small as .03 microns.

“In most cases, the lead-vacs do a great job of removing any damaging lead particles that are in the carpet so they don’t get stirred up when there is foot traffic,” says Dan Martin, vice president of Janitor Equipment Co., a distributor in Springfield, Ohio. “I see a lot of similarities between what’s going on now with removing lead particles and what happened 10 years ago with the asbestos scare.”

Martin and Janitor Equipment Co. have also been able provide other carpet care resources to improve IAQ for customer facilities. Portable blowers, dehumidifiers (both for damp carpets), 2-ply paper filters, 4-ply paper filters, and mold-removing carpet chemicals all help end users maintain their buildings’ safety.

“The biggest issue is just making sure that the carpet is not hindering people’s health and wellness,” says Benda.

“These fine particles are so small that they get into people’s lungs and cause scarring,” says Travis. “It’s really no different than cigarette smoking. People with respiratory problems know that [IAQ] is a very real issue.”

The Right to Breathe
Federal and state lawmakers are even getting involved, enforcing IAQ standards, and offering incentives to businesses that find IAQ solutions.

In September 2002, California Governor Gray Davis signed a bill that requires the California Air Resources Board (CARB), to address public health issues regarding indoor air pollution. AB 1173 will, for the first time, require CARB to compile information on IAQ emissions, exposures and health effects and determine solutions to protect public health.

In January, federal legislators will reintroduce an important toxic mold bill, says Benda. The effects of raised IAQ standards are far-reaching and will likely influence several industries. The sanitary supply industry — from manufacturers developing better vacuum filters to distributors giving IAQ workshops — has found itself right in the thick of the IAQ dialogue, specifically in the area of carpet care and vacuum filters.

“There’s definitely been an increase in filtration systems over the past couple years,” says Martin. “Our company hasn’t had end users bring up complaints about how carpet cleaning is hurting the IAQ, but you can see the manufacturers making a commitment to products that remove fine particles of dust and bacteria.”

Increased IAQ awareness has led to a change in the product lines that distributors sell, according to Martin.

“In the old days, there really wasn’t any kind of filter on an upright standard sweeper or vacuum,” he says. “The only thing holding the dirt was the paper. You could actually see particles of dirt and bacteria escaping into the air. Now, there are so many different kinds of filtering systems. It’s really amazing how the industry focus has changed.”

Ashkin points out that filters remove much more than can be seen with the naked eye. “The particles are not just small pieces of rock,” he says. “They can be mold spores, pesticides, small insect parts, bacteria and host of other things.”

Preventative Solutions
Some industry consultants say that distributors shouldn’t wait for customers to express concern about air pollution in their facilities. Many end users are simply not aware of the need for IAQ-friendly carpet cleaning methods. Although manufacturers have already developed new product lines to improve IAQ levels, there is a wide-open door for new business that distributors have yet to take advantage of, says Ashkin.

“What has happened is that we have turned the carpet cleaning industry into a real commodity,” he says. “Unfortunately, I think that too many distributors are not investing in education. People are only thinking about how cheaply they can clean, and they’re not considering how thorough cleaning can be a good investment.”

If distributors convince customers that there is a carpet care-IAQ relationship, it will dramatically boost the demand for the industry’s goods and services, adds Ashkin. However, he concedes that getting distributors to focus on promoting green carpet solutions can be challenging.

“It’s understandable that if you have a sales representative who has 20 to 30 phone calls to make in a day, it’s easy for carpet care education to get lost in the shuffle.”

But when jan/san executives are exposed to concrete IAQ research, the data is difficult to ignore.

“There is so much research going into IAQ right now,” says Ashkin. “One study even shows that students may perform better when schools have cleaner air. The evidence is there to take this issue seriously.”