“Go Green and Reduce your Carbon Footprint” these are phrases we are seeing everywhere. When I see that a company has “gone green” I immediately think of them as taking the time to go an extra step to ensure that their employees and the environment around them are really taken care of. In a recent article in Facility Safety Management Magazine, Mike Sawchuk writes about how “Green Cleaning” is a part of “Going Green” and how it can affect employee health as well as environmental health. He talks about the process a company must take in order to implement a green cleaning program.

I did not realize that traditional cleaning solutions and methods can affect worker health by way of indoor air quality. The article mentions that The American Lung Association states 14.5 million work days are missed each year due to asthma which can be triggered by poor indoor air quality. The article also mentions that the Center for Disease Control have calculated that an average of 4 days a year are missed because of sinus infections. Poor indoor air quality can also be associated with sinus infections. These statistics surprised me.

But can indoor air quality be made better just by switching to “green” cleaning products; products that do not contain all of the heavy metals, fumes, carcinogens and irritants that traditional cleaning products have in them? Mike Sawchuk also addresses how proper cleaning procedures must be part of a green cleaning program. Procedures for cleaning specific equipment and highly work volatile areas must be set in place. This not only helps keep a plant running smoothly but is a very efficient way to insure that proper indoor air quality is achieved.

This article made me not only think about how proper green cleaning can affect workers and employees within a facility, but how green products may be better in my home. I was surprised to see an advertisement for a cleaning product that contained soy and corn based solvents, and I am going to make it a point to look for more green cleaning products for personal use.

Sawchuk, Mike. “Green Cleaning: One Component of Worker Health.” Facility Safety Magazine March 2009: 42-45

Filed under: Workplace Safety by Beth Faraci