Healthy schools NEED kid safe cleaning products! Schools are safe, right? Not necessarily. As more and more precautions are implemented in every school with regards to who has contact with the kids and what can and cannot be brought onto campus, there are invisible dangers that are often ignored, including the cleaners used in the schools. The traditional commercial cleaning products used to clean most schools are decidedly NOT kid safe and the impact can be devastating.
While much attention is paid to outdoor air pollution, the National Human Activity Pattern Survey American Lung Association has found we spend the vast majority of our time (87 percent) indoors, at home and at school. Indoor air is often more polluted than outdoor air. Cleaning products that are not kid safe generate some of that pollution.
Research shows a clear link between poor indoor air quality, sick students and teachers and poor academic and occupational performance. Children miss millions of school days each year due to asthma exacerbated by poor indoor air quality in their schools. Some of this is the lack of kid safe cleaning products.
Couple this with the increasing amount of allergies and chemical sensitivities that our kids develop. This invisible problem is larger than we realize. (I still cringe when a customer told me of his daughter who would come home from school smelling like bleach!)
As if this is not enough to require the use of only kid safe cleaning products in the schools, additional health concerns arise with regard to teaching and custodial staff, especially women of child-bearing age, in using the traditional, toxic, petrochemical based janitorial cleaning supplies.
Fortunately the Healthy Schools Campaign is underway! In fact, many states have now enacted some form of a Green Clean Schools Act that requires or encourages the use of environmentally sensitive and kid safe cleaning products and maintenance supplies in schools. As a part of these programs it is paramount to understand what green janitorial supplies are available and which are best to use around children.
Using those green janitorial supplies have received an independent third party certification, such as EcoLogo, Green Seal and/or EPA’s Design for the Environment (DfE) will ensure a kid safe cleaning product is in use. Green Cleaning Products LLC provides green janitorial supplies with each of these certifications.
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