Environmentally Preferable Purchasing: Janitorial Products

1. Environmentally Preferable Purchasing:Janitorial Products Wendi ShafirUSEPA Region 9

2. Take Home Message • First Promote Worker Safety • Use a defensible methodology to identify preferable products • Implement Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) into contracting language; educate your Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) and suppliers

3. Environmentally Preferable PurchasingWhat does it mean? Janitorial Products Buildings Carpets Food Packaging Electronics

4. “Green” Product Considerations • Manufacturing resource use • Energy consumption • Disposal/reuse/recycling considerations • Social impacts • More…

5. Environmentally Preferable PurchasingWhy Cleaning Products? Environment Chemical Products Custodial Staff Hospital Occupants

6. Environmentally Preferable PurchasingWhy Cleaning Products? • Asthma risk • Occupational skin/eye injuries • Indoor Air quality issues • Training/Worker protection costs • Patient and staff comfort • 35% of cleaning chemicals can cause blindness, severe skin damage or damage to organs through skin. • 6% are linked to cancer, ozone depletion or global warming

7. Environmentally Preferable PurchasingWhy Janitorial Products? • Institutional/commercial cleaning is a $100+ billion industry. • Institutional/commercial cleaning industry uses roughly 6 to 8 billion pounds of cleaning products. • Cleaning industry employs 2 to 3 million janitors; but due to very high turn-over, more are exposed. • Most people spend more than 90 percent of their time indoors. The Center for a New American Dream

8. Janitorial data: • 54.5 lbs/janitor • 6.1 lbs/1000 sq feet Building maintenance data: • 17.7 lbs/year • 6.6 lbs/1000 sq feet Annual Baseline Worker Chemical Exposure Data City and County of San Francisco, Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program Data

9. Annual Janitorial Injuries For every 100 workers: 6 Chemical accidents per year • 3 eye injuries • 2 skin injuries • 1 inhalation/other

10. Metal cleaner Metal cleaner Step 1:What Products Are Used the Most? Glass cleaners Toilet bowl cleaner, deodorizers, disinfectants Wood polish Disinfectants and General Purpose Cleaners Hard floor cleaners, strippers, and finishes Carpet cleaners

11. Over 4,500 gallons of cleaning products Over 1,500 gallons of floor cleaners Step 1:What Products Are Used the Most?

12. Step 2:Location/Extent of Use Considerations • One location? Throughout facility? • Who is using it? All janitorial staff? • How many people are exposed? Patients? Staff?

13. Step 3:Potential Exposure • Aerosol sprays • Impacts to indoor air quality • User inhalation exposure • Chronic exposure concerns • Carcinogens • Neurotoxins • Dermatitis • Acute exposure concerns • Corrosives

14. Top 5 Janitorial Product Types for which Hospitals Should Purchase Environmentally Preferable Products General Purpose Cleaners Disinfectants Glass Cleaners Toilet Bowl Cleaners Metal Cleaners

15. VOCs Less than 10% General Purpose Cleaners • Frequent use, exposure concerns for janitorial staff and building tenants • Avoid products that contain butoxyethanol, petroleum distillates (light naptha), or other highly toxic ingredients

16. Clean? Disinfect? Never compromise infection control Remember Surface Cleaning required prior to disinfection Consider separate vs. combo product Training – more product not always better

17. Disinfectants • Concerns about general use of antimicrobials • Potential for causing antimicrobial resistance • Unknown long term consequences of its use • Consider using comprehensive product evaluation criteria when selecting disinfectant products

18. VOCs Less than 6% Choosing Environmentally Preferable Glass Cleaners • Avoid glass cleaners that contain methanol or butoxyethanol • Look for low concentrations of isopropyl alcohol or ammonia (California Air Resources Board requirement as of 12/31/04).

19. Toilet Bowl Cleaner • Acidic products pose immediate risk to user • Look for products that do not contain strong acids, such as hydrochloric or phosphoric acid • Have a pH >2 and <12 • Routinely use non-acid bowl cleaner, only using acid bowl cleaners for periodic deep cleaning

20. Metal Cleaner • Exposure concerns for janitorial staff and building tenants • Look for products that do not contain perchloroethylene (PERC), n-metyl pyrolidone (NMP), hexane, butoxyethanol, and light petroleum distillates (light naptha)

21. Contract Language and RFPs • Build environmental and health and safety criteria into purchasing contracts and RFPs • City of Seattle http://www.seattle.gov/environment/Documents/JanitorialSpecs.pdf

22. EP3: Cost Considerations City and County of San Francisco EP3 Program Results

23. How to Find Products • San Francisco Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Approved Green Products: http://www.sfenvironment.org/our_programs/topics.html?ssi=9&ti=22 • Green Purchasing (HCWH) http://www.noharm.org/global/issues/purchasing/resources.php • Ask your GPO

24. Discussion: Who has implemented Greener Cleaning? • Why? • Costs, benefits? • Challenges? • Advice?

25. Take Home Message • First Promote Worker Safety • Use a defensible methodology to identify preferable products • Implement EPP into contracting language; educate your GPOs and suppliers

26. Questions

27. Other EPP Resources EPA http://www.epa.gov/epp/pubs/products/cleaning.htm Practice GreenHealth http://cms.h2e-online.org/ee/facilities/greencleaning/ Healthcare Without Harm www.noharm.org/greenPurchasing/eppPolicies Green Seal www.greenseal.org

28. Other EPP Resources Sustainable Hospitals Project www.sustainablehospitals.org/cgi-bin/DB_Index.cgi INFORM Cleaning for Health – Products and Practices for a Safer Indoor Environment (INFORM): http://www.informinc.org/toolkit.php shafir.wendi@epa.gov 415-972-3422 http://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/p2/hospart.html