According to some estimates, more than a third of the cleaning products used today to clean offices, schools, medical centers and homes contain ingredients that can have a negative impact on human health and the environment. Some of these ingredients include carcinogens, endocrine disrupters — which can alter human hormones — and skin, eye and respiratory irritants. All of these are associated with a variety of health problems including cancer, reproductive disorders and asthma.
Floor care products — which are some of the most powerful chemicals used in the industry — include many of these same ingredients. Not only are they potentially harmful to building occupants and the environment, they can be even more harmful to the facility service provider (FSP). In fact, six out of every 100 cleaning workers are injured on the job, and from 1993 through 1997, more than 12 percent of these work-related injuries involved floor care products.
Proper floor maintenance usually requires several cleaning chemicals and products. These include strippers to remove old floor finish, sealants and waxes to put a protective covering over the floor, cleaners and detergents for general cleaning and “deep scrubbing,” restorers for improving the shine and to prevent slips, trips and falls, as well as floor care equipment and pads.
Because so many of these products require specific cleaning procedures, many FSPs institute a floor care maintenance system, often in writing, to help keep track of what floor care cleaning tasks are to be completed. In order to “green” a floor care program, each part of this program may need to be examined.
A typical floor care program
The type of floor care program a facility incorporates depends on a variety factors such as how the building is used, the type of facility (school, hospital, etc.), the amount of foot traffic in the different areas, level of gloss/shine desired, weather, etc.
But at the heart of any floor care program is the finish, basically a plastic film that helps create a protective, attractive coating with an ultra-high gloss or “wet look.” Not only does it help improve the appearance of the floor, but it also helps shield it by making it more resistant to scuff marks, stains and spills.
Floor finishes are complex products made up of several ingredients that must work together properly for the finish to do its job. Among these ingredients are:
- Polymers for hardening the finish;
- Waxes for durability and shine;
- Solvents and plasticizers to help all the ingredients work together; and
- Several other components that help “level” the ingredients and make them more flexible as well as impact resistant.
If the finish is applied and allowed to dry and cure correctly, the floor can be buffed or high-speed burnished for several months — even years — maintaining the floor’s pleasing gloss. However, eventually it will wear or discolor, requiring it to be scrubbed or stripped, so that new finish may be applied.
Strippers break apart the bonds of the finish (film) and help suspend the finish so that it can be removed. If the floor is stripped manually, the stripper solution is mopped onto the floor in small areas at a time and allowed to sit on the finish for five to 10 minutes allowing the chemicals to their job. A floor machine with a stripping pad attached then goes over the area. The slurry of old finish and stripper solution is picked up with a wet vacuum. The area is rinsed, often twice, to remove any chemical residue or slurry missed by the vacuuming process.
The stripper may be made from amine (a chemical compound derived from ammonia) to attack the finish and break down its chemical ingredients. It may also have solvents that dissolve and re-liquefy the finish.
Half a century ago, ammonia mixed with water was often used to strip floors and is still used in some situations today. However, because it is such a powerful respiratory irritant and can react with other chemicals, it has generally been replaced with less harmful but still powerful amines.
Cleaners and detergents are used between stripping and refinishing the floor to help keep it clean. They are also used for machine scrubbing to remove the top-layer of film, surface soil, and debris on the floor without removing all of the finish. Restorers are similar to floor finishes and are either sprayed or mopped on the floor, usually followed by buffing or burnishing, to restore the floor’s shine.
But what’s really on the floor?
As mentioned earlier, floor care products are some of the most powerful and complex cleaning chemicals in the industry. “Because of this, it has taken chemical manufacturers more time to replace them with certified, environmentally preferable ingredients,” says Tom McArthur, director of technical services at Enviro-Solutions, manufacturer of certified-green cleaning products based in Peterborough, Canada. “The problem has been to find the right ingredients, in the right combination, that not only make floor care safer for the user and the environment but are as effective as traditional floor care products without increasing costs.”
According to McArthur, some of the chief concerns about traditional floor care products are that they include or produce:
Green alternatives
McArthur says that both Canada’s Environmental Choice Program and its sister organization, Green Seal in the United States, have begun certifying floor care chemicals. Certification that a floor care product is “green” verifies that it is made safer because of the type of ingredients used and/or the use of lesser amounts of certain ingredients. Also, the product’s performance is comparable or better than traditional floor care chemicals and products and cost competitive.
“When selecting floor finishes and strippers, if a user sees that the products have been certified, then these two independent organizations have done all the homework for the user,” says McArthur.
But he adds that moving to a certified-green floor product does not necessarily mean there is no potential harm in using the product: “It still must be used correctly and according to the manufacturer’s recommendations.”
In order to select more environmentally preferable floor care finishes and strippers, McArthur advises:
- Make sure the manufacturer lists all the ingredients in the products.
- Select products that do not contain carcinogens, reproductive toxins, zinc, or heavy metals.
- Make sure VOC concentration is under 7 percent at use dilution.
- Along with the chemicals mentioned earlier, make sure the products do not contain alkylphenol exthoxylates/NPEs.
- Select products with a pH no higher than 11.5.
- Look for products in recyclable and refillable containers.
There are ways other than just using environmentally preferable chemicals to effectively green a floor care program, including using few if any chemicals at all, according to McArthur. “A major component of green cleaning in general is to use as little chemical as necessary to do the job satisfactorily,” he says. “This can be accomplished by taking steps to reduce floor care cleaning tasks, especially stripping and refinishing cycles. Do this by installing effective matting systems, vacuuming as often as possible to remove dust and soil, and polishing frequently to maintain the floor’s shine and its finish.”
