My workplace is trying to eliminate the spread of sickness by placing germ wipes at every station. How can I get my employers to go green without seeming to be an eco freak?[rssbreak]
Sore throat? Runny nose? Chills? We used to call that “winter,” but now one sneeze can send your office/school/family scurrying for cover screaming, “Swine!”
So what do you do when your office starts directing you to douse yourself in a synthetic bactericide? Look, given the current pandemic panic, you’re not going to convince your workplace that germophobia is more dangerous than the germs themselves.
But you can inform them that the particular brands of germ fighters they’re employing are laced with dodgy and, quite honestly, ineffective chemicals – and moreover that potent healthy alternatives exist.
Let’s look at the soap being dished out in your washrooms and kitchens. Health Canada says, “Anti-bacterial soaps are not recommended because they destroy good bacteria as well as bad and can add to the problem of antibiotic resistance.”
The chair of Health Canada’s Advisory Committee on Animal Issues and Impact on Resistance and Human Health said point blank, “Colds and the flu are caused by viruses, and antibacterials don’t work on viruses!”
I recommend going to Health Canada’s website, punching in “antibacterial soaps” and printing this data for your boss so he/she knows you’re not just an “eco freak.”
Then there’s the fact that the active ingredient in those antibacterial soaps, triclosan, has been found to contaminate breast milk, dolphin tissues and waterways everywhere.
Major orgs south of the border like the Breast Cancer Fund, Sierra Club, the American Bird Conservancy, Greenpeace and, most vocally, Beyond Pesticides and the Environmental Working Group are demanding that triclosan be banned from consumer goods.
FYI, triclosan goes by many different names, including Microban, Biofresh, Irgasan (DP 300 or PG 60), Lexol-300, Ster-Zac and Cloxifenolum, and your workplace could very well be buying products infused with this stuff, from wall paint and flooring all the way to the kitchen sink.
Why, there are even antibacterial binders, project folders, scissors and pencils, for god’s sake. Unless you want your work to start breeding super-germs resistant to antibiotics, get rid of this stuff.
All you really need, say health experts, are signs posted over sinks asking employees to wash hands often while lathering for 15 seconds (long enough to sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat twice). And what about when people can’t get to a tap? Well, most work spaces, like yours, are deploying Purell-type pumps and wipes like they’re arming themselves for a biological attack. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers like Purell don’t contain tricosan and don’t breed supergerms so far as we know, it’s true, but guess what? You don’t need all the petroleum-based chemicals and synthetic fragrances floating in hormone-disrupting phthalates. Natural hand sanitizers that contain at least 60 per cent alcohol (or ethanol) also kill cold and flu viruses carried on dirty fingers and don’t, as far as we know, breed super-germs the way triclosan does.
At NOW, we use bulk-size, wall-mounted pumps made by EO (available at health stores and via eoproducts.com). The solution is 62 per cent alcohol-based, so it’s just as bug-zapping as Purell but contains naturally derived ingredients and essential oil scents instead.
Keep in mind that all the hand-washing and sanitizing in the world won’t keep the flu from spreading from cubicle to cubicle if Bill from accounting launches open-air sneezes like a dandelion in a windstorm.
Only a third of flus are thought to be caught via hands. (It turns out that cold viruses are way better at living on your hands than flu viruses.) So what are some chem-free (and zero waste) common-sense solutions?
You can post signs reminding people to “do the sleeve sneeze!” (See printable posters at toronto.ca/health/sleeve_sneeze.htm.)
Also, most workplaces have a special affinity for cleaning bleach because they falsely assume it’s the only way to disinfect surfaces. Well, surprise, Benefect makes a Health Canada-approved, hospital-grade disinfectant out of thyme oil – yes, thyme oil.
You can buy it in bulk from distributors listed at benefect.com or get smaller bottles under the health store label Nature Clean Household Disinfectant.
At the end of the day, the best thing your workplace can do for itself and its staff is to tell employees straight up that they should stay home if they wake up with flu symptoms. Don’t spread that s*%#! around, people!
Now, I know this is easier said than done in certain professions where replacements aren’t readily available and the show can’t go on in your absence (like, say, you’re starring in a movie). But at most offices, having a few workers take time off to keep an entire building from getting sick makes pretty good economic sense.
Got a question? Email ecoholic@nowtoronto.com
