Q: How do I get my office to stop using disinfectants?
A: Your home may be as green as Eden, but that carefully cultivated ecological Zen state tends to fly out the window when we walk into work. Maybe Larry three desks over refuses to recycle, and Mary across the hall leaves her desk lamp on when she goes home. They’re potential blood-pressure-boilers for the planetarily conscious, but what can you do about it?
Truth is, it can be easier to convince a whole workplace to green its cleaners than to get a single curmudgeonly colleague to drop the desktop disinfectant – especially if you arm yourself with data and talk up all the benefits of good green PR.
What’s wrong with disinfectants anyway? They’re certainly hot commodities in offices and homes continent-wide, since we’re increasingly paro about the reality that we’re all stewing in a giant petri dish of bacteria. It’s called life.
For god’s sake, scientists have just concluded that our navels are hotbeds of bacteria, which means you just know some overzealous germophobes are going to start pouring biocides into their belly buttons.
Now, there are a lot of disinfectants on the market, but Lysol is one company that’s really milking our twisted version of what’s healthy. The “Lysol Mission for Health” aims programs at new moms, schools and disaster relief zones.
From the company’s tips on disinfecting children’s environment, it’s clear Lysol is no proponent of the hygiene hypothesis suggesting that the more sanitized a child’s surroundings, the weaker his or her immune response and the higher the chances of developing allergies.
The product maker also says you can enhance your indoor air quality with its sanitizing spray, but virtually all chem cleaners have been found to raise air-polluting volatile organic compound levels in homes, making the air worse than outdoors.
In fact, when CBC’s Marketplace tested Lysol’s disinfecting spray a few years ago, it created at least 1,000 times more VOCs than Clorox Wipes and Pledge, thanks to the same basic ingredients it contains today. But if you want to call that “air-freshening,” who’s to stop you? (Lysol could not offer up a spokesperson by press time.)
Something you definitely want to keep in mind is that most of the mainstream disinfectants on the market get their bug-killing power from a variety of quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs or quats for short). Several types of quats and now-notorious triclosan have been linked to one of the biggest public health concerns out there: super-germs.
In fact, a study published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy found that after a year of testing all-purpose antibacterial cleaning chemicals (including a quat called benzalkonium chloride) in 238 households, household germs were increasingly antibiotic-resistant. A study in Microbiology found that the same quat triggered a 256-fold increase in antibiotic resistance with respect to one infection-causing strain of bacteria.
Not good, considering it’s in many Lysol products, as well as Clorox Disinfecting Wipes, Fantastik’s Original Disinfectant and others, often under it alternative name (alkyl di-methyl benzyl ammonium choride, or ADBAC). Did I mention that it’s also toxic to fish? And there we go merrily pouring this stuff down our drains. Combine all the above with the fact that Lysol and other chemical disinfectants have lung- and skin-irritating chems as well as invasive synthetic fragrances and you have grounds to talk to your manager.
So what the heck is a public workplace supposed to clean with? You’re not going to convince most offices of the antimicrobial power of vinegar (yes, vinegar reduces surface levels of bacteria like E. coli), so look to professional green cleaners.
Ecocert certifies a bunch that are greener than 80 per cent of the market. But consider whether you really need a disinfectant. Only certain workplaces, like daycares, schools, or hospitals, have legal requirements. If that’s the case, then, look for safer products. Most of Ecocert’s disinfectants contain what’s considered safer quats. My fave disinfectant is Ontario-made Benefect’s thyme-based cleaners approved for hospitals, hotels (Fairmont and Delta use it) and daycares. This stuff kills 99.99 per cent of everything. No warning labels, first aid precautions or rinsing required. It smells pretty heavily of thyme, but that’ll dissipate. You’ll keep your bosses and the board of health happy, all without getting sick at your job. Can’t guarantee you won’t get sick of your job, but that’s another matter.
Got a question?
Send your green queries to ecoholic@nowtoronto.com
