Making Floor Care Healthy

Sparkling floors are a key indicator of a facility’s overall cleanliness. After all, "floors so clean you could eat off of them" is a compliment of the highest magnitude for persnickety maintenance workers.

Studies indicate that office workers and students are more productive and have a greater enthusiasm for their work and studies when they are in well-maintained, clean buildings and this includes the floors.  In addition to appearance, a well-maintained floor can also help prevent the spread of contaminants and disease.

Floors, Health, Dust and IAQ

It’s a conundrum: While a clean, well-maintained floor can improve indoor air quality (IAQ), some floor maintenance tasks can actually harm IAQ. For instance, when floors are polished or burnished, the pads create dust particles that can quickly spread throughout a facility. The dust particles may contain fungal spores, volatile organic compounds, residues from cleaning chemicals, pesticides, bacteria and germs. Building occupants who breathe this dust may be at risk for developing health problems.

Maintenance workers can minimize these health risks by using machines designed to reduce the dust generated in floor care and by following certain precautions.

Creating Less Dust

One way is be employing floor care equipment such as Tornado’s Ultra High Speed Glazers.  These machine shave passive vacuum that reduce the amount of particulates released into the air by as much as 50 percent.

Sofia Modesto,  an engineer with Tornado Industries, says these machines also have a  shroud over the base that helps trap dust so that it is not released into the air. "By using centrifugal force and 'holes’ in the pad driver, the dust and debris is propelled through filters into a container, hopper, or bag area at the rear of the machine,"  she says. "This prevents the dust from escaping and contaminating the air."

The dust produced in floor care also can be reduced by taking the following steps:

• Always dust, vacuum, and damp mop the floor before burnishing.

• Assure proper pad and finish compatibility. Burnishers require finishes that can withstand the heat generated by these high-speed machines. A finish that is not compatible with a high speed will quickly be sanded away by the machine causing serious IAQ problems.

• Avoid burnishing near raised objects on the floor, such as outlets.

• Use high-quality chemicals and finishes. The old expression "You get what you pay for" definitely applies to floor maintenance chemicals and finishes.  Less expensive floor care products often require more coats and more time and labor because they do not hold up as well, which in turn can increase dust problems.

• Choose Green cleaning chemicals that have been certified by either the the EcoLogo® Program in Canada or Green Seal® in the United States. These products are safer for facility occupants, cleaning workers and the environment.

• Change the pads regularly or as soon as they are dirty.

• Consider cylindrical brush technology. Cylindrical floor care machines have counter-rotating brushes on each end that rotate at more than 1,000 RPMs at six times the contact pressure of a rotary machine. These machines use less water, chemicals, and less dust — keeping it confined within the width of the machine. Rotary machines tend to slosh water, dirt and chemicals about 30 percent beyond the width of the machine and use about 30 percent more water, as well

• Check that all equipment is in good working order. Propane burnishers may need periodic oil changes, air filter and spark plug checks, and the engine pulley belts may have to be adjusted. Grease fittings should be serviced with a grease gun, the pad driver should be checked for wear or slippage, and wheel, engine mount and handle bolts all should be checked and tightened.