Your Cleaning Glossary

Every cleaning agent in use has an MSDS, or Material Safety Data Sheet, that describes its chemical properties and how to correctly and safely use the product. Business owners take note: Both employees and customers who are exposed to the cleaning agent should have access to these documents at all times.

Most commonly, MSDS sheets are incorporated as part of a HAZ COM program. That program should include employee training, MSDS sheets and communication plans put in place by an employer to communicate the hazards that employees and/or customers may be exposed to. And it should be accessible to all employees at any time during their work shift, according to John Pletz, CEO of ServiceMaster Clean by Pletz, based in Crystal Lake, Illinois.

Avoiding Dangerous Exposure

As a customer receiving cleaning services, why is it important that your cleaning company has a HAZ COM program with MSDS sheets? Because you, too, are being exposed to the cleaning agents and chemicals that are brought into your building. You need to know where your company is storing their products on your property and what each cleaning agent is used for.

For instance, take toilet bowl cleaner. What is your risk of exposure as a customer? Toilet bowl cleaning agents can include a variety of potentially harmful chemicals such as hydrochloric, phosphoric or oxalic acids. Depending on the amount of acid in the toilet bowl cleaner, not only will you have the shiniest toilets you have ever seen - but it could also potentially burn a hole in your carpeting if it is spilled.

Acids also emit fumes which can impact your indoor air quality (IAQ). Do you know if your cleaning company is using a toilet bowl cleaner that is acid or non-acid based? This is something that you should be aware of.

As a customer, you have the right to ask your cleaning company about the products that they use to clean your property, and they should be able to answer all of your questions regarding their HAZ COM program, including how their products are mixed and used and how they trained their employees to use these products.

Be Aware, Be informed

Here is a short list of terms you should know as a customer or employer, as they can affect the overall well-being of your employees:

• IAQ: Indoor or Internal Air Quality.
• HAZ COM: Hazard Communication Program.
• MSDS: Material Safety Data Sheets. All chemicals have an MSDS sheet which describes the properties of the chemical, how to properly use and store the chemical, safety precautions and directions.
• TLV: Threshold Limit Value.
• LD 50: LD 50 is lethal dose of a product or chemical for 50% of a population and is specific to exposure vector, normally expressed as LD50 oral, dermal or inhalation.
• PEL: Permissible Exposure Limit. This refers to the amount of exposure to a product or chemical without causing harm.
• PH: A measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution, numerically equal to 7 for neutral solutions, increasing with increasing alkalinity and decreasing with increasing acidity. The pH commonly in use ranges from 0 to14.
• NIOSH: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
• Carcinogen: Any substance or agent that tends to produce or encourage cancerous cell growth.