Health & Safety of Chemicals

Health & Safety of ChemicalsHealth & Safety of Chemicals

… …What are the impacts of cleaning chemical What are the impacts of cleaning chemical choices on Health and Safety?choices on Health and Safety?

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Outline

1. What Makes a Product Safe?

2. Cleaning Chemicals & Sick Building Syndrome

3. Health Hazards of Cleaning Chemicals

4. Children and Chemicals

5. Multiple Chemical Sensitivities

6. Multiple Chemical Sensitivities and the Classroom

7. Summary

1. What Makes A Product Safe?• Is a product safe because it has an MSDS sheet?

What about the hazardous ingredients less than the 1% or the 0.1% rules?

What if it is not a full ingredient disclosure MSDS sheet? Have you seen harmful ingredients listed on an MSDS sheet? Such

as: Isoproply Alcohol is a known cancer causing chemical 2-Butoxyethanol may cause liver, kidney, respiratory, and

reproductive damage D-Limonene is a suspected sensitizer, may also cause liver

damage in animals

1. What Makes A Product Safe?• Such as:

Stabilized chlorine bleach may cause liver and gastrointestinal damage, and damage to the central nervous system. May also cause acute pulmonary edema

Diethylene glycol monomethyl ether may cause fetal damage, damage to the liver and kidneys, and impair fertility in humans.

• So, if the above ingredients have these hazards than why is it acceptable to use them?

• Over the past 50+ years, the number of synthetic chemicals has grown

• From 1.3 billion lbs in 1940

• To 320 billion lbs in 1980

• Of these, approximately 100,000 chemicals are in use today

• Approximately 500 have been tested for human health concerns

• There are approximately 2000 chemicals introduced each year that are not regulated

• We currently reside under that “Safe, Until Proven Otherwise” notion

Source - http://www.cleaningpro.com/toxic.cfm

1. What Makes A Product Safe?

In a recent survey of 32 facilities in Richmond California, of 250janitorial products, the findings were:

• 7% should not be used as they could cause cancer or were very damaging to the environment

• 56% require extreme care as the ingredients can cause blindness, severe skin damage, interfere with the endocrine system, or be absorbed through the skin or inhaled and subsequently cause damage to the blood, liver, kidneys, nervous system, or a developing fetus

• 37% require routine care as they may irritate the eyes and skin, can evaporate and affect indoor air quality, or may exceed a building’s allowable sewer discharge limits for certain ingredients

Source - “Cleaning For Health: Products and Practices for a Safer Indoor Environment”; Alicia Culver, Senior Research Associate; INFORM, Inc.

1. What Makes A Product Safe?

• Historically, the first concern with respect to indoor air quality was an outbreak of Legionnaire’s Disease during an American Legion convention in Philadelphia, where an unrecognized bacterium resulted in the following:

Classification of bacteria as Legionella pneumophilia Infection of numerous veterans which resulted in 182 cases

of pneumonia and 29 deaths Derivation of bacteria was found in the ventilation and

humidification system of the building and was thus the first epidemic of building related disease

Source- http://www.eisc.ca/air-we-breth.htm


• Since then, there have been a variety of new health concerns for building occupants as Indoor Air Quality has become increasingly an issue with respect to the possible development of asthma, multiple chemical sensitivity, and building related hypersensitivity pnuemonitis



• Has been defined as experiencing symptoms when entering a building and finding relief from symptoms when leaving the building

• Symptoms include dry eyes, dizziness, nasal congestion, headaches and fatigue• In one study of 4373 office workers in 42 different facilities, work related

symptoms were:

5% had chest tightness 68% reported lethargy 47% reported nasal congestion 46% reported dry throat 46% reported headaches



• These health effects contribute to increased absenteeism/sick days, low moral and decreased worker productivity and creativity

• A study of school districts in the greater Washington, D.C. area found that there was a direct correlation between Indoor Air Quality and both attendance and performance of their students

Source – “Cleaning For Health: Products and Practices for a Safer Indoor Environment”; Alicia Culver, Senior Research Associate; INFORM, Inc.


• Indoor air quality is ranked among the nation’s top 5 environmental risks. IAQ can be 2 to 100 times as worse than the outdoors

• The World Health Organization estimates that 30% of all buildings experience IAQ problems

Source – “Cleaning For Health: Products and Practices for a Safer Indoor Environment”; Alicia Culver, Senior Research Associate; INFORM, Inc.


• Additionally, there has been a rise in reported cases of chemical sensitivities, or the development of Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS)

• The findings in a survey of 4000 California adults conducted by the California Health Services Department were as follows:

6.3% were reported to have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity 15.9% reported “chemical sensitivity” without a specific

diagnosis of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity



• Custodial staff, building occupants, customers, staff, etc.• 50% of North Americans spend their entire career within buildings• Children over the age of 6 spend most of their time in schools as well the

increasing number of children under the age of 6 within nurseries• People with medical conditions such as asthma, allergies, connective

tissue disorders, or are under the influence of immune suppressing drugs are at an even greater risk

• The elderly, with emphysema, respiratory distress and other pre-existing conditions are also at greater risk of being impacted by odorous chemicals

• Clearly this defines most of the occupants of office buildings, hospitals, schools and care home facilities



• 6 out of every 100 janitors are injured on the job, at an average cost of $725 in medical and lost time per reported injury

• 40 percent of these injuries involve eye irritations or burns

• 36 percent of these injuries involve skin irritations or burns

• 20 percent of these injuries are severe chemical burns to the eyes and skin

• 12 percent of these injuries involve breathing chemical fumes

• Some disinfectants (e.g. “quats”) can cause occupational asthma

Source - “Cleaning For Health: Products and Practices for a Safer Indoor Environment”; Alicia Culver, Senior Research Associate; INFORM, Inc.

3. Health Hazards Of Cleaning Chemicals

• 127 janitors died in the US between 1993 and 2001 as a result of the cleaning products they were using

• A health care worker complained of respiratory irritation from using a bathtub cleaner and disinfectant in the course of her work in a British Columbia health care institution. Despite her symptoms, she continued to do the work as directed by her employer. One day, after she had completed her shift, she went home, feeling ill. She later collapsed and died. Her union took the case to the Workers’ Compensation Board and did extensive research on the ingredients in the cleaning solutions. It was found that she had been exposed to excessive levels of “quats”, which were probably the cause of her death

Source - “US Bureau of Labour Statistics”. Leas: www.leas.ca


• A fetus may come into contact with an endocrine-disrupting chemical while still in the womb, but problems, such as birth defects, infertility and leaning disabilities may not show up until much later. Often the timing is critical. For example, sexual organs develop at day 56 of gestation. Exposure at this stage could be a factor in the later development of testicular cancer

• 2-butoxyethanol, a common ingredient in cleaning products, is a toxin suspected of causing learning disabilities in children as well as liver and kidney damage. This chemical can be absorbed directly through the skin (while sitting on or touching items cleaned and leaving a residue behind)

Source - LEAS: www.leas.ca


• The numbers are growing for human health and environmental hazards linked with traditional cleaning products

• The World Health Organization estimates that 80 percent of all cancers are environmentally related

Source - “US Bureau of Labour Statistics”. Leas: www.leas.ca


• Nearly 5 million U.S. children suffer from asthma, and rates have increased rapidly over the past several decades

• Childhood cancer rates have increased gradually and with consistency for many forms of the disease, while increasing most rapidly for leukemia (ALL) and cancers of the central nervous system (brain tumors)

• Birth defects continue to be the primary cause of infant mortality. Nearly 1 of every 28 babies is born with a birth defect

4. Children & Chemicals

Source - TRENDS IN CHILDREN'S HEALTH by John Wargo, Ph.D., Professor, Yale University and Linda Evenson Wargo, M.E.S. Excerpted from The State of Children's Health and Environment 2002: Solutions For Parents and Policymakers, Children's Health Environmental Coalition.

• Nearly 17% of children less than 18 years in age have been diagnosed with at least one developmental disorder

• Between 3-5% of children in the U.S. have Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and the incidence may be on the rise. Visits to office-based physicians for pediatric ADHD-related concerns increased by 90% between 1989 and 1996.The use of stimulants such as Ritalin to treat ADHD in children rose 14% during this same period

• The nervous systems of more than one million children are irreversibly damaged from exposure to lead, primarily from exposure to deteriorating paints


Source - TRENDS IN CHILDREN'S HEALTH by John Wargo, Ph.D., Professor, Yale University and Linda Evenson Wargo, M.E.S. Excerpted from The State of Children's Health and Environment 2002: Solutions For Parents and Policymakers, Children's Health Environmental Coalition.

• Children metabolize chemicals differently than adults• One key concern is the rapid rate of cellular division as a single celled

embryo develops into a human child in two years. This rapid rate of cellular division is often similar to the rapid rate of cellular division of many cancers

• Fetal development toxicants are of special concern• Also, when a baby is born their reproductive, respiratory, and immune

systems are not fully developed • Additionally, children have more contact with surfaces which will

have residual chemicals. Two examples are the following: Crawling on carpets and flooring Placing objects into mouth (some facilities use bleach to

sterilize toys!)


Source - Children’s Environmental Health Network: “An Introduction to Children’s Environmental Health” Http://www.cehn.org/cehn/WhatisPEH.html

• Children also have a more difficult time excreting toxins, which can mean the following:

A toxin may be relatively safe for an adult, but not entirely true for a child in the same environment

During childhood growth, the need for Calcium is far greater than for an adult, in the absence of Calcium and in the presence of Lead in the gastrointestinal tract…

An adult will absorb lead at a rate of 10% of the ingested lead while a child will absorb lead at a rate of 50% of the ingested lead!


Source - Children’s Environmental Health Network: “An Introduction toChildren’s Environmental Health” http://www.cehn.org/cehn/WhatisPEH.html

• Childhood asthma has increased by more than 40% since 1980 affecting more than 4.2 million children under the age of 18 in the U.S.

• The incidence of two types of childhood cancers has risen significantly over the past 15 years: acute lymphocytic leukemia is up 10% and brain tumors are up more than 30%


Source - Children’s Environmental Health Network: “An Introduction toChildren’s Environmental Health” http://www.cehn.org/cehn/WhatisPEH.html

• Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) occurs when a person reacts to chemicals in the environment. These chemicals are usually petroleum based. When a chemical injury occurs, many persons become "Universal Reactors." Universal Reactors have symptoms to a significant number of substances in all categories of foods, molds, inhalants and chemicals

• Petroleum based chemicals can be found in pesticides, synthetic fragrances, cleaning products and detergents. These products are in use with little testing as to health effects on humans due to the popular view that chemicals are “Safe, Until Proven Toxic”


Source: http://www.ctaz.com/~bhima/ http://www.ourlittleplace.com/mcs.html

• Originally, MCS was believed to be an immune response; however, immune reactions are generally not as quick unless the reaction is anaphylactic in nature

• MCS sufferers tend to have nausea and vomiting which are more likely to be similar to central nervous system anomalies rather than immune responses

• Reactions are generally immediate


Source: http://www.mkl.com/community/mcs.htm

• Studies done on time-dependent sensitization (TDS) on animals has many similarities to MCS:

Has helped to explain how the brain becomes sensitized to low concentrations of chemicals and how stress plays a role in these adverse reactions

Cross reactivity has been noted in that if sensitivity occurs with one chemical, then it is much more likely to develop sensitivities to other chemicals

• Was originally thought that MCS was psychological rather than physiological due to the cross reactivity and nausea inconsistency with allergic reactions, now more physiological evidence does exist!


Source: http://www.mkl.com/community/mcs.htm

• Symptoms include: Asthma, increased sensitivity, headaches, bloating (may be short

or long term), flu like symptoms, dizziness and mental confusion

• People and occupations that are most susceptible to MCS include: Children with breathing problems, the elderly with sensitivities

to odour, women with intestinal problems, unborn children, allergy sufferers and workers in high risk occupations

Manufacturing chemicals, plastics, paints, textiles, metal working, wood working, farming, extermination, service stations, scientific laboratories, printing and dye plants, dry cleaning operations, and aerospace and microchip industries

Sources: http://www.mkl.com/community/mcs.htm


• Other exposures linked to MCS include:

Cleaning chemicals, off gassing of new carpets, vapors from solvents, and perfumes & colognes

Sources: http://www.mkl.com/community/mcs.htm


MCS causes problems in many systems and organs in the body. Upon re-exposure, the individual becomes increasingly sensitized, and often there is a spreading effect where they are bothered by many more chemicals (it often spread to food, medications, and molds), and many more systems in the body are involved. It almost always seems to affect the central nervous system, and effects memory, concentration and learning. These are all dramatically impaired when a person is exposed. This is very important in terms of accommodation in a classroom or work situation. If exposed, a person may not be able to process what is said, or store the information processed in a lecture, for example. A child may not be able to learn.”

Source: http://www.california.com/~hawk/MCS-Ammunition.htm

6. Multiple Chemical SensitivitiesAnd The Classroom

• Two young men (twins) in Arizona were in the 99th percentile when enabled to take their GED exam in a clean chemical free environment. Prior to that they:

were having problems in high school were very chemically sensitive were having trouble in their high school classes and could

not pass

Source: http://www.california.com/~hawk/MCS-Ammunition.htm

6. Multiple Chemical SensitivitiesAnd The Classroom

• Improved cleaning methods and safer cleaning chemicals can very positively affect indoor air quality, worker health, and the environment

• Clearly, eliminating the toxic ingredients from cleaning products would bring tremendous benefits to society – in reduced occupational diseases and cancer, and cleaner air and water (LEAS)

• The main reason for going “green” is for the health of yourself, your staff, the people who work in your buildings and the visitors to your facilities. In addition, you should go “green” for the environment – air, water and land

7. Summary

Thank You For Your Time And Consideration!

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Health & Safety of Chemicals