Q:Hello,

I love the advice on your website. I am trying to move to greener cleaning
supplies for my daughters' preschool. A huge concern that staff & parents have is regarding the H1N1 virus. What cleaners would your organization recommend for general surfaces and hand washing? We have been told by school staff that the cleaners must be a tuberculosis-cide etc. and say that on
the bottle. Tips? Does vinegar, water, baking soda do the trick for surfaces & kill viruses like H1N1? Thank you.

A: Thanks for your question!  It's great to hear that you are trying to switch your child's preschool to greener cleaners!  Such a worthwhile effort for children's health!

While our research generally deals with household cleaners (as opposed to industrial or institutional cleaners) we can at least give you some leads on who else to contact for more information.

The Healthy Schools Network is one resource you can try.  They have a lot of materials on green cleaning in schools and can provide information on experiences by schools that have made the switch to green cleaners.  Here is a link to their "Cleaning for Healthy School Toolkit"
http://www.cleaningforhealthyschools.org/

As far as products for handwashing - the very best thing to use is regular soap and water.  (The trick of course is getting the preschoolers to wash their hands regularly!)

For products to use on surfaces, it's worth thinking carefully about which crtitical surfaces at the school really need to be disinfected (i.e. those that get touched often or have food contact), and which can simply be cleaned with regular non disinfectant cleaners.  Making these key decisions can both save money and reduce exposure to harsher chemicals.

For the areas where you decide you do need disinfectants, and specifically one's registered to affect tuberculosis or influenza, you can look at the lists that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) puts together.  I have included links to the EPA's lists of cleaners that are effective against tuberculosis and Influenza A. (if they are on
these lists, they will say so on the label of the product.)  Note - most of the cleaners on these lists are not green cleaners.  But if you look carefully through the list, you can find some products with safer active ingredients.  Ingredients you might look for include: hydrogen peroxide, citric acid, or thymol (thyme oil).  As a policy, WVE doesn't recommend or endorse any specific products however, so I don't have any advice on which ones might be better than others for cleaning.

Q:Our School Improvement Team decided that one of our goals for the next five years was to "use environmentally friendly" cleaning products.  It was decided that we would use a line of P&G cleaning products.  I personally continue to react physically to the product, which leads me to wonder at the friendliness of their product.  On a brochure put out by P&G, they answer the question "Are your products Green Seal Certified?" in this fashion:
 
"We have chosen not to endorse any one ecolabel or green certification organization in the United States.  P&G's philosophy embraces true environmental progress through self-imposed guidelines.  We aspire to high, evolving standards encouraging growth and innovation.  Although when reviewed by the company, P&G Pro Line Daily Cleaning products meet the criteria of Green Seal standards where applicable, we have chosen not to apply for certification.  Our products' outstanding cleaning performanaces and the environmental standards they meet speak for themselves."

Sounds like a lot of sidestepping double talk to me.  What do you know about P&G cleaning products? 

A: I'm not personally familiar with this particular line of cleaners - It appears that P&G does refer to Procter & Gamble though.  And you are right to be skeptical - I'm not too fond of their answers either.  The advantage of a third-party certifier like Green Seal, is that at least you know that someone outside the company has reviewed the product and can attest that it meets certain known criteria.  Having to take the company at their word that they would meet the GreenSeal criteria isn’t quite as reassuring.  I highly recommend that you contact P&G and let them know that!

There are two resources I can suggest you turn to.  These folks are experts in the field of green cleaners for schools - and may have more specific information for you on these products and suggested alternatives.

Grassroots Environmental Education:
http://thechildsafeschool.org/QAGC.html

Healthy Schools Network
http://www.healthyschools.org/

Thanks and good luck!

Q:  Will homemade cleaners work on marble?  What precautions do I need to take to make sure I don’t damage these surfaces?

A: Marble is a beautiful stone, but it does need special care, because it is relatively soft.  Our all-purpose cleaner recipe is NOT to be used with marble, because the vinegar in our recipe is too acidic, and could damage the surface.  Instead, hot water (with a little soap) will usually do the trick if you maintain your marble regularly.  If your marble surface gets a stain that doesn’t wash off with water, the best thing to do is to make a poultice to help remove it.  Here is a website with directions on how to create a poultice to draw a stain out of the marble.

How to remove a stain from marble with a poultice:
http://www.natural-stone.com/stainremoval.html

Q: Looking for answers to questions like these:
+Does vinegar really clean well?
+What is borax?

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