CM/Spotlight: Carpet Care Plus Manufacturing Inc. Eastern Washington State School District – Intervention -Indoor Air Quality Crisis Your carpet cleaning products and methods can make all the difference! A An Eastern Washington State school dis-trict undertook an indoor environmental assessment, study, and intervention — by Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) consultant, Dr. Miles Athey — to protect and enhance the learning environment within the dis-trict’s elementary schools. After investigating occupant com-plaints and testing many IAQ parameters, Dr. Miles Athey concluded two factors were the most frequent sources of the IAQ problems: ventilation and carpets. Ventilation The ventilation issues were largely reme-died with several adjustments: 1) spacers were added to close off gaps in the HVAC filter brackets, eliminating the passage of unfiltered air into rooms, 2) an array of different kinds of filters (including filtration of particles as small as 1 micron, drop-in HEPA filters for supply grilles, and carbon filters for odors) were adopted through-out the district, each designed to prevent specific air quality problems, and 3) air dampers are routinely recalibrated to coincide with the district’s computerized digital control system helping to ensure sufficient quantities of fresh outdoor air are being supplied to each room. Image courtesy of Purestock/Thinkstock outside air through HVAC systems, out-side contaminants tracked in on shoes, improper products to clean carpets, and insufficient vacuuming and hot water extraction of carpets, thus increasing respirable airborne particulates. Measuring Particulates -Equipment and Methodology A MetOne laser particle counter was used to measure classroom particulate counts for particle sizes of 10, 7, 2.5 and 1 microns in diameter at carpet level in both the ambient (undisturbed) state and the aggressive (disturbed) state for 3 minutes. The aggressive sampling con-sisted of beating a square meter of the carpet surrounding the particle counter for the first 20 seconds of the 3 minute sampling period. This forces particulates Carpets An inconsistent cleaning program along with material, equipment and other defi-ciencies had apparently contributed to a significant buildup of soap residue on and between carpet fibers in the district’s elementary schools. This residue-parti-cle loading in carpet was exacerbated by factors such as inadequately filtered to dislodge from the carpet fibers and become airborne. In most cases, the ambient levels were well below the EPA’s — then current — unhealthy Air Quality Index thresh-olds and were comparable with outside particulate levels. However, most of the aggressive samples were substan-tially higher indicating that the carpets were continually over-loading on particu-lates and thus were not being efficiently vacuumed or extracted by cleaning pro-cedures. While the EPA’s Air Quality Index had cautionary statements for particulates of 2.5 and 10 microns in diameter at levels of 40 and 150 micro-grams per cubic meter (ug/m3), respec-tively, these levels were considered to be more appropriate criteria for adult and industrial applications. The California This content was provided by Plus Manufacturing Inc. as part of a paid advertisement. For more information, please contact Plus directly at 1-800-PROCYON (776-2966) or www.soapfreeprocyon.com. 28 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • June 2013
CMM – Archives June 2013: 28
