Posted January 31st 2010 and has 1 Comment »
You already know that many cleaning chemicals are toxic, but you may not have realized that common everyday cleaning products can kill.
Case in point: June ‘02 a part-time caretaker of a school in Toronto begins having trouble breathing. An alert co-worker rushes her to the hospital, but her breathing becomes more labored until the point where she becomes unable to breath and falls unconscious. The doctors at the hospital are unable to revive her and she is pronounced dead that same day at the hospital.
The culprit?
She was cleaning one of the schools toilets with bleach and toilet bowl cleaner. Problem was she didn’t’ understand that when the acid in the toilet bowl cleaner is combined with sodium hypochlorite (bleach), it creates a chemical reaction creating the deadly chlorine gas.
It’s an extreme example, but important to point out that you should not ever treat chemicals casually. Specifically you do not ever want to combine bowl cleaner with bleach. If you have these products in your home you should never use them together!
The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) reports toxic chemicals in our home cleaning and personal care products are 3 times more likely to cause cancer than outside pollutants. They also warns toxic chemicals in household cleaners cause women working at home to have a 55% HIGHER cancer risk than women working outside the home. To help prevent this you should always use non-toxic cleaning products.
Have you ever had a problem with cleaning chemicals? Please share in the comments so everyone can be aware and do a better job of protecting themselves and their loved ones.
Posted November 19th 2009 and has No Comments »
It’s a common scenario in our over worked stressed out lives. You want to have more free time, so you make the decision to hire a company to come in each week and clean your home.
So you interview a couple companies and settle on one that seems competent. All seems good. Then you remember what your father used to tell you about driving a hard bargain, so before you agree to hire them, you “squeeze” them on price as far as they’ll go. In fact when all is said and done you can’t believe the price you negotiated. It seems to good to be true.
Well, in the case of these cleaners, it was. Watch and see what happened….
Most people aren’t cheapskates with baby sitters because they innately understand that these important caretakers will likely only treat their children as well as they are being treated themselves. This is true in all aspects of business and its especially relevant when hiring cleaners to come in, unsupervised, into your home or business.
Most cleaning companies are honest and reputable and would never do what these people did. But, hard negotiating, beyond what would be considered fair compensation is often penny wise and dollar foolish endeavor. That’s my take, but I’m curious….what do you think?
Posted September 13th 2009 and has 79 Comments »
Think you made a great deal, negotiating with your cleaning company or your maid for the absolute lowest rate? Read on…
One of the recurring costs cleaners incur is the washing and drying of the cleaning towels (cloths) used to clean everything from desks to toilets. When a cleaner has a profit margin that is razor thin, some will do almost anything they can to save money. This includes the washing the cleaning towels.
One of the recurring costs cleaners incur is the washing and drying of the cleaning towels (cloths) used to clean everything from desks to toilets. When a cleaner has a profit margin that is razor thin, some will do almost anything they can to save money. This includes the washing the cleaning towels. Read the rest of this entry »
