Cleaning and IAQ Go Together to Protect Your Health
Most of us already know that cleaning positively affects our indoor air quality (IAQ), right? Have you also considered that what you USE to clean with can negatively affect your IAQ? Fragrances, volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) and other ingredients can have a negative effect on both your IAQ and your health!
Cleaning Patients’ Homes to Improve their IAQ and Protect Their Health
Here at Town & Country Cleaning Services, we discovered that bleach and many other products can be very irritating to folks recovering from certain medical treatments or suffering from respiratory illnesses of all sorts. A few years ago, we became involved in Cleaning for a Reason, a charitable organization which solicits companies like ours to provide free cleans to women undergoing Chemotherapy or otherwise actively battling cancer. Later, we also served a couple of clients returning from the Duke Medical Center after lung transplants.
Helping a New Lung Transplant Patient
We learned that the Medical Center had recommended some careful cleaning procedures to be completed for their patients before their release. One patient’s wife, feeling overwhelmed by the daunting list began asking her neighbors for suggestions about who could do the meticulous cleaning they needed. She happened upon a neighbor who remembered being impressed after talking with us about our services the year before and recommended she contact us.
We read the suggested cleaning needs and realized we had a variety of special equipment already in our warehouse and helpful procedures in our repertoire. By applying our intense dust-down services with a professional high-efficiency vacuum and a sealed H.E.P.A. air-scrubber we were able to greatly reduce the dust in his temporary bedroom, bath and common use room(s). This meant we were able to remove the majority of the rooms’ potential allergens and mold spores to help protect the patient.
We finished with steam-cleaning hard surfaces and some soft furnishings like mattresses (after thoroughly vacuuming them). This procedure, combined with de-ionized water and microfibers and a very few other cleaning solutions (characterized by virtually no aroma) was all completed before he returned home from his major procedure — we helped create a healthier ecosystem for this vulnerable patient and later helped others in the same manner.
Helping other Patients Stay Healthy
Cleanliness helps your Health and improves your Indoor Air Quality
We did a similar procedure for another client, a long-time one, who was returning from a bone-marrow transplant. We were able to perform the major cleaning like the one described above, before they returned from the hospital. We followed up with special protective but common-sense procedures for maintenance cleaning during her home recovery period.
Special, practical procedures involved:
1) dusting solely with a damp-wiping method using de-ionized water and microfiber cloths, frequently turning them to a clean side,
2) avoiding disturbing any new high dust (that might settle above our standard reach) while she recovered,
3) continuing to use high-filtration vacuum bags, installing a new one each time at her house before we cleaned,
4) wearing foot covers upon entry to her home and
5) continuing to perform steam-cleaning in the rooms she was using during this period.
We have used these procedures to help others improve their in-home IAQ for asthmatic children and older folks suffering from breathing challenges. If you would like more information on Chemical-Free Cleaning or on our Intense Dust-Down procedures to help reduce allergens in your home, our friendly staff at Town & Country Cleaning Services would be glad to provide a no-cost, no-obligation consultation with you.