NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — What do you use to get your home clean? Would you try only water and a cloth to remove dirt and germs?

Products on the market are designed to do just that — clean surfaces including kitchen counters and bathroom sinks with only water.

CBS2’s Alice Gainer looks at the “new green clean.”

Blogger Becky Rapinchuk is known as the Clean Mama and she’s been using natural cleaning products in her home for quite some time.

“I make pretty much everything as a homemade cleaner,” Rapinchuk said.

But  now, a growing number of cleaning tools are aimed at taking the “green clean” one step further.

The products on the market, many made of microfiber are designed to work with plain old water and without the need for chemical cleaners.

“For just every day wiping down the counters, cleaning surfaces, water and a microfiber cloth is sufficient,” Rapinchuk said.

John Owen is a senior household analyst for a market research firm. Their research shows 37 percent of adults would be interested in using microfiber and water to clean dirt, grease and bacteria.

12 percent of people already use microfiber on a daily basis.

“And young adults, those who are sort of in their 20s and 30s say, are more than twice as likely and we think that’s an indication that the market is growing and that there’s a generational shift going on,” Owen said.

It’s a shift that has cleaning companies taking notice, Gainer reports.

Owen says manufacturers are responding to consumer concerns about ingredients in cleaning products.

“People are increasingly equating a clean home with a healthy home and a healthy family,” Owen said. “But at the same time there’s also concern about the cleaning product ingredients. So for these consumers, they still want their homes clean, but they’re looking for alternatives.”

But are alternatives designed to work without chemicals effective?

Microbiologist Dr. Michael Schmidt says microfiber, which is smaller than a human hair, is good at trapping dust, and even bacteria and viruses.

“It’s this frizzy end at the end of this very small fiber that facilitates the pickup of bacteria and viruses from surfaces,” Dr. Schmidt said.

But, for situations when a family member is ill or when it comes to cleaning up the kitchen after handling raw food, Dr. Schmidt says to “use a disinfectant and good old elbow grease to make certain that that material is gone.”

One possibly drawback to skipping the cleaning solution in favor of water? The absence of that clean smell.

“People often tell that the home is clean by how it smells, so that’s a potential barrier to the use of just water and a, a cloth,” Owen said.

Rapinchuk usually uses a cleaner in her kitchen and bathroom, but for times when she sticks to water, she doesn’t mind missing out on the scent.

“I’m OK with that when it’s quicker and the mess is actually cleaned up,” Rapinchuk said.

Source: CBS

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Unclog Your Drain With Baking Soda and Vinegar

The pipes at my house are so old that the plumbing kept backing up . Going one week between “maintenance cleaning outs” was enough to land me in ankle-deep water before I even had a chance to shave my legs.

I sadly say that this is not a way to unclog very troublesome drains. But it is a great way to keep on top of a slow-moving drain or after you’ve used an oil/sugar scrub (which I’ve noticed tends to increase the likelihood of future clogging).

Don’t even get me started, though, on how ecofriendly baking soda and vinegar drain cleaner is, compared to Drano Liquid Plumr anything you buy at the store. And with a little bit of extra elbow grease and a plunger, you can use them to unclog the toughest drains. It just takes a while.

But here’s how you do it the easy way (before your drain becomes a clog monster):

How to Unclog A Drain With Baking Soda and Vinegar

Pour a pot of boiling hot water down your drain.

Dump in about 1/2 c. baking soda. Let that sit for a few minutes.

Then, pour a mixture of 1 c. vinegar and 1. c very hot water down on top of the baking soda.

Cover with a drain plug (to keep the reaction down below the drain surface) if you have one and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.

Flush one more time with a pot of boiling water.

Why this works: The baking soda and hot water treatment will loosen up any grimy sludge that’s hanging out at the bottom of your drain, and the explosive chemical reaction with the vinegar will jolt it all loose.

http://www.ijcsa.org/Green-Cleaning-Services

Every day, many of us spray, wipe, and clean with products that contain impossible-to-pronounce ingredients and impossible-to-identify chemicals. These cleaning products do the job they were designed for, but what about potential health and environmental impacts?

Is a smudge-free window worth a wheezing toddler? Does a fresh smelling living room outweigh a potential outbreak of allergies.

Your guests arrive in an hour but the house smells of the dog who hasn’t been washed in months. The  reaction is to douse everything in sight with a can of Glade or Febreze. This might solve the problem of a stinky house, but these products can coat nasal passages with an oil film or even deaden nerves in the nose. Chemicals like Acetaldehyde (carcinogen) and Propylene Glycol (allergen) cover up odors through brute strength rather than a more subtle approach to odor control.

When you think of drain cleaner like Drano, the image of a corrosive liquid and hair probably flashes before your eyes. To be fair, typical drain cleaners contain some of the most egregious chemicals – lye, hydrochloric acid, and trichloroethane. Product liability specialists report that some of the most common cases of infant poisoning are a result of youngsters rooting around under the sink and ingesting even a small amount of drain cleaner. You don’t need harsh chemicals to unclog stubborn drains, you just need a few ingredients to loosen things up and allow gravity and water to do the rest.

Whether they come from dog slobber or sticky little fingers, window streaks can make an otherwise clean household look unkempt. Windex is the age-old answer to these problems, but according to several insurance specialists, this product contains ammonia which can irritate the eyes and lungs, and isopropanol, which can induce drowsiness. Products like this are overkill, especially when crystal clear windows are attainable with only a few household ingredients.

And you ask how will i implement Green in my business?  Not only will Green be at work Green is my new lifestyle, the benefits of a healthier safer environment is pretty incredible.   Americans spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors, it is crucial to make the home environment as safe as possible. Indoor pollutants have proliferated in recent years, often either because modern construction techniques and furnishings manufacturers utilize hazardous materials or because consumers do not know enough about the products they buy to make informed choices.

But safe, nontoxic alternatives exist for nearly every real need around the home, and the search for them may help consumers distinguish between what they really do need, and what may be "luxuries" that could compromise their familys well being.   

http://www.ijcsa.org/Sys/PublicProfile/28372221/1855234

Every day, many of us spray, wipe, and clean with products that contain impossible-to-pronounce ingredients and impossible-to-identify chemicals. These cleaning products do the job they were designed for, but what about potential health and environmental impacts?

Is a smudge-free window worth a wheezing toddler? Does a fresh smelling living room outweigh a potential outbreak of allergies.

Your guests arrive in an hour but the house smells of the dog who hasn’t been washed in months. The  reaction is to douse everything in sight with a can of Glade or Febreze. This might solve the problem of a stinky house, but these products can coat nasal passages with an oil film or even deaden nerves in the nose. Chemicals like Acetaldehyde (carcinogen) and Propylene Glycol (allergen) cover up odors through brute strength rather than a more subtle approach to odor control.

When you think of drain cleaner like Drano, the image of a corrosive liquid and hair probably flashes before your eyes. To be fair, typical drain cleaners contain some of the most egregious chemicals – lye, hydrochloric acid, and trichloroethane. Product liability specialists report that some of the most common cases of infant poisoning are a result of youngsters rooting around under the sink and ingesting even a small amount of drain cleaner. You don’t need harsh chemicals to unclog stubborn drains, you just need a few ingredients to loosen things up and allow gravity and water to do the rest.

Whether they come from dog slobber or sticky little fingers, window streaks can make an otherwise clean household look unkempt. Windex is the age-old answer to these problems, but according to several insurance specialists, this product contains ammonia which can irritate the eyes and lungs, and isopropanol, which can induce drowsiness. Products like this are overkill, especially when crystal clear windows are attainable with only a few household ingredients.

And you ask how will i implement Green in my business?  Not only will Green be at work Green is my new lifestyle, the benefits of a healthier safer environment is pretty incredible.   Americans spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors, it is crucial to make the home environment as safe as possible. Indoor pollutants have proliferated in recent years, often either because modern construction techniques and furnishings manufacturers utilize hazardous materials or because consumers do not know enough about the products they buy to make informed choices.

But safe, nontoxic alternatives exist for nearly every real need around the home, and the search for them may help consumers distinguish between what they really do need, and what may be "luxuries" that could compromise their familys well being.

Not too hot, not too cold. But not, alas, just right.

The economy added a healthy 223,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported Thursday, but with other indicators showing wages flat and many Americans remaining on the sidelines, the overall economic picture for workers was not nearly as bright.

Although the unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent, the lowest in seven years, that was driven largely by an exodus from the work force, rather than more people finding jobs. Moreover, the strong payroll gains for April and May, which had led many analysts to conclude that the economy might finally be gaining momentum, were revised downward by 60,000 jobs.

“This was an O.K. report, but the unemployment rate didn’t go down for the right reasons,” said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab.

Perhaps most discouraging, average hourly earnings didn’t budge in June despite the drop in the unemployment rate from 5.5 percent in May, disappointing hopes that wages were finally increasing for most workers. It was a strong sign that plenty of slack remains in the job market, and that companies do not yet feel much pressure to raise pay to attract needed employees.

More at source: WSJ 

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BlueField Building Systems Terrance Edmond	832-989-9429	Houston Texas United States	www.bluefieldclean.com
Oso Clean Oso Clean	6123537551	River Falls Wisconsin United States	www.osoclean.net
Clean Image Janitorial DJ Maes	920-427-1202	Little Chute Wisconsin United States	www.cijanitorial.com
Akiam Cleaning Concepts M J McMurray	800-808-6748	Shreveport Louisiana United States	http://www.AkiamCleaningConcepts.com
Bullock's Bullseye Professional Cleaning Lonnette Bullock	631-891-5108	Soundbeach New York United States	http://WWW.Bbullseye.com http://www.Facebook.com/Bbullseye
OCD Janitorial Steven Rodgers	(208) 770-8698	Post Falls Idaho United States	www.ocdjanitorial.com
Cordes Quality Cleaning Services Stephon Cordes	336-816-7789	Winston Salem North Carolina United States	cordesqualitycleaning.com https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cordes-Quality-Cleaning-Service/1038966596150607?ref=hl
Duran's Cleaning Services, LLC Peggy Sue Duran	817-769-0214	Fort Worth Texas United States	http://www.duranscleaningservices.com https://www.facebook.com/pages/Durans-Cleaning-Services-LLC/1429429300669430

BATON ROUGE – An East Baton Rouge woman is suing a local janitorial service after slipping and falling in a restroom.

Ashley Verner filed suit against Jani King of Baton Rouge Janitorial Service in the 19th Judicial District Court on April 7.

On May 8, 2014, Verner states that she was working at Sage Rehab and she went to use the restroom where there were not any signs posted to indicate that there was a Jani King employee cleaning the restroom. The plaintiff claims that upon exiting the restroom she slipped on a liquid substance that was left on the floor by a Jani King employee. The plaintiff claims that she was severely injured and underwent knee surgery on Oct. 21, 2014.

The defendant is accused of failing to keep a proper lookout for leaking residue, failing to clean up liquid right away, failing to warn people of a wet floor, failing to properly inspect the floor, failing to have liquid merchandise under control to keep it from leaking on the floor and failing to properly train employees.

More at source: Louisiana Record

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When it came time to sign yearbooks, student at one Illinois elementary school were after one signature — the janitor's.

Second graders at Alan Shepard Elementary School lined up to their yearbooks signed by Steve Weidner, who's been a custodian there for 15 years.

The photo of him with the entire class anxiously waiting for his ink was posted on RedditFriday morning and quickly went viral. It's been viewed more than 3 million times.

The school's principal told WGN-TV Weidner is a rockstar with the students for a good reason.

More at source: AOL

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STATELINE (AP) — A Lake Tahoe casino employee has been arrested on suspicion of theft after police said he made off with a bundle of $100 bills totaling $10,000 that had been accidentally dropped by a gambler.

Douglas County sheriff's deputies say the gambler had won $70,000 and was walking to an elevator from the Harrah's Tahoe casino floor when he dropped the wad of cash early Wednesday.

Contract janitorial worker Richard Ferrer is accused of sweeping the money into a dustpan, then heading to the employee break room.

The Record-Courier newspaper of Gardnerville reports the entire incident was caught on tape and the suspect told security personnel he stashed the money in a garbage can, where all but $100 was recovered.

The 36-year-old Ferrer told deputies he intended to turn the money over to his supervisor at his next break except for $100, which he planned to keep to himself. That $100 was found under the same garbage can.

The policy for both the Stateline casino and the contractor calls for employees to turn such money over to security.

___

Information from: Gardnerville Record-Courier

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Fumes from cleaning products used at work can make existing asthma worse, according to a new study of professional cleaning service employees.

Products such as bleach, glass cleaner, detergents and air fresheners exacerbated asthma-related symptoms for the women, and their reduced lung function lasted until the morning after exposure, in some cases getting worse with time.

"These results support the importance of developing workplace health and safety practices designed to limit exposures to irritant chemicals in cleaning products," the study team writes in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

A wide variety of cleaning products are used by workers in settings like offices, factories and hospitals, write David Vizcaya, of the University of Montreal Hospital Research Center in Canada, and his colleagues. Professional cleaning services are necessary to clean, disinfect, and control dust and mold on surfaces, but a number of studies in recent years have reported associations between exposure to cleaning products and asthma, the researchers note.

Vizcaya and his team evaluated respiratory symptoms over about two weeks in 21 women who had asthma symptoms within the past year, eight of whom also had a longer history of asthma. All were employees of cleaning companies in Barcelona, Spain.

More at source: Huffington Post

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