Greening the Cleaning® means eliminating to the greatest extent possible, all cleaning agents containing hazardous ingredients and replacing them with environmentally friendly products that utilize natural or naturally-derived ingredients.*
The Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology uses the following standards, adapted from the U.S. Department of Interior’s “Guidance and Training on Greening Your Janitorial Business - Environmentally Preferable Attributes of Chemical Cleaners” and other standards as guidance, when formulating its cleaning and related products.
Our products:
- Must be
free of any known human carcinogens, mutagens or teratogens
- Must not contain compounds or substances which cause or contribute to the creation of atmospheric greenhouse gases, ground level smog or ozone depletion
- Must not be corrosive to skin or inanimate surfaces
- Must not be a severe skin or eye irritant
- Must not be delivered in single use aerosol cans or cans using ozone depleting propellants
- Must not contain petroleum-derived or petrochemical blended fragrances
- Must not contain heavy metals that are toxic to humans, animal life or the environment
- Must not contain petroleum distillates unless no natural alternative is available, and then only if the distillate meets the human safety and environmental profile outlined herein.
- Should not be combustible below 150ºF
- Must not contain chlorine, chlorinated or brominated solvents
- Must not contain compounds that persist or bio-accumulate in human or animal tissue or in the environment
- Must not contain volatile organic compounds (VOC) at levels exceeding the limits established by the Southern California Air Quality Management District Resources Board for the applicable product categories. Products must not be listed on the hazardous air pollutants list of the Environmental Protection Agency
- Should be readily biodegradable at greater than 90% in thirty days without the need of being run through a municipal effluent treatment process. If not biodegradable due to inorganic content the ingredient must be chemically inert.
- Should be obtained or derived from replenishable natural (plant) sources wherever possible
- Should be as concentrated as possible to green the supply chain
- Products should be capable of being dispensed through automatic systems in order to reduce user and environmental contact
- Should have a pH level between 4 and 9 wherever possible
*While the Environmental Center strives to use only all-natural, or all naturally- derived ingredients wherever possible, effective all-natural replacements are not available for every type of cleaning product at this time. For this reason, the Environmental Center currently offers its customers two lines of products: the DIN line, which contains predominantly natural or naturally derived ingredients, and the DIC line, which contains some synthetic ingredients for which effective natural substitutes have yet to be developed. Our disinfectants and sanitizers are in the DIC line, since the effectiveness of such products at killing germs is paramount and, to our knowledge, synthetic microbicides are simply more effective than potential replacements of natural origin.
Glossary of Terms
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