The Importance of “Green” Carpet Cleaning Products
When you clean your home, using earth-friendly, biodegradable cleaning products is probably a high priority for you. But what about when someone else is cleaning your home, such as a professional carpet cleaning company? Well, in the past you may have had to compromise on your cleaners, but not anymore. There are green carpet cleaning companies out there who use safe, environmentally safe cleaning solutions. Read on to learn about the importance of green carpet cleaning products and how to find professional carpet cleaning services that use them.
Of course, a lot of people say they’re green, but how can you be sure their carpet cleaning service is environmentally friendly. There are two important questions to ask: are if their cleaning products are biodegradable and do they contain low VOC and PH levels?
What does biodegradable mean?
Many companies may throw around the term “biodegradable,” but what does it really mean? In the simplest terms, biodegradable means the product can be decomposed back into elemental components by naturally occurring microorganisms. This often means that the product doesn’t contain a lot of overly complex or harmful chemicals.
What are VOCs?
VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, are chemicals which are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids – some of which may have short-term or long-term health effects. VOCs are used in many household products, including cleaning products, paints and lacquers, building materials, craft materials such as glues and permanent markers, and pesticides.
Concentrations of VOCs are generally much higher indoors than outdoors; the potential for VOCs to adversely impact your health is nearly ten times as likely indoors than outdoors. Some health effects that can occur from VOCs usually found inside the home include headaches, dizziness, respiratory tract irritation, eye irritation, visual disorders, and memory impairment. Although no long term research has been done, many organic compounds are known to cause cancer in animals, and some are known to cause cancer in humans.
What does Low pH mean?
The pH scale is a unit of measure to tell if a chemical is an acid, an alkaline or neutral, and the pH level of a cleaning product indicates its concentration of hydrogen or hydroxide ions. The pH scale runs from 0 to 14, with seven being the number for neutral solutions. Acids have a pH between 0 and 7; alkalies have a pH between 7 and 14. It might seem like the higher pH level a cleaning product has, the better it cleans, but this is actually far from the truth.
The pH scale increases intensity by tenfold with every number it moves away from seven. 7 is the pH of water, 0 is the pH of battery acid, and drain cleaner has a pH of 14. When looking for a cleaning product, don’t use products with a pH lower than 4 or higher than 10, as they can be corrosive not only to your skin, but to whatever you’re cleaning as well.
In general, if a company touts their product as having “low pH levels” they probably actually mean the product has a pH level between 4 and 10.
Whether looking for cleaning products for your own home or looking for a company to do cleaning inside your home, it’s important to always check the VOC and pH levels in all cleaning products. Do this and you can ensure you are using the safest products possible around your family.