When you’re greeted at the office by sparkling floor tiles, freshly scrubbed bathrooms and spotless work surfaces, do you ever wonder if toxic cleaning products were used and what effect these may have on the health of workers who apply them?
Montreal entrepreneur Marc Trudel thinks about it all the time — and he wants companies across Canada to start doing the same.
Looking to offer a safer alternative to potentially harmful chemicals, last November Trudel launched BioCanadian Inc., which supplies plant-based, non-toxic cleaners, solvents and specialty acids to the industrial market. “The green cleaning explosion that’s happening right now rivals a tech explosion; it’s so pervasive, because everybody needs cleaners,” he suggests.
BioCanadian became the exclusive Canadian distributor of bio-based cleaning products manufactured by Gemtek, the Arizona company that first made headlines two decades ago after sending 55,000 gallons of plant-based surfactant to clean up the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Derived from renewable resources, the products underwent extensive third-party lab testing through the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States. They were found to be generally less toxic, less flammable and less corrosive than petroleum-based solvents.
The finding is critical since, from what Trudel has seen, “the people who actually work with cleaning products are not getting enough attention. There is no end to the types of health problems related to the use of hazardous chemicals in the workplace.”
David Jarrell, a Calgary-based occupational technologist and president of the Canadian Registration Board of Occupational Hygienists, lists skin rashes or burns, throat irritation, chronic bronchitis, light-headedness and giddiness as the most common health issues.
“Some chlorinated cleaning solvents, if they’re used around welding, can produce phosgene, which causes pulmonary edema,” Jarrell explains. “And some solvents, if they contain phenol, can be fatal within hours if you get doused with them.”
Jarrell acknowledges that while it’s preferable to find suitable replacements for toxic substances used at work, cost invariably comes into play. “Most companies are concerned with occupational health and safety issues, and when the cost of avoidance exceeds the cost of doing the right thing, that usually prompts organizations to do what they have to do,” he says.
As such, it may be worth making the argument that switching to non-toxic solvents could save companies money in the long run, Jarrell notes. Because bio-based products take longer to evaporate, he says they don’t need to be replenished as frequently and workers handling the materials don’t need to use personal protective equipment, such as respirators, gloves or goggles.
Business owner response to the products has been “unequivocally positive,” Trudel reports, adding that their effectiveness and reduced liability are often cited as primary motivators. Trudel’s first client, one of Hydro-Québec’s generating stations, wanted to reduce flammability risks. The 10 solvents being used were replaced with three readily biodegradable, non-flammable ones. The change was positive not only from worker safety, liability and cost perspectives, he says, but also because the overall chemical inventory was reduced, “which is another environmentally positive step.”
Trudel’s other customers run the gamut from a uranium mining company in Saskatoon to Montreal-based ProAcoustique, which specializes in deep-cleaning suspended ceilings with acoustic tiles in schools, hospitals and restaurants across Quebec.
“Lots of companies clean their carpets every month, but never their ceilings, not realizing that contaminants are trapped up there,” suggests Sylvain Ranger, technical director of ProAcoustique, which began using the products in June. Ranger says his company made the switch for two reasons: convenience and cost. ProAcoustique had always used non-toxic cleaners, but solvents had to be blended on site. The biodegradable products are ready to use, 10 per cent cheaper and do what Ranger wants: “effectively dig out accumulated dirt and grease.”
Wendy Helfenbaum is a writer and television producer in Montreal.
