Professional Cleaners already know that the cleaning products they use at work clean a lot better than the products they use at home. It is a known fact that professional cleaning products work better than those that can be purchased at the supermarket or hardware store.
During our training sessions, we often get the questions why we do not promote or use bleach. According to the course participants bleach is an excellent cleaning product. Also - and most importantly - they love the scent. "You can smell the area has been cleaned properly!"
Where does the idea come from? Is bleach a cleaning agent? Well, lets first start with the question;
What is cleaning?
Briefly summarized: Cleaning is removing dirt from an undesirable place.
And this is the thing; Bleached water does not remove dirt. It merely seems as if the dirt is removed by the product, but the dirt is only bleached. It is therefore a persistent misunderstanding that bleach is a cleaning agent.
Then why do so many believe that chlorine / bleach is a cleaning agent?
This dates back to the "good ol' days". Our parents showed us how to clean. They were always right and if Grandma also confirmed all of that then it had to be true! Old habits die hard...
Then we always get a second argument; "Ok, I understand that bleach is not a cleaning agent. But I do need to disinfect a toilet".
The question is: "Why should you disinfect your toilet?" If you clean a toilet properly, you will remove >98% of the bacteria. In a hospital, chlorine tablets are used as a disinfectant. However, disinfection in a hospital only happens if there is an indication of a resistant bacterium. The disinfection follows a strict protocol. In hospitals the toilet in a patient's room is not disinfected. In most cases properly cleaning is more than enough. If you need to sanitize, then we have good alternatives that are also much more environmentally friendly.
Lets hope this blog contributes to the reduction of bleach usage. Because using bleach has some serious disadvantages.
- I already mentioned it briefly; Chlorine is very bad for the environment. In the sewer or sewage treatment plant, chlorine can form chemical compounds with other substances. These compounds are very difficult to degrade and harmful to the environment. Furthermore, producing chlorine costs a lot of energy.
- Bleach water also has some disadvantages for you as a person. The bleach can create dangerous chlorine gas and chloramines. Chloramines are chlorine-nitrogen compounds that irritate the respiratory tract and eyes. Chlorine gas is a very toxic and corrosive gas that can be released if you mix bleach with other products, in particular acids. Did you know that by urinating in a toilet that contains bleach, toxic chlorine gas is created?
Take care of the Island,
take care of the environment,
and last but not least; take care of yourself!
