“How great it would be if we could all share what we know about green cleaning…”

     – Carol Westinghouse, INFORM

It is now clear that some of the chemicals that are part of our daily lives are having profound impacts on our health. Studies show that some common cleaning products contain ingredients that can cause new-onset asthma or provoke asthma episodes. Others contain ingredients that may cause hormone disruption, or even cancer.

The good news is that these negative health impacts can be prevented. Efforts to reform government policies on chemicals in order to protect public health – especially on behalf of the most vulnerable populations, such as children and workers who apply these chemicals in institutional settings – are slowly beginning to pay off with new grassroots initiatives and public policy.

Part of the credit for this progress goes to The National Collaborative Work Group on Green Cleaning and Chemical Policy and Practice in Schools. The working group was formed in 2007, spearheaded by the Healthy Schools Network, an advocacy group dedicated to ensuring that every child has a healthy learning environment. The mission is to advance policy reform for chemicals used in schools and to raise awareness of “Cleaning for Health” as an essential approach to protecting child and worker health by using safer chemical products and improved practices.

INFORM’s Cleaning for Health Program Manager, Carol Westinghouse, played two roles within the Collaborative. The first has involved serving as 1 of 3 representatives chosen from the non-governmental organization community to work with Green Seal – an international eco-labeling nonprofit organization – to make its third-party certification criteria for green-rated cleaning products more stringent and to take children’s health into account. This revision is essential if Green Seal’s labeling is to continue protecting the public and representing environmental leadership in the marketplace.

In addition to working with Green Seal, Carol joined forces with other National Collaborative members to develop a series of modules that will educate various constituencies within the school community about the importance of implementing programs to improve indoor air quality in schools. “By pooling our resources,” says Carol, “the working group developed an open source, customizable toolkit that will be a huge help to schools and various stakeholder groups in schools that want to implement their own Cleaning for Health programs.”

Carol contributed the materials she developed over the past four years for INFORM’s Cleaning for Health program – Powerpoint presentations, fact sheets and manuals – as building blocks for the modules, with other Collaborative members then adding their own materials and expertise.

The toolkit will soon be available free of charge on the INFORM website as well as on The National Collaborative website which is under construction.

One of Carol’s goals – which is shared with the Collaborative – is to educate entire communities about the need for green-cleaned schools. “Once the public understands the connection between cleaning chemicals and healthy indoor air quality, there will be a true, nationwide grassroots movement to push for school chemical policy reform,” says Carol. “We need to make our country’s 120,000 schools clean and healthy environments for children and workers alike.”

For more information about INFORM’s Cleaning for Health program, please contact Carol Westinghouse at westies@ecoisp.com, or call 802.626.8643.