A Healthy, Sustainable Environment For Our Schools
By Gary Niemi
According to the American Lung Association, “Asthma is one of the most common chronic disorders in childhood, currently affecting an estimated 7.1 million children under 18 years.”
They also say that, “Asthma is a reversible obstructive lung disease, caused by increased reaction of the airways to various stimuli. Asthma can be a life-threatening disease if not properly managed. In 2008, asthma accounted for an estimated 14.4 million lost school days in children.”
Anthony, one of our Custodians pictured using the Orbio Machine
These statistics plus the fact that one of the four goals of the School District of Superior is to “develop and maintain a healthy, physical, emotional, and sustainable environment,” make us want to cover every base in reducing asthma attacks in our students. Since cleaning products may be a “stimuli”, or asthma trigger, we have taken great effort to eliminate the cleaning products we use that may have harmful effects.
In 2011 and 2012 we started using Orbio machines to generate an alkaline (pH 10 to 11.5) cleaning solution that leaves no residue. These machines use water, electricity and salt to make this cleaning solution. We have one machine based at Superior Middle School and one based at Superior High School. From there we distribute the cleaning solution in 55 gallon drums to the other schools for use in daily cleaning.
According to Patti Grosnick, Custodial Supervisor, the “Orbio solution works as well as or better than what we used before. I was convinced because it’s not harsh for the environment and it doesn’t affect indoor air quality. It’s also removing the dingy film from the nine-year-old middle school floors.”
PathosSans Machine
In 2013 we added a PathoSans machine to our inventory. This machine, based at Northern Lights Elementary, uses technology similar to the Orbio machines, but in addition to producing PathoClean, an alkaline cleaning solution, it also produces PathoCide, a slightly acidic, pH 3.5 to 6, disinfecting and sanitizing solution.
We distribute this sanitizer throughout the District to disinfect any surfaces where we previously used a chemical disinfectant. We regularly test disinfected surfaces with a Hygiena SystemSure Plus ATP monitor and have found that the PathoCide consistently kill germs as effectively as bleach. Plus it is far less harmful and harsh to use.
Clarke Boost Autoscrubber
A third “green” machine that we’ve been using since 2008 is the Clarke Boost Autoscrubber. This is a floor scrubbing machine that uses a multidirectional, rectangular scrubbing pad, much like a large random orbital sander, rather than the traditional rotating disc pad used by other scrubbers. This machine not only does an excellent job of scrubbing floors, but it also allows us to strip floors without using any chemical stripper. We only use water. This not only saves us the cost of buying the toxic chemical stripper, but it makes floor stripping a one-person job instead of the two people needed with the chemical stripper for safety reasons. Best of all, there are no chemicals released into the air. This machine has been a custodial favorite since we purchased our first one.
Just three of the many ways we’re making our schools cleaner and greener. We like to think that our cleaning techniques and tools, make our school safer for your children at the same time.
