Reducing indoor air pollutants and toxic chemicals in hospitals

- The contribution of hospital flooring -

Martin DuskeManager Market Segment Health Care and Sustainability, Europe

nora Systems GmbH, Weinheim, GermanyContact: martin.duske@nora.com

London, September 11, 2013

Study on Healthy and Sustainable Flooring by Health Care Without Harm

Study on Healthy and Sustainable Flooring by Health Care Without Harm

“The ideal resilient flooring is non-toxic throughout its life cycle, practical (hygienic and easy to clean), durable, safe, silent underfoot, visually pleasant and cost-effective.”

Practical experience

• Hazardous and toxic chemicals• Indoor air pollution• Underfoot comfort• Installation problems• Expensive and difficult cleaning• Life Cycle Costs

“The cheapest product turns out to be the most expensive option over life time”

Topics of this presentation

• Avoiding toxic chemicals and emissions– Criteria– Certification systems and eco labels– Alternative options

• Products’ surfaces and their impact on cleaning and maintenance– Systems available– Cleaning and maintenance impacts– A chemical – free cleaning and maintenance option

Avoiding Toxic Chemicals and Emissions

• Consider the overall environmental impact of manufacture, use and disposal, including any use of toxic chemicals

• Eliminate materials that use, emit or lead to production of hazardous chemicals

1. Avoiding Toxic Chemicals and Emissions

Avoiding hazardous chemicals during lifetime

• Avoid materials known or suspected to contain carcinogens, mutagens, reproductive or developmental toxicants (CMR’s), endocrine disruptors

Avoiding hazardous chemicals during lifetime

• Avoid any material emitting volatile or semi-volatile organic compounds (VOC’s, SVOC’s), e.g.

Examples: • VOC’s Formaldehyde, solvents e.g. benzene, toluene,

xylene, emitting fast in the first days • SVOC’s: phtalates and halogenated flame retardants,

can attach to dust particles and emit slowly over the time

EPD’s to 14025 give detailed documentation

http://bau-umwelt.de/hp481/Environmental-Product-Declarations-EPD.htm

US Group Kaiser Permanente Replacing PVC by rubber

Eco certification of flooring

• BREEAM, BRE Class A+ only Formaldehyde,no other criteria

• Greenguard children and VOC’s, Ammonia, etc. School (California 1350)

• M1 Finland ammonia, aldehydes and smell

• French emission label VOC’s, Formaldehyde

Eco certification of flooring

Blue Angel Germany – RAL UZ 120

Criteria for resilient flooring:• Lowest levels of TVOCs and VOCs• Confirmed absence of carcinogenic, mutagenic and

reprotoxic substances as to EU regulations• Additional limits for other relevant substances to highest

requirements (e.g. LCI list)• Absence of halogens and phthalates

of any kind!

No PVC floors possible with Blue Angel label!

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Testing Standards

Chamber Test

Chamber Test

… but chamber tests alone are very theoretical, aspects of practical use are not sufficiently considered!

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http://www.informedesign.org/Rs_detail.aspx?rsId=3320

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Additional criteria: The installed floor

Working Group in Finland (University of Kuopio 2007) finds out:

– Emission rates of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and ammonia measured from six PVC materials and four adhesives in the laboratory were compared to the emission rates measured on site from complete structures. Significant higher specific emission rates (SER’s) were generally measured from the complete structures than from individual materials….The contribution from adhesives used in the installation was clear.

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Additional criteria: the installed floor

Working Group in Finland (University of Kuopio 2007) “The testing of complete structures would also in general provide a better approach to evaluate the actual emissions from the combined materials.”

Summary: Avoiding Toxic Chemicals

• Ecolabels can help to prove criteria of safety and sustainability

• The most relevant labels should be chosen, the German Blue Angel offers the most complete criteria

• However, Ecolabels are based upon lab tests only, practical experience is lacking

• Package testing and certification is recommended to evaluate the actual emissions of the combined materials

2. Products’ surfaces and their impact on cleaning and maintenance

Cleaning & Maintenance

Source: Dr. Jürgen Schmiegel, Piepenbrock (Facility Management Company /Germany);April 2011

Rubber surface, 1:500

Linoleum surface 1:500

PVC surface 1:500

“Permanent” surface protections

Typical damages

Surface protections cracking or worn off ….

Traditional floorings require stripping and coating

Stripping and coating meansusing highly alkaline chemicalsto remove old coatings and toapply a new layer of coating afterwards.

This process is repeated regularlyand requires- interruption of use of the rooms for at least 24 hours- aggressive chemicals that cause disposal problems- high cleaning and maintenance budgets

New comparative flooring study

Study:

Investigation on Material and Bacteriological Characteristics of Resilient Flooring Materials

Period: 05.05.2011 – 29.2.2012

Prof. Dr. Kurt Schilcher et al.

Report: DI (FH) Markus Hochleitner

New comparative flooring study

Target: • Evaluation of cleaning

characteristics• Testing of stability of surface

protection and other product characteristics

• Testing of bacteriological behaviour

New comparative flooring study

Methods:

• Manual mopping with neutral cleaner

• Machine cleaning with neutral cleaner

• Machine cleaning with diamond pads (without chemicals, only water)

New comparative flooring study

Testing different types of flooring with different cleaning methods over 6 months:

- PVC with PU coating- Linoleum with surface finish- Rubber floors without protection

Thickness of protective layers after 5 months: all coatings have disappeared

PVC 1 Lino 1 Lino 2 PVC 2

Type of coating none none surface finish surface finish

Area 1: manual cleaning w. chem.

Area 2: machine cleaning w. chem.

Area 3: nora pads w/o chem.

Development of thickness of protections

Bacteriological Tests

PVC 1 noraplan norament Lino 1 Lino 2 PVC 2

PVC 1 noraplan norament Lino 1 Lino 2 PVC 2

Escherichia Coli Bacteria Staphylococcus Aureus

Recovery rates after cleaning obtained by set-off tests:

no significant differences between flooring and cleaning methods

Teachings from this study

• Surface protections have a very short life time on floors in a hospital environment. Life time shortens even more if machine cleaning is applied

• Surface protections and finishes are not suitable for diamond pad cleaning

• Once a protection or finish has been worn off, protective measures are required to obtain satisfactory cleaning results. Especially Linoleum floors need such protection to avoid subsequent deterioration

• The uncoated surfaces of the tested rubber floors show excellent cleaning behavior under all tested cleaning methods

• Bacteriological investigations show especially that the chemical free cleaning method with diamond pads on rubber floors is at least as suitable as other methods where chemicals are used

• As to cleaning results the diamond pad cleaning system gives high satisfaction and also options to obtain glossy or mat surfaces

Diamond Pad Cleaning in LNK Linz

Since May 2013 this hospital is maintaining the new rubber floors nearly without chemicals!

Diamond pad cleaning (nora pads)

A chemical free cleaning method that requires only water

Suitable for all cleaning machines

Can be combined with manual mopping and disinfection methods

Developed originally for ceramic floor and specifically adapted for nora rubber floors (not suitable on coated or porous floor surfaces)

Cleaning a 12 year old rubber floor – only with water

This floor was never stripped before

Rehazentrum Judenburg Straßengel, Austria

noraplan plus 8 years old, surface before cleaning

noraplan plus 8 years old, surface after cleaning

Rehazentrum Judenburg Straßengel

Buffing with nora Pad 1

LKH Judenburg

Without chemicals

LKH Judenburg

Mat without chemicals

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Long-term effect of diamond pad cleaning on rubber floors

Long term test Without Pad

High spot

Low spot

Medium value before the test

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Long-term effect of diamond pad cleaning on rubber floors

After the test: reduction of roughness

After 10 years simulation(3600 cycles)

Environmental Impact of Diamond Pads

Diamond Pads

Diamond Pads

Damage assessment includingmachines

Environmental Impact of Diamond Pads

Diamond Pads

Damage assessment of consumables only

Summary: Cleaning and Maintenance

• Most resilient floors on the market come with a factory-applied protective layer of PU or other and / or require regular renewal of this layer

• Coatings of all kinds have a limited life time that depends on use, intensity of traffic and cleaning methods

• Uncoated materials with closed surfaces such as quality rubber floors are more easy to maintain, also with diamond pads

• Diamond pads do not require chemicals, just water

Reducing indoor air pollutants and toxic chemicals in hospitals - Summary

• With adequate testing and eco-labelling it is possible to obtain non-toxic flooring materials

• Package testing is an additional tool to avoid toxic emissions from complete structures

• Floor cleaning methods and renewal of coatings may imply the use of aggressive chemicals

• Alternatively, the closed surface of certain types of floors allows to reduce chemicals to a minimum, even with diamond pads cleaning is possible with water only