High Cost of Foodborne Illness
A single outbreak of foodborne illness can cost a foodservice operation as much as $75,000 in legal fees, medical claims, lost employee wages, cleaning and sanitizing, discarded food supplies, and lost income from negative publicity and/or being shut down. That figure increases dramatically if the incident involves death or serious injury.
National Restaurant Association
By Daniel Stih
HEPA means High Efficiency Particle Arrestance. HEPA products remove 99.97% of particles 0.3 microns and greater in size. If you don't have a good HEPA vacuum, the small, unseen particles are blown back out of the vacuum into the air. Sometimes you can smell them.
Nowadays, you can find HEPA vacuums at just about every department store. Most of these are not HEPA. Many are junk. Manufacturers are not required by law to test their products and there are no consumer protection laws regarding what can be labeled a HEPA vacuum.
How to find an effective HEPA vacuum cleaner:
Testing [by the author] with a laser particle counter has found a few brands that are truly HEPA: Nilfisk, Miele and Sebo (model with the HEPA type "S-Class" filtration micro filter). Miele also sells a non-HEPA vacuum, which performs better than most other brands claiming to be HEPA. This is probably due to the gasket design that prevents air from going around the filter. Water and bagless filters often do not test to meet HEPA requirements.
If you don't have a good vacuum cleaner, there are some things you can do to protect your health and those around you when vacuuming:
Never allow hired help to use their vacuum cleaner. You don't know where it's been.
[Editor's note: Although this article was written for consumers, it is also relevant to the commercial cleaning industry.]
Excerpted with permission from Healthy Living Spaces: Top 10 Hazards Affecting Your Health by Daniel Stih. Visit www.healthylivingspaces.com.
(Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent those of KaiScience.)
Daniel Stih has a B.S.E. in Aerospace Engineering and is an indoor air quality and environmental consultant. Dan started Healthy Living Spaces out of concern for other people's health, and is the author of the book, Healthy Living Spaces, Top Ten Hazards Affecting Your Health.
Popular Topics: MRSA | Staph | Norovirus | Flu | E. Coli | C. Difficile | Salmonella | Cleaning for Health | Nosocomial Infections | Disinfection | Bacteria | Viruses | Indoor Air Quality | Asthma | Allergies | Allergen | Mold
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Comment by Charlene Bayer on March 28th, 2008 at 9:48am
It is an informative article that addresses an important point. However, is it realistic for the average vacuum cleaner salesperson to have a laser particle counter, really know how to use it, and for the average consumer to really understand what they are seeing? I think that it is an opportunity for some salespeople to "pull the wool over the eyes" of many consumers.
Dr. Charlene W. Bayer
Leader, Environmental Exposures & Analysis Group
Georgia Tech Research Institute