More States Require 'Green' Cleaning Products

More states are requiring schools and government buildings to use environmentally friendly cleaning products, raising debate about their costs and benefits.

After a burst of legislation last year, 10 states including Connecticut, Illinois and New York require or encourage "green" floor waxes, window cleaners and other products in schools, according to Green Seal Inc., a nonprofit that certifies the products. Similar bills are expected to be debated this year in at least five states.

Critics say that while the measures are laudable, states should not mandate which products schools and agencies must buy, especially if they increase costs for governments that are struggling financially.

But supporters say the laws protect the environment and reduce the use of harsh chemicals that can harm workers' and children's health.

"The goal of the bill is to make schools and other public space less toxic and healthier for kids and the general public," said Democratic Rep. Cory Mason, sponsor of a bill in Wisconsin.

Nevada lawmakers watered down a bill last year that would have required green cleaning products in schools after school officials raised concerns about the cost and their lack of expertise in such cleaning. The bill signed by Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons only requires schools to use environmentally sensitive floor cleaners.

In Hawaii, Republican Gov. Linda Lingle last year vetoed a bill that would have required the Department of Education to give preference to products approved by Green Seal. She said it was inappropriate for the state to rely on certifications from "a single private organization." The Democratic-controlled Legislature overrode the veto.

Mason's plan, like those in other states, would require public buildings in Wisconsin to use cleaning and paper products certified as environmentally sensitive by the federal government or several private groups. But it also would encourage agencies to apply the products in ways that reduce water use and the amount of chemicals released into the air.

The Assembly natural resources committee voted 8-6 on Wednesday to approve the bill, which Republican critics said was unnecessary.

"It's an overreach of the state in telling local schools what they should do to keep themselves clean," said Rep. Jim Ott, R-Mequon.

The vote sends the measure to the full Assembly for approval. Senate sponsors of the bill have said they plan to seek approval after the Assembly.

Green cleaning products are widely available at prices comparable to traditional products. In some cases, manufacturers receive green certifications for products they have long had on the market. After a rocky start years ago, their effectiveness also is now comparable.

"There is no reason to pay a penny more to acquire green products. Plain and simple," said John Matthews, senior vice president for JohnsonDiversey. "And across the board, reputable companies are capable of making green products that perform well."

- Read More at ABC News

Top 25 Best Cleaning Tips Ever

Best cleaning tips we have ever heard!

Leave a comment and let us know your favorite or best cleaning tips ever!

1. Buffing a marble tabletop with nano polish leaves a thin, invisible film that helps reduce the risk of stains.
2. To stop bathroom mirrors steaming up, regularly rub a dry bar of soap over the surface and rub in with a clean cloth.
3. Stop clothes with thin straps falling off hangers by sticking small felt furniture pads onto the hanger just beyond where the straps sit.
4. To remove oil from silk clothing, gently rub cornflour into the area and lightly brush off. Cover the oil mark completely with more cornflour and leave to sit for a few hours. Shake clothing free of flour and then hand wash, or use a gentle machine cycle, using soap suitable for delicates.
5. To keep your car windows ice and frost free when left outside overnight in the wintertime, mix three parts vinegar to one part water, put it in a spray bottle and spray on the windows as needed.
6. To remove pollen from the stamen of flowers, take a piece of sticky tape about five centimetres long, gently press the sticky side to the pollen mark and lift off. Repeat with clean sticky tape as required. Do not try to brush it off.
7. To pick up small fragments of broken glass, press pieces of bread onto the affected area.
8. If you have an aquarium, save the water each time you change it and water your house plants with it. It’s full of nutrients and makes a great fertiliser.
9. To stop ants entering your house, draw a chalk line on the ground where you want them to stop. If you live in a rainy area where ants are a problem, you must re-draw the chalk lines each time it rains.
10. To deter silverfish, place whole cloves in wardrobes and drawers.
11. To get blood out of fabrics, use hydrogen peroxide. Apply it directly to the stain and then launder in the washing machine.
12. To remove body oil stains from collars and cuffs of coloured shirts and blouses, rub hair shampoo directly on the stains. Rinse out the shampoo, then wash the clothes as usual.
13. To prevent ash from flying everywhere when cleaning out a fireplace, use a spray bottle filled with microbial decontaminant to cover the ashes with a light mist.
14. To clean the bottom of the iron, sprinkle salt on the ironing board and iron back and forth.
15. To clean a microwave oven, add four tablespoons of lemon juice to one cup of water in a microwave-safe bowl. Boil for five minutes in the microwave, allowing the steam to condense on the inside walls of the oven. Then wipe them with a soft cloth.
16. To clean a stainless-steel sink, put the stopper in the sink with two denture-cleaning tablets and half fill with water; leave for several hours or overnight and the next day it should be sparkling. Then use the water to clean the draining board, too.
17. To remove marker pen off hard surfaces, spray on hair spray and then wipe it off.
18. To remove cat and dog hair from clothes and furniture, rub them with damp rubber gloves.
19. To clean your shower curtain, wash it in the washing machine with about one cup each of vinegar and bleach, some white towels and a normal amount of laundry detergent. Adding fabric softener will help keep the curtain clean. When the load is done, return the curtains to their place in the bathroom to drip dry. The wrinkles will disappear in a day or so. (Check your washing machine manual to ensure it’s okay to use bleach).
20. To clean glass windows, add about one tablespoon of cornstarch to about one litre of lukewarm water. Wet and a rag or squeegee, remove excessive water and wipe down glass as if using regular glass cleaner. Dry with either a soft cloth or paper.
21. To restore toilet bowls back to their shiny best, clean with old, flat Coke or Pepsi. To dissolve limescale, leave the soda overnight to soak. Then clean with a microbial bathroom cleaner.
22. Use a vacuum cleaner with a brush attachment to clean the tops and creases of Roman blinds.
23. Vacuuming a mattress, particularly along piping and crevices, removes dead skin cells that attract dust mites.
24. A good microbial decontaminate kills mould spores. Mix three drops in one litre of water and then use to wipe down areas susceptible to mould.
25. To get rid of the smell of garlic from your hands, rub against stainless steel – your sink is ideal. Then wash hands with soap and water and use a hand sanitizer.

The 5 Germiest Places to Be

By Jenny Everett, SELF magazine

Actress and celeb Megan Fox says that she has a phobia of germs—so much so that she won't use public bathrooms and recoils at restaurant cutlery. And, she's not the only woman who's freaked out by nasty bugs: In a Self.com poll, 75 percent of readers said they flush public toilets with their foot, and 63 percent avoid handrails on subways, buses, and escalators. 1 in 10 said they avoid shaking hands.

According to SELF contributor Maryn McKenna, author of Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA, we should at the very least be cautious and aware. And she should know. She's a self-described "scary disease" reporter who's been following around Centers for Disease Control detectives for years, tracking drug-resistant staph (a.k.a. MRSA)—a bug that was once contained to hospitals and jails, but in recent years has made its way into the general public. When she wrote about MRSA for SELF, her inbox exploded with women who had somehow been affected by this potentially fatal bug.

Freaked out after reading Superbug (put us in Megan Fox's corner), we asked Maryn for advice on avoiding MRSA and bad bugs in general. Here's what the scary disease reporter had to say.

The Gym

"I never wear shorts to the gym anymore and it's not just because I have awful thighs! I know there will be a day when I am lost in my workout and I will sit on a bench without wiping it down. It's impossible to be mindful 100 percent of the time and to me it's not worth the risk. At the very least, it's important to change out of your gym clothes immediately after your workout. Staph reproduces in sweaty, salty environments, so the longer you stay in your gym clothes the more likely you are to be at risk."

Germs at the Party

"Staph—all Staph—lives on our skin and in our nostrils. We are the carriers. It can of course live on us without making us sick, but certain environments (an extreme example would be an Army barracks) increase risk of infection." If you're somewhere crowded and sweaty and hot, wash your hands often. "The hands are the single easiest way to transport bugs, but washing your hands is like whacking them over the head with a hammer. The friction of rubbing your hands together jars them loose, then the suds lift them away from your skin so the water can rinse them away."

Germs at the Makeup Counter

"I am a total sucker for makeup, but makeup sampling freaks me out. Never ever try something that people are putting their fingers in. That skin contact transfers all kinds of bugs." If you're sketched out, ask the woman at the counter if she has a new tester you can use. They almost always say yes because they want to make the sale.


Germs in the Kitchen

"These types of bugs are starting to make it into the food chain so it's important to wash produce well and use separate cutting boards for meat. It's not about being paranoid, it's about incorporating simple steps into the workflow of your day."

Wonder when to expunge that kitchen sponge from your life? It's best to chuck it after about a week, or when it starts to smell funky. Why? Unsafe bacteria are probably lurking on the surface and could spread to your food.

Germs at the Doctor's Office

"Drug-resistant staph really exploded in healthcare. So if you're going to the hospital for, say, an out-patient surgery (even something as simple as a mole removal!) ask them about how they keep the place clean. Challenge them about it."

If you don't want to get sick when surrounded by sneezers, wash your hands or slap on some sanitizer as often as you can. Cold bugs don't become strongly rooted on your skin, which means soap and water will literally wash them away. Alcohol-based sanitizers kill viruses outright, and they're as effective as hand washing. Keep a small bottle on your desk and in your purse.

How Flesh-Eating Bacteria Ravage the Body

From CBS  - Serious flesh-eating infections of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA, affect 94,000 people in the U.S. each year and are linked to 19,000 deaths.




In 2005, Sandy Wilson was seven-and-a-half months pregnant when she got the infection. After an emergency C-section, her son wasn't affected. He's a happy 5-year-old today. But the disease horribly ravaged her body, hospitalizing her for nearly two-and-a-half years.

At one point, Wilson had an open cavity in her abdomen. She said in an exclusive interview on "The Early Show" she didn't think she'd be around to celebrate her son's first birthday.

"When I first looked at (the cavity), it was very hard," Wilson said. "And knowing what I had seen in the emergency room, I thought, you know, I can't live through that, because you can't live without your abdomen. An arm, a leg, you know, your vision, you can live without those. But you can't live without your abdomen. And I could read it on people's faces. They tried really hard to be encouraging, but I could read it."

A majority of the time she was ravaged by the flesh-eating bacteria, Wilson said, she was confused because of the anesthesia from her many surgeries.

"I had surgeries for the month or two after (the discovery of the infection) once a day, sometimes twice a day, going down to about every other day," Wilson said. "I didn't understand why I couldn't see (my son). So I was accusing everybody of keeping him away from me, and I also thought that he had died, and I had done something wrong. So I was being punished."

How did Wilson get the infection?

"They don't know," Wilson said. "I had roughly around 750 donors during that time, as well as a central line. I had an open C-section wound at the time. Also, I'm a pediatric emergency room nurse, so I could have been compromised with that prior to delivery."

CBS News Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton added, "This is really our worst nightmare in the medical profession. And I've seen this with a patient and we're talking here about a bacteria that is highly resistant to what we call our 'big gun' antibiotics."

She continued, "We always have staph bacteria all over us. About one percent of the population is what we say colonized with MRSA, usually, believe it or not in our nasal passages. And all it takes is either a sick person in the hospital or a person on the street with an open wound ... but that bacteria gets into the body, can become rampant, and gives you a condition called necrotizing fasciitis, and it is life threatening. About 50 percent -- one out of two patients -- with that condition can actually die from it."

Ashton explained the flesh-eating bacteria live in crowded places, such as daycare facilities or prisons, or anywhere there's close contact. A compromise in your skin, she said, gives an "in" for the bacteria to grow.

"Contaminated items is another factor," Ashton said. "Sporting equipment, things at health clubs, razor blades. Do not share those things. And lastly, of course, lack of cleanliness. In a hospital, we see lot of this, but it's also seen a lot in the community."

Ashton said washing your hands is one of the most important things to safeguard against this bacteria.

MRSA, CBS News co-anchor Erica Hill pointed out, can look in its early stages like a spider bite.

Ashton added the bacteria move fast from that point on: "When you start to get a fever, low blood pressure, that's an indication that it's systemic through your body."