Cleaning Industry News April 2008

DANGERS TRANSPORTING WINDOW CLEANING WATER-FED POLE SYSTEMS
The professional window cleaner magazine is reporting that many window cleaners changing to the pure water pole system may be unaware of the dangers when driving with such a system fixed in their vans.

Although It has been common knowledge in the window cleaning industry, that carrying large volumes of water in a van, to support these reach and wash pole systems, can be very dangerous in an accident, many are still driving vehicles fitted out with water tanks, that are not guaranteed to stay secure on impact.

Many window cleaners vans only have a bulkhead or steel partition separating the water tank and poles from the cab. Unfortunately these bulkheads are not designed to withstand impact, and offer very little protection to the driver and passengers. The magazine warns that in a head on crash at 30mph, a 1000 litre tank will exert a force of 52 tonnes, which could slide forward on impact.

Obviously not all systems require such a large tank of water, but equally not all window cleaners even have their tanks securely fixed in the vehicle. Some suppliers of these pole systems install water tanks by simply bolting them to the thin steel floor of the vehicle floor, which may not be enough to withstand the force of a head on crash.

Window cleaners are therefore advised to inquire fully into the safety aspects of the pole system they are having installed before purchase, and ensure suppliers do not play down the importance of this possible danger.

Source: Professional window cleaner magazine.

ENDS

THE ISSA/INTERCLEAN 2008 WORLD TRADE SHOW RETURNS TO AMSTERDAM
The biggest and most international cleaning trade show in the world, returns to the Amsterdam RAI exhibition centre on May 6th-9th 2008. This highly anticipated biennial event is more than simply a cleaning industry trade show. It is also a meeting place for debate, and the premier location for the transfer of new technologies across the cleaning and maintenance industries.

The last Amsterdam show in 2006, was a big success, with a total of over 25000 industry professionals attending from 121 countries worldwide. Sixty percent of visitors came from abroad, and among the 535 exhibitors, there were 35 countries represented.

Instead of the one large hall as before, this time the show will occupy three new halls at the front of the RAI complex, giving an extra 4000 square metres (43,000 square feet) of floor space, There will be five pavilions representing businesses from Italy, Spain, France, USA and the UK. This year there will also be a much needed additional restaurant.

As well as the usual floor machine and carpet cleaning machine demonstrations within the halls, an additional demonstration area outside the main entrance, will allow visitors to see the latest high reach platforms and window cleaning pole systems. Also demonstrated in this designated area will be the shows newest feature consisting of a variety of large outdoor sweeping and cleaning machines.

As members of the ISSA, we here at A1 cleaning supplies will be attending in order to see, order and then hopefully, continue to offer our customers, all the very latest products and innovations that could benefit your business. For further information: ISSA/INTERCLEAN 2008.

ENDS

Window Cleaning bill of £100,000 per year shocks Scottish MP's
Ian Swansons, the Scottish Political Editor of The Scotsman newspaper recently reported that window cleaning at the Scottish Parliamentary building, Holyrood, is costing in excess of £100,000 per year.

Mitie Ltd, who hold the cleaning contract say that the window cleaning is expensive because the awkward angle of many of the windows on the £414 million building, means abseilers have to be brought in for the job.

The SNP backbencher Alex Neil who is the Member of the Scottish Parliament who first uncovered the figures said: "It seems an awful lot of money to spend on cleaning windows and it is proving an expensive building to keep up". He made his comments on discovering that more than £500,000 per annum is also being spent on the day to day cleaning. He is reported as saying that Parliament chiefs need to investigate ways to bring the massive bill down.

Independent Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald, a long-standing critic of the building, said the costs were "horrendous", and she said she thought there was little could be done now to retrieve the situation. She said: "It's much too late, the warnings we put up were swept aside. I don't think anything can be done about it now. Presumably they go for the most competitive tender."

Ms MacDonald said the big bill for cleaning costs was due to the "self-indulgence of the design" with all the awkward spaces and difficult-to-reach nooks and crannies around the building. But she said: "Unless we are all prepared to take it in shifts and bring in our dusters, I don't see any other way."

A parliament spokesman said: "Holyrood is an award-winning building of individual and iconic design and its maintenance requirements are those associated with running a landmark building."

Source: The Scotsman Newspaper

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Orange scented cleaners and air fresheners are a big hit in prisons
With many environmentally green cleaning products these days being derived from oranges, particularly the d'limonene oil that is used in most orange-scented cleaners and air fresheners, it came as no shock to read
that even criminals prefer this ever popular scent.

A recent story published in the Daily Telegraph, stated that a new study in the Netherlands, had found that tough criminals in Rotterdam, became less aggressive and had fewer fights when exposed to the scent of oranges, especially nowadays when many of their cleaning chemicals and sprays are derived from oranges.

Rotterdam police said the four-week study suggested that criminals, many of them violent drug pushers, were calmer and more malleable when the scent was circulated through cell air vents. "It's amazing, fighting in the cells has been dramatically reduced and we are using 10 per cent fewer sedation drugs," Rotterdam head of police social services said. Rotterdam has one of the highest crime rates in the Netherlands, with violent drug-related crimes accounting for more than half of arrests.

D-Limonene is a very versatile and completely natural chemical which can be used in a wide variety of applications. It is extremely safe and more effective than typical cleaning solutions. In the past decade, its use
has expanded tremendously, but the largest growth segment has been in both industrial and domestic cleaning products, where it can be used either as a straight solvent, or as a product dilutable with water.

ENDS

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