Executive Housekeeping Today - March 2008 - (Page 12)

Mold reMoval (continued from page 10) faster with less chance for further mold growth); • Economic—no expensive chemicals; and • Environmentally-friendly—as only clean water can be! Vapor Proof It’s easy to claim that steam vapor is effective for killing and removing mold from wet carpet because of its inherent heat and penetrating power, but now there is concrete, independent research to prove it. A recent study—sponsored by the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI), funded in part by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and conducted by researchers at the University of St. Louis School of Public Health in St. Louis, MO—compared the effectiveness of three cleaning methods in removing mold from wet carpet: high-flow hot water extraction, hot water with detergent, and steam vapor with Thermal Accelerated Nano Crystal Sanitation (TANCS®) technology. For the study, researchers simulated an average home’s carpet that might be found in a flooded basement, and embedded house dust into 60 carpet samples, grinding the dirt in using a special tumbler to simulate one year of carpet wear from real-life traffic conditions. Next, the researchers wetted and inoculated the carpet with Cladosporium sphaerospermum (a common mold spore) and placed the carpet on top of a water-logged foam pad. To avoid cross contamination, the samples were housed in separate compartments with at least 75 percent relative humidity. Then the researchers waited, leaving the carpet to incubate for 24 hours, for seven days, and for 30 days. At the end of each time period, the samples were cleaned using the three selected cleaning methods. The steam vapor with TANCS technology emerged the clear winner, as the abstract of the study relates: “Significant differences were found among all three methods for removal of fungi over time. Steam was significantly better than the other two methods with 99 percent efficiency in removal of Cladosporium sphaerospermum from wetted carpet after 24 hours and 30 days incubation time, with 92 percent efficiency after seven days. “The other two methods had declining efficiencies of fungal removal over time, from a maximum of 82 percent and 81 percent at 24 hours, down to 60 percent and 43 percent at 30 days for detergent and high-flow, hot water extraction, respectively. The net effect of the mold management study demonstrates that while steam has a nearly constant fungal removal rate, the detergency and high-flow, hot water methods decline in efficiency with increasing fungal growth.” casing. “Using TANCS treated water for steam generation; bacteria, spores, and viruses become more susceptible to heat,” Hoverson explains. “TANCS weakens the outer spore shell so the heat penetrates it more quickly, delivering a lethal thermal shock to the cell proteins so they die. And, we do all this using just plain old tap water.” When steam vapor is proven to be more efficient—and is safer, more economical, less labor intensive, and environmentally-friendly—there is every reason for carpet care and remediation professionals to include it in their mold removal arsenals. W Allen P. Rathey is President of InstructionLink/JanTrain, Inc. and Founder/President of the Housekeeping Channel® (www.housekeepingchannel. com) located in Boise, ID. He may be reached at amobile@jantrain.com. TANCS Uniqueness Mark Your Calendar! “TANCS is a proprietary water treatment system that works to charge the water to make it more efficient in delivering latent heat in the steam vapor to the proteins inside the organisms it is applied to,” says Hoverson. “Molds and fungi use spores to reproduce,” he says. “Spores are encased, like an egg or a tough vegetable seed, and the airborne, encased spores that land on a surface can remain viable many months. Because spores are so hardy, it is clear you need something capable of destroying them.” Studies have shown that TANCS technology forms nano crystals within regular tap water. When the water is transformed into steam vapor, the crystals become energized, which are thought to weaken the cell membrane or International Housekeepers Week September 14-20, 2008 2 Executive Housekeeping Today/March 2008 http://www.housekeepingchannel.com http://www.housekeepingchannel.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Executive Housekeeping Today - March 2008

Executive Housekeeping Today - March 2008 Contents Executive Corner Mold Issues: Restoration and Prevention Mold Removal with Steam Vapor: Study Validates New Technology Frugal Housekeeper Executive Housekeeping Today Virtual Magazine is a Big Hit with Readers! Executive Profile The Green Scene 2008 Convention Information Inside the Industry Product Highlights New Members Joint IEHA/ISSA Members Advertisers' Index Calendar of Events Inside I.E.H.A. What I.E.H.A. Has Done For Me

Executive Housekeeping Today - March 2008

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