The green cleaning movement has made giant strides in the past few years. Many chemicals and products that were once considered pricy and poor performers are now viewed as effective and cost-competitive. Further, technology has advanced to the point that green equivalents are now available for just about all cleaning products used for virtually all cleaning tasks. This makes it easy to “go green” and is why many healthcare facilities have found transferring to green cleaning to be much easier than originally anticipated.
However, there is one exception, and a major one for those in the U.S. healthcare industry. As things stand now, a facility that wishes to use an environmentally preferable disinfectant encounters a variety of roadblocks. This is because in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classifies disinfectants as pesticides. They are required to be strictly regulated by the EPA as a result of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), which was passed more than 60 years ago.
The act has been amended over the years, with a major revision in 1972 and less noteworthy changes made in 1984 and again in 1996. However, as we will discuss further, another revision — this time one quite significant — is slowly moving up the pipeline and could make substantial changes in green cleaning, specifically regarding the use of more environmentally responsible disinfectants.
