Are Carpet Cleaners Safe?

Any good housekeeper worth his/her salt feels that a rug or a carpet should be cleaned and/or shampooed at least once or twice a year. It is an unavoidable fact of life that carpets and rugs in use in a normal house will become dirty and collect harmful substances from guests who refuse to wipe their feet upon entering a home, children who find the surface congenial for playing on, pets who often find it pleasant to do their business upon, people who just happen to spill drinks or food on them and the list goes on ad infinitum. Consequently the housekeeper naturally feels that in order for the house to be clean and perhaps more importantly, healthy, the carpet/rug must be cleaned.

The question however is - is it really the healthy thing to do? Like other cleaners, carpet cleaners may contain toxic ingredients, some of which are not listed on labels because they are considered "proprietary" or "trade secrets". Some cleaners, especially spot removers, can be particularly dangerous since they contain chemical solvents similar to those used by dry cleaners, dissolve dirt without the aid of soap or water but emit strong odors. Other potentially problematic ingredients in carpet cleaners include other compounds that produce lots of fumes (such as formaldehyde), harmful acids, pesticides, disinfectants, lye (sodium hydroxide), and others.

One should be especially careful with stain repellants such as 3Ms popular Scotchgard® line of products. The key ingredient of this product is perfluoro-octane sulfonate (PFOS), was once portrayed as chemically inert, but recent research shows that it is a persistent organic pollutant (POP). PFOS, a suspected hormone disruptor, accumulates in the environment and the tissue of animals and humans. Despite ample evidence of PFOS's persistence, 3M kept it on the market for 40 years. In spring 2000, 3M announced it would phase out PFOS products by the year 2002. The main ingredient of Teflon often used to protect fabrics is also under investigation.

Obviously the manner in which the toxic chemicals, usually found in carpet cleaners, affects a human being is through inhalation. During application and while drying, the chemicals in carpet cleaners and protectors evaporate and may concentrate in the air, causing indoor air pollution. This is more likely if the room is not well ventilated, the weather is hot and humid or the room is damp.

Carpet shampoos often leave a sticky residue on carpet fibers. The residue is usually hard to see or feel although it can make carpets feel rougher and often has an unpleasant odor. Not only does the residue attract and store dirt, but children, who crawl and play on such carpets, can inhale these residues and get them on their hands, which often go into their mouths.

The diseases most often associated with carpet cleaners are asthma, chronic allergies, heart disease and cancer. Although there is no conclusive scientific evidence linking carpet cleaners and Kawasaki Disease, there is enough circumstantial evidence to warrant taking precautions and so the Children's Health Environmental Coalition (CHEC) recommends that children stay out of the house for at least four hours after carpets have been cleaned by any method.

So the answer to the question: "Are Carpet Cleaners Safe" is probably not, unless proper precautions are taken.