Establishing municipal and school district asthma-safe environmentally preferable purchasing specifications for institutional cleaners and disinfectants

The Board of Supervisors-appointed Asthma Task Force has forged an important partnership with the San Francisco Department of the Environment to amend the City's Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) specification to better reflect current knowledge about chemical ingredients known to cause or exacerbate asthma. Our goal is to establish asthma-safe purchasing specifications for institutional cleaning products used by City and County of San Francisco agencies and the SF Unified School District. Additionally, we would like to correctly advise numerous child care operators who are requesting guidance on how to avoid using chlorine-based disinfectants. The project began with a learning session led by occupational health experts to guide the City's EPP consultants, where current research-based knowledge about respiratory irritants, respiratory sensitizers and asthmagens were reviewed. These chemicals are often found as chemical ingredients of institutional cleaning products. Project outcomes will include: 1)Amending the City's current EPP specification to include respiratory health-protective criteria; 2)Amending the EPP specification to include specific brand-name institutional cleaning and disinfectant products that meet the new respiratory health-protective criteria; and 3)Expanding the EPP specification's listing of prohibited chemical ingredients, based on their classification as respiratory health hazards. As a result of this partnership, we hope to prevent the development of occupational asthma, and to protect building occupants who already have asthma.