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I had a customer mention this disease the other day and its possible connection to carpet cleaning chemicals. Evidently it has gained some attention because John Travoltas child was diagnosed with this disease and experts are exploring a link to the onset of this disease in small children and exposure to certain chemicals found in cleaning products. My research has consisted of googling “john travolta carpet cleaning” (which did yield some interesting reading). Has anyone learned anything on this subject????
I will be the first to apoligize to anyone I may have affended. It was ment only as a (dry humor John) joke. Sorry John…
I have never had this question come up from a customer but if I did, I think I would handle it like this:
“Kawasaki disease is very rare but certainly a concern, however, no studies have proven that it stemmed directly from carpet cleaning and Heaven’s Best has never been a company involved in any of the known cases.”
From the link I scanned through quickly, I believe this is a fair statement. Keep in mind that customers use hundreds of air fresheners, disinfectants, cleaning products, hair products, plant fertilizers, pet pesticides, lawn chemicals, etc., etc. Not one of our products, when used correctly, have ever concerned me. The harsh products such as coffee remover, red dye remover, TGP, dry solvent, ink, rust & blood removers all need to be completely flushed from the carpet after use. This will eliminate the risk of leaving any harmful residues in the carpet fibers. Our stain protector, while airborne, is somewhat harmful to the respiratory
system. We, the operators, are the ones at risk as we are exposed to these products on a daily bases. The customers are not.
I did some more reading on this subject last night. In 1992 when this disease came to diagnosis in Denver 11 of 23 cases had their carpets cleaned in the past 6 months. Of those 11, 10 had rented a machine or used a retail spot remover, only one used a professional. The more I read on this the more doctors and researchers do not find any correlation to using a professional carpet cleaner. There are people out there who know about this disease and the rumors surrounding its connection to cleaning products…I think it’s important we are equipped with knowledge and do not use flip comments if questioned by potential customers.
Dan:
Thank you for the info. It definitely pays to be aware of anything (true or not) surrounding our industry.
I had a first-time customer ask if we could include a miracle deodorizer (Knock Out) to our cleaning solution, he was willing to sign a release form. Without hesitation I told him we would not ad this or any other product in our cleaning system. He was adamant about wanting us to use this product as he as found it works great on any odor. He was so insistent I almost refused to take the job. He finally agreed to give our product line a chance. Bottom line we not only have a contract to use HB products exclusively, we risk a huge liability by going outside products.
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