Everyone deserves protection from the harmful effects of chemicals, including the workers who use the cleaning products, employees, and those who visit buildings daily. Everyone appreciates a well-cleaned home, work environment, and public space. These dual goals are made possible through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Safer Choice cleaning product program.
A US$1.2 million grant from the EPA has created the Making Safer Choices project, spearheaded by ISSA in collaboration with Penn State College of Medicine and City University of New York (CUNY) School of Medicine. The Making Safer Choices project aims to drive the adoption of EPA-certified Safer Choice products across Pennsylvania and New York.
The project will increase awareness and utilization of over 2,145 Safer Choice-labeled cleaning products in businesses, schools, and communities. Dr. Gavin Macgregor-Skinner, senior director of the Global Biorisk Advisory Council™ (GBAC™), a division of ISSA, notes that EPA Safer Choice-certified products are nearly all manufactured by U.S.-based companies. “Everyone in the cleaning industry is excited about the project and the trusted partnerships it will build to protect the health of businesses, cleaning professionals, building occupants, and the environment.”
Empowering safer cleaning
Dr. Macgregor-Skinner highlighted the project’s multifaceted approach. “We are in for a very exciting 2025 as the Making Safer Choices project will conduct surveys and focus group discussions and develop playbooks and training toolkits,” he explained. “We’ll also work with ISSA member manufacturers and distributors to conduct on-site product demonstrations on how to clean for health and safety using cleaning products that contain safer ingredients.”
The initiative will provide technical assistance to businesses and facilitate workshops to educate users on the benefits of Safer Choice-certified products. These efforts are expected to bridge the knowledge gap about cleaning product safety, particularly for underserved communities.
Protecting health and the environment
Penn State College of Medicine professor Dr. Rebecca Bascom emphasized the health risks posed by many common cleaning products. “Cleaning products are essential items that we each use in our daily lives. What we may not realize is products often have irritants that not only hurt us but also the environment,” she said. “The Making Safer Choices project will provide education and technical assistance to businesses to ensure the people using the cleaning products can do their jobs safely, regardless of the language they speak or other socio-economic factors.”
Dr. Omrana Pasha-Razzak, MD, MSPH, Medical Professor Community Health and Social Medicine (CHASME) City University of New York School of Medicine, reinforced the need to safeguard custodial staff. “The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated how much we need and rely upon custodial staff to keep all of our businesses, healthcare facilities, and wider environment clean and safe,” she said. “It is imperative that we also look out for them to ensure that the environments where they work, and the products they use, are non-toxic for their own protection and for that of the environment.”
Healthy buildings, healthy people
With a vision of creating healthier indoor environments, the project focuses on reducing exposure to indoor pollutants linked to significant health issues. “Healthy buildings, healthy people—this is the vision,” said Dr. Macgregor-Skinner. “The built environment is crucial to human health. In the U.S., indoor pollution is estimated to cause thousands of cancer deaths and hundreds of thousands of respiratory health problems each year.”
The project will involve over 500 ISSA member companies, including manufacturers, distributors, and building service contractors, to create community-designed toolkits that promote safer cleaning choices. These resources aim to protect the health of building occupants, military personnel, government workers, and the environment.
Two new standards for government cleaning contracts
The Making Safer Choices project aligns with the April 2024 revisions to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), which directs federal agencies to prioritize the purchase of sustainable products and services. The change is reflected in GSA’s
custodial specification and in over 600 cleaning service contracts for more than 1,500 U.S. government-owned buildings.
These cleaning contracts, valued at over $400 million annually, now mandate the purchase and use of cleaning products and hand soaps certified to eco-labels such as EPA’s Safer Choice and specific Green Seal® certifications (GS-37, GS-41, or GS-53). This shift underscores the fact that everyone deserves protection from the harmful effects of hazardous chemicals, including the workers who use cleaning products, federal employees, and those who visit government buildings every day.
The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2025 that authorizes appropriations for military activities of the U.S. Department of Defense, in Section 856, states: “The Secretary of Defense shall procure, to the maximum extent practicable, only those cleaning products that are identified—(1) under the Safer Choice program; or (2) by an independent third-party organization that provides certifications in a manner consistent with the Safer Choice program.”
Purchasing products certified by EPA’s Safer Choice program will help protect service members, their families, and civilian employees by creating safer working and living environments on military installations.
“This is significant for ISSA and all of our members when we think about every state in the U.S. has military buildings to clean and maintain,” noted Dr. Macgregor-Skinner. “The Department of Defense manages 2.3 billion square feet of building space and a few aircraft carriers, ships, planes, and tanks. The Air Force manages 1,761 sites and nearly 98,000 buildings and structures, the Army manages over 1,500 sites and more than 2,300 buildings and structures, and the Navy manages 800 sites and more than 111,000 buildings and structures.”
Looking ahead at what is next
The Making Safer Choices project is not just about cleaning. It’s how the entire cleaning industry value chain—users, purchasers, retailers, product formulators, and ingredient manufacturers—will help create healthier, safer solutions for businesses, workers, and communities. In 2025, we will convene stakeholders and listen to their narratives on how they clean. We will conduct surveys and focus groups to show current knowledge, attitudes, and barriers to purchasing and using cleaning products. In collaboration with ISSA members, we will develop community-designed education
and training solutions on purchasing and using Safer Choice products packaged in tool kits, playbooks, and videos and adapt these for diverse demographic groups.
“If you get a phone call or receive an email from the Making Safer Choices project in 2025, we hope you will connect and be part of this exciting project,” said Dr. Bascom. For more information on Safer Choice products, visit the EPA website at this link. To view the ISSA Media series on the program, visit the Safer Choice video series on YouTube.
