CMM Weekly News Recap-October 25, 2019

This week provided a couple of cautionary tales in how cleaning chemicals, normally so useful, can be harmful if they end up in the wrong place.

The owner of a Washington, D.C. nightclub was fined US$90,000 and will have his liquor license suspended for 90 days after he accidentally served a customer a Long Island Iced tea that contained chemical cleaning fluid. No doubt that owner would benefit from a lesson in organizing his cleaning chemicals.

Spilled cleaning fluid in an airplane lavatory that seeped into the carpeting caused an emergency landing in Dublin, Ireland. The strong odor from the fluid caused two aircraft crew members to pass out, and three people were hospitalized after the plane landed.

The news wasn’t all bad. Cleaning industry works have more protections against workplace harassment after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 15 worker protection bills into law, three of which deal with sexual harassment. One of those bills extends the deadline to file an allegation of unlawful workplace harassment, discrimination, or civil rights-related retaliation from one year to three years. Another new law refines mandatory sexual violence and harassment prevention training for custodial employers and their employees. A third new law instructs the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement to develop a construction industry-specific harassment and discrimination prevention policy.

People who need a restroom in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, will have more choices than the 29 public restrooms currently available. The 100 Restrooms Project, started by the Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District (DID), is seeking to more than triple the number of public restrooms in the city to 100 by persuading the owners of hotels, restaurants, stores, and other businesses to allow noncustomers to use their restrooms. The DID is also looking to add new restrooms, including portable facilities.

Have a good weekend, and if you do any cleaning, watch where you put your cleaning fluid.