Cleaning must become a systematic, science-based process capable of assessing and reducing health risks in the indoor environment. This was the message delivered by Dr. Michael Berry to nearly 100 healthcare environmental services professionals at the ASHES conference.
“Clean is a condition free from unwanted matter that has the potential to cause undesirable effects,” Berry explained. “Cleaning is the fundamental management process of putting unwanted matter in its proper place to achieve a clean condition. And cleaning science explains how cleaning works and why it is effective.”
Dr. Berry is uniquely qualified to speak on the subject of cleaning science. A PhD in public health, Berry spent over 27 years with the EPA. He is the author of Protecting the Built Environment: Cleaning for Health, and now serves as the Chairman of the Science Advisory Council for the Cleaning Industry Research Institute (CIRI).
“Science answers the question ‘how’; specifically ‘how does cleaning work?’” Berry said. “The value of cleaning science is that it provides factual justification for the clean methods, systems and equipment we use, as well as helps create the knowledge required for training and enhanced professionalism.”
In addition to giving an educational seminar, Dr. Berry also participated in a panel on green cleaning and the hospital environment.
“We were very excited to have Dr. Berry participate at our annual conference,” noted Patti Costello, Executive Director of ASHES. “We received extremely enthusiastic feedback from participants at both of Dr. Berry’s sessions. In fact, the people at the Green Cleaning Panel discussion were so involved, they opted to remain in the room past time to continue to ask questions, rather than take a 30-minute ice cream break!”
CIRI’s vision is to raise the awareness of the importance of cleaning through scientific research.
