First Educational Facility In the Country to Use Special Floor Finish

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) April 30, 2011 -- Marble Shine Service is Proud to Have Been a Part of this Project!

Iowa Central Community College’s Attention to the Environment
Goes Beyond the Classroom to Care of Facilities
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Fort Dodge, IA

Iowa Central Community College (ICCC) is pleased to announce the success of its efforts to find floor care products that are both environmentally friendly and highly effective. According to the Troy Brandt, ICCC Head of Facilities Maintenance, “The health and well being of our staff and students are a highest priority for us as is protection of our environment, so we are really pleased to have discovered the products of Richard James Specialty Chemicals Corp. (RJSC) which both meet those objectives and deliver great performance. RJSC’s SuperTop™-EP, a new environmentally-friendly floor finish for multiple hard-surface applications, really solved a big problem for us in a great way.”

According to Troy’s manager of Operations Robert Bilbo, ICCC was introduced to SuperTop-EP by Stan Zimmer, a local area rep. “We knew we would be the first educational institution to use this product in a big way. But we also knew we could trust what Stan was selling us as we have really liked the performance of RJSC’s StoneClean™ line of cleansers for stone and tile which feature low environmental impact and high efficiency.” Zimmer, the owner of Marble Shine Services, now based in Salem, OR, states “Often overlooked is that what we use to clean our homes, offices, and schools can and does affect our health and well being. It has been refreshing to work with the maintenance staff at ICCC.”
The introduction to SuperTop-EP came because the ICCC maintenance department was searching for a floor finish that would make it a reasonable task to keep the porcelain tile in common areas of the dormitories clean and looking good. All previous efforts to accomplish this goal had failed. Stan proposed the SuperTop-EP because it contains “a proprietary epoxy component uniquely formulated to deliver the hardness and wear resistance demanding customers with demanding environments are looking for”.

Steve Smothers, head of dormitory floor care and maintenance, knows well how difficult it is to keep college dormitories looking great. “We are really pleased at how well the shine and protection has held up under the demanding setting of a college dorm common floor area. These floors really get abused! Now after we clean the floor it looks refreshed and shiny again. It mops so much easier and it is nice to know the non-toxic nature of the finish is not off-gassing like typical waxes and sealers are prone to do.”

“We decided to hold off on issuing a press release until we saw the benefits of durability. So often, products claiming to be safe for the environment do not hold up well under real life demands. We are very pleased at this time to announce this special effort we have made is paying off for the environment and also the appearance of our dormitories. It is a great thing also to report that these cleansers and floor finishes are made in a way so as to do no harm to the environment! The summer care will now be a piece of cake and in many cases it will simply be a matter of deep cleaning and recoating instead of a labor intensive stripping and deep cleaning. We have our hands full of work now so we are happy to have solved this major source of maintenance concern.”
The examination on the following pages will better define why ICCC has chosen this company’s products. For more information about these products please email Stan Zimmer at marbleshine@yahoo.com He will direct you to the right products for your needs.

"The term environmentally friendly is a widely used and poorly defined cliché'. RJSC cleansers & sealers and finishes have all three elements to qualify as "environmentally friendly".....

First is the absence of toxic compounds in RJSC products. Surprisingly many cleansers make you believe they are eco-safe by using the grapefruit extracted concentrate d-limonene [orange or lemon smell] that is actually quite toxic. It is first cousin to kerosene and is not biologically friendly at all. Its bio-half life is very long and it is amazingly toxic compared to many other cleaning agents. It gets good press value since it is extracted from grapefruit rinds. Look at some of the labels and warning about “orange” type cleansers- “If skin contact rinse with water for 15 minutes” sounds like a dangerous product to me!
Secondly, RJSC cleansers have short bio degradation time AND [very important] none of the degradation products are themselves toxic. RJSC’s StoneClean “104”, for instance, may have the shortest degradation time of any heavy duty degreaser. The chemistries of industrial cleansers are typically VERY high impact. StoneClean “104” is not only fast in environmental breakdown, it is also truly neutral pH and low toxicity, while at the same time unusually effective in capturing oils/grime and transferring it to the mop head to be rinse away in a bucket.

Another earth friendly spirited way it is crafted is the fact that is a salt free cleanser! Excess salts in our waterways are creating havoc with water treatment centers. (typical water softeners that use salt should be eliminated if possible) This means that being green “spirited” also means to consider whether a product is “drain friendly”!
Look at the label of ingredients and if sodium or potassium is in the names of the cleaning agents then are you really green in spirit or intent?
Third, and importantly, is the "free rinse-ability" of RJSC products. If a product leaves a scum on the floor it will also leave a scum on the environment it contacts. Many cleaners require multiple rinses whereas RJSC cleansers float free with the first rinse. (this also saves in labor time as well)

Soy derived cleansers leave behind residues that by definition provide food for fungal growth. This starts another important point to cover: the control of mold and mildew environmentally! Lawsuits and litigation experts agree that this is a “cash cow” of legal proportions. Problematic, is that often solutions to cleaning mold are also toxic in themselves, and that by definition add to the overall “problem” of mold concerns. A mouthful of words to say, “let us look at a different way to control mold.”

Safely removing mold without resorting to using any type of chloride chemical is key to protecting the environment of the drain and waterways. StoneClean™ Plus is an excellent product for the specific purpose of making surfaces resistant to discoloration, odor and degradation by microbial and fungal contamination. It breaks down the chitin shell of the fungal growth makes it a much safer way to remove mold/fungal growths. It also contains Vantocil IB for an FDA approved antimicrobial for food service use. Many are fooled into believing that for such a nasty job you need nasty strong chemistry. Looking at the labels of such strong chemicals proves they are not good for the environment and also the end user. One such label says to avoid any skin contact and to flush your skin for 30 minutes if it comes in contact with your skin! A friend of mine uses such a cleanser in his cleaning and mold remediation service.
RJSC designs their sealers and cleansers with the specific thought of bio-half life and toxicology of all inclusions. Biodegradability of surfactants and de-foaming additives is a concern as these are usually not regulated except in the case of fluorocarbons and heavy metals. A famer friend of mine thinks that some agricultural chemical surfactants never really break down environmentally.

I think you will actually be shocked to find out how the combination of right chemistry and environmental safety can outperform ones that claim “Rules Green” / certified! Safely cleaning floor grouting without resorting to acids or strong pH cleansers is another way to test how well they clean! They are all safe for delicate substrates like polished marble as well.
The next area of concern being dealt with in the article is the chemistry of sealers/ finishes. Solvent borne coatings have been around for over a hundred years. Only recently did science come up with acrylic and polyurethane resins that were solvated in various hydrocarbon solvents to produce widely used coatings that are still applied today (albeit illegally in many states).

As air quality concerns elevated to new awareness in the 70’and 80’s, there was an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the vapors, inherent toxicity and flammability of solvent coatings. The letters “VOC” became a more recognizable standard to judge whether a coating was toxic and to which degree. VOC then became the newest regulatory datum.

RJSC was the FIRST manufacturer (1992) in floor coatings/treatments to open its business exclusively with waterborne coating and sealers. Since that year they have developed a host of other products for virtually every kind of flooring/ substrate! They have a menu of at least 9 industry standards to measure their coatings. They consistently meet or beat solvent systems in virtually every performance dimension!! This is especially true for abrasion resistance, flexibility, tensile strength and of course flammability.

Among the first products introduced by RJSC in the early 90’s was StoneLok™ “MLT Plus”. The first big application was in 1993 at Penn Station in NYC (with traffic of 500,000 people a day). It was selected because it was the only product MTA management could find that met their stringent air quality tests. It saved them several thousand dollars that would have been spent venting the fumes from this 24- hr/day facility.
The flamed granite is still easily cleanable to this day. StoneLok™ sealers are now specified for installations from museums, hotels, retail spaces, and finer homes.
The real spirit of “Green” is much more complex than the current idol of VOC, or volatile organic content. Most resin sys

More information can be found online at http://www.wellnesswaterandsalt.com

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