Microbes in cleaning products: Regulatory experience and challenges for risk assessment

Armin Spok and Manfred Klade

Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture,

Graz, Austria

This chapter: i) provides an overview of the technology, products and applications of the use of micro-organisms in cleaning products; ii) discusses the application of existing legislation; iii) identifies and discusses possible environmental and health risks as well as environmental benefits; and iv) provides recommendations to regulators for further research and policy action.

Introduction

Over recent years, consumer and environmental organisations have become increasingly aware of a novel type of cleaning products containing living micro-organisms as active ingredients (subsequently termed “microbial cleaners”). Given the lack of both general information on microbial cleaners in the public domain and product-specific information from developers, these organisations highlight difficulties in considering these products when providing recommendations to the public and private sector for green procurement. Information is considered to be particularly scarce on the environmental properties, health risks and efficacy of the cleaning products. Furthermore, it is not clear which legal regulations are governing the safety and marketing of these products.

Against this backdrop, this chapter: i) provides an overview on the technology, products and applications; ii) discusses the application of existing legislation; iii) identifies and discusses possible environmental and health risks as well as environmental benefits; and iv) provides recommendations to regulators for further research and policy action.

The analysis is based on a literature review (scientific literature, “grey literature”, patents, company documents, regulatory and policy document, web-based information) and on interviews and consultations with representatives of manufacturers, blenders, professional cleaning service operators, governmental authorities, consumer and environmental organisations, and scientists. The overall focus is on the European Union context with a particular emphasis on Austria, though information on Canada and the United States was also considered.

A particular difficulty arose from the overall lack of information in the public domain, from the fact the manufacturers and blenders are not well represented in professional associations and, therefore, are difficult to identify, and from the reluctance of these business operators to share information which they consider as confidential business information. This was especially challenging as a wide range of applications and product designs was identified and because producers differ broadly in terms of production processes as well as quality and safety assurance.