I’d like to conclude the Carpet and Rug Institute’s input to the Healthy Carpet Workgroup (convened during June and July 2011) by taking a step back and talking about what carpet is, and what it’s not.
Carpet is a textile floor covering. It’s comfortable, beautiful, warm, and safe to walk on. Carpet manufacturers offer products designed for every type of need and budget. As with any textile, carpet will get dirty and require cleaning. Fortunately, technology exists for cleaning carpets affordably and very effectively. It seems to me that the challenge for us is to identify the most effective cleaning methods for any given situation or end-use, and to do our best to ensure that those methods are universally embraced.
In my experience, I have found that the carpet industry largely comprises good people doing their best to make products that will enrich the lives of the people who buy and use them. The modern tufted carpet industry is uniquely American: it’s a technology that developed in the U.S, and, even in 2011, when products “Made in America” are becoming too few and far between, 98 percent of all the carpet in use in the U.S. is manufactured in the U.S. That’s something to be proud of, as are the tens of thousands of American jobs created and sustained through the manufacture and sale of carpet.
It’s true that carpet made with synthetic materials emits minimal amounts of volatile organic compounds for a very finite period of time (more than 99 percent of the VOCs are gone within 72 hours), but the carpet industry has led the way in testing and transparency on what compounds are emitted and for how long. The Green Label Standard for Indoor Air Quality was groundbreaking at the time it was enacted in 1992 in cooperation with the U.S. EPA, and the subsequent and more stringent Green Label Plus standard developed in cooperation with the state of California is recognized internationally for its clarity and comprehensiveness.
I’d also like to point out that the CRI Seal of Approval Program tests and certifies cleaning products that not only work, (which we all will agree is important), but many of which are also certified by the EPA’s Design for the Environment (DfE) program. As a result, you can reliably clean your carpet and use environmentally sound products.
It has been suggested in the workgroup that any research that is funded by industry must be suspect. In light of that, I will submit once again the results of the Inner City Asthma Study – a study so remote from anyone in the carpet industry it took more than five years for us to even discover it existed. The study followed more than 900 inner city children who had moderate to severe asthma. In brief, the study developers educated the children’s caregivers on how to clean their homes, offering information and help with mold and allergen avoidance, pest control, and the elimination or control of furry pets and tobacco smoke, among other factors. What they found was that, at the end of three years, the children who lived in cleaner homes were significantly healthier – with fewer missed school days and trips to the emergency room – than the children in the control group who did not have access to the information and intervention. Moreover, there was no difference in the symptom improvement in children from carpeted versus uncarpeted homes. Neither was there any difference in the levels of allergens measured in homes with carpet and homes with hard surface floors.
In addition, even though toxicologist Dr. Mitchell Sauerhoff was compensated for his time and effort in compiling an international literature review on the subject of carpet and its relation to the cause and symptoms of asthma and allergy, the vast majority of the research he found - more than 20 different studies from various countries and continents conducted over a period of approximately 20 years - was in no way connected or supported by the carpet industry. Looking at a vast amount of research, both positive and negative in relation to carpet, Dr. Sauerhoff found that, “the negative perceptions and persistent, long-held beliefs on carpet’s alleged negative characteristics are not consistent with current research.”
As I’ve said many times before, I have always chosen to put my faith in scientific data rather than anecdotal evidence. For many years I have found myself in disagreement with detractors who offer a seemingly endless stream of anecdotal evidence, and, while I do not intend to be critical, I must ask them, at what point, if ever, will they recognize that data trumps anecdotes?
Thank you to all of the group participants who are working to keep our indoor spaces clean and healthy – it’s an important issue for all of us.
Werner H. Braun
President, Carpet and Rug Institute
730 College Drive
Dalton, Georgia 30720
706-428-2100
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