Bahamas News

The Green Cleaners Aims to Heal Sick Buildings with Healthy Cleaning

Published

7 years ago

June 11, 2016

Nassau, Bahamas – May 23, 2016 – Let’s face it, working in an office can sometimes feel like doing time in a germ factory. One cough or sneeze from a nearby cubicle and suddenly the entire staff is walking around with puffy eyes and tissue boxes tucked under their arms. But it may not always be a coworker who’s to blame for spreading flu-like symptoms. In fact, it may be the office itself that’s making people sick.

Known as Sick Building Syndrome, a school or office building becomes “sick” when poor air ventilation circulates volatile organic compounds (VOC). Spending hours cooped up inside a sick building every day can lead to headaches, dizziness, nausea, eye, nose or throat irritation and asthma attacks, all of which may seem very flu-like at first, but none of which can be staved off with doses of aspirin and bed rest.

“It’s increasingly becoming a major occupational hazard,” said Dr. Arlington Lightbourne, owner of The Wellness Clinic in Nassau. “How do we ensure people are happy, healthy and productive members of society? Through prevention.”

Lightbourne is one of 10 Bahamian doctors who collaborated to create The Green Cleaners, a Nassau cleaning agency owned and operated by Healthy Clean Ltd., that provides certified green cleaning janitorial and housekeeping services to private homes, vacation rentals, clinics, doctor’s offices and office buildings.

“Cleaning is an advanced science,” said Lightbourne. “You’re battling infectious diseases, allergies and asthma. It takes awareness and training so you’re minimizing the spread of disease without destroying your health or the environment. Green cleaning certification insures that our cleaning staff is current on safe green practices, training, and regulations.”

To become and remain certified as a green cleaner, companies must adhere to strict requirements as outlined by Green Seal, an American organization that provides standards and certification to protect human health and the environment. To meet the Green Seal Standard for Cleaning Services (GS-42), cleaning equipment must be energy efficient, staff training must be provided and cleaning products and procedures must reduce toxicity and waste, which means conserving water and using durable cleaning tools like microfiber mop heads, cloths and dusters, vacuum cleaners with approved air filters and trash bags that contain a minimum of 10% post-consumer recycled content.

More importantly, under the certification, cleaning solutions cannot contain harmful compounds like the cocktail of chemicals that make up traditional cleaning agents such as heavy metals (mercury, aluminum and arsenic found in laundry detergent), phthalates (present in plastic containers), formaldehyde (a component of dish washing liquids and fabric softeners) and chlorine (an ingredient in household bleach).

“The modern day janitor is on the frontline of infection control,” Lightbourne said. “One well-trained and equipped janitor can save more lives through prevention than a room full of doctors can cure.”

An overwhelming lack of education regarding preventative healthcare measures is what drove Lightbourne and his colleagues to found The Green Cleaners.As a former ER doctor, Lightbourne witnessed firsthand the effects of chronic respiratory illnesses like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer and sleep apnea, and became increasingly discouraged by the sheer number of cases that easily could have avoided if only his patients had access to the right information.

“We’re setting out to save lives a different way,” Lightbourne said. “We want to redefine what healthy living means in The Bahamas, not only at the individual level but societally as well, and that includes addressing every aspect of our daily lives—the chemicals we use, the food that we eat and the air that we breathe. Green cleaning is a necessary investment in better health, a better environment and a better bottom line.”

Bahamas News

FBI and Bahamas looking into woman’s death

Published

6 days ago

March 17, 2023

Deandrea Hamilton

Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TheBahamas, March 17, 2023 – The FBI is investigating a woman’s ‘suspicious’ death on a Carnival Cruise ship in February. The unnamed woman and her husband boarded the Carnival Sunshine on February 27th, for a trip to the Bahamas, but she was dead before they arrived in the port in The Bahamas.

The FBI said Carnival’s team had administered life saving measures when the woman was reported unresponsive, but they were unsuccessful. The body and the woman’s husband were released to the Bahamian authorities when the cruise arrived in the country.

In a statement shared with US media houses, Carnival Cruises claimed the death has been a natural one. The Nassau Guardian said a source told them the police findings had concurred with that assessment saying it was a “normal sudden death of a tourist who wasn’t feeling well.”

The FBI was waiting for the cruise and when it got back to South Carolina on March 4th, they immediately boarded and began to investigate the room based on ‘evidence of a crime.’ The FBI also searched the couple’s car.

No updates have been shared to contradict the currently established cause of death.

Bahamas News

Why Sargassum Matters

Published

6 days ago

March 17, 2023

Deandrea Hamilton

Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TheBahamas, March 17, 2023 – “If you don’t like it, go to another beach!” Is what Aaron John, an Education Officer from The Bahamas National Trust jokingly tells our news team about sargassum blooms; his quip, motivated by the necessity of nature when pit against the notion that there is a real threat when the stinky seaweed makes its annual appearance.

John can admit, he says, that Sargassum isn’t very pretty but life isn’t all about aesthetics and in this instance that ugly patch serves a purpose.

“We love our sandy beaches, but in order to keep them we need Sargassum. When storms come, they wash away all the sand off the beach but sargassum acts as a mulch to protect the sand from water erosion. It doesn’t look good, it doesn’t feel good but we need it.”

He said it also provides a habitat for small crustaceans, crabs, and insects that are all necessary to our ecosystem and islanders have found use for the weed.

“Historically, (in The Bahamas) we have been using sargassum as fertilizer, especially in the family Islands as far back as I know,” he said. “Birds don’t go on the beach unless there is Sargassum and what do they do? they feed – it’s beautiful.”

He encouraged residents to just leave it be if they came across it.

Sargassum isn’t harmful to humans, except for people with respiratory issues who may find the rotten egg smell triggers asthma. Despite this, it’s not advisable to walk through the weeds which may hide sharp rocks and bottles or vulnerable animals.

Experts say Sargassum blooms began to increase in size around 2011 and have continued to get bigger and bigger since. This year‘s bloom is around 5000 miles long and 300 miles wide and visible from space.

“I know it’s not a general outlook, but I would like to change the perspective on sargassum,” John said, pointing out The Bahamas National Trust is actively working to decrease alarm over the less worrisome events like sargassum as it raises the profile on the environmentally devastating.

Bahamas News

Lease agreement approved for diaspora office

Published

6 days ago

March 17, 2023

Deandrea Hamilton

Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – The Turks and Caicos’ Bahamas Diaspora Office is moving closer and closer to opening day, following the Cabinet’s approval for the signing of a lease agreement.

The lease will be signed with FINCEN ltd in the Bahamas. Several weeks ago, Arlington Musgrove, Minister of Immigration confirmed to our news team that the location had been found and was being finalized; now a lease is approved at the Cabinet level.

The interest in the TCI from TC Bahamians was evident in the diaspora meetings held in early February. The two meetings held in Nassau and Grand Bahama were completely full and over-subscribed by hundreds.

It’s interest which the Government hopes will translate to real life population growth, bolstering the local population before the native population ‘goes extinct’.

The Opposition PDM is on the record with what it feels is a far more viable solution to a dwindling native population; seek out the country’s own citizens and bring them back home.

Cabinet did not state when the office will open.