Photocopy cartridge dropped on your carpets?
First take a deep breath- DON’T PANIC! The most important thing to do is minimise the spread of the ‘black stuff’ (carbon). Use a dust pan and hand broom and lightly sweep as much as you can onto the pan. Vacuum lightly using the hose to directly vacuum, don’t use the head. Now stop. Call your carpet cleaner.
This is one stain that must be treated with the utmost care to prevent spreading or damage to your clothes or skin – Good luck.

Carpets are the flooring of choice in most modern offices and homes today, and act as a sound absorber. Imagine your office or home if you were to remove your carpets, sound would just carry and in some cases echo. Carpets also act as a ‘filter’ for the air we breath!!!

In the 70′s in Sweden, asthma was on the increase. The Government of the day had all the carpets removed from Government buildings to slow the asthma down. The reverse happened, asthma spiralled higher than ever before. Why? Scientists worked out that what was happening with the carpet was that the air circulates dust & other particles around, and carpet traps these particles in the fibres creating an actual ‘air filter’ all over the carpeted floor space.

Next time your carpets need cleaning or vacuuming ask yourself “is this being done correctly and will it be beneficial to me the way its being conducted?” don’t know? read our next issue on how carpets should be maintained.

The following paragraphs were taken word for word from an article published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Jan 2005 by Microbiologist, J. Clin.

An 11-week-old boy died unexpectedly in January 2002 a few hours after being fed, the final feeding being slower than normal. The baby was healthy and developing normally until his sudden and unexpected death. The death of the infant was classified by the pathologist as SIDS on the basis of the autopsy findings. The autopsy specimens of the child were investigated as a part of a survey on the association of C. botulinum with SIDS in Finland. Serum, feces, and autopsy sections from the intestine and spleen were examined, as was the opened package of the infant’s last meal of corn gruel.

C. botulinum type B was detected by PCR in, and also isolated from, the vacuum cleaner dust. The quantity of spores in the dust was estimated to be 10/kg of examined material.

The other household samples were negative for C. botulinum by TPGY culture and PCR analysis. The C. botulinum type B toxin gene was identified by PCR in two parallel samples of the infant’s intestinal contents, both incubated at 37°C. C. botulinum was isolated from the PCR-positive samples by plating 0.1 ml of TPGY broth on egg yolk agar plates and incubating them under anaerobic conditions at 37°C for 2 days (19). C. botulinum type B was successfully isolated from one of the intestinal specimens. All other autopsy specimens were negative for C. botulinum, and the serum did not contain detectable botulinum toxin.
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Please note: In this case, the botulinum toxin found in household dust and was found to be the most likely cause of the sudden death of baby Thomas. Neither the author of the article or Allfresh claim to have found the absolute cause of SIDS.

Whilst on holiday recently we booked into a classic (older) hotel, our room was large with good views, but 2 single beds – problem number 1! I was also quick to notice the polished wooden floorboards (no carpet).
I asked to be relocated to another room due to the bed situation and was informed we would be moved the next day. The next morning we awoke with sore raspy throats, and I overheard other couples from rooms close by saying the same thing (no coincidence there). We were relocated to another room and yes, it did have carpet (soiled). The next morning, no raspy throats – conclusion: Dust was floating around in the first room but not visible, while in the second room although the carpet was soiled it still filtered or collected the dust in the air preventing sore throats etc. This indicates the benefits of vacuuming and regular cleaning of these floor coverings.