It’s like using laundry detergent? Bill Yeadon, IICRC –approved instructor Although there may be some products used in carpet cleaning that people should be cautious with, most carpet cleaning chemicals are similar to detergents that would be used to clean clothes, says Yeadon and Dr. Aziz Ullah,president of FABPRO, Inc. in Baltimore. “In most cases, I think water-based products are relatively safe, as most of the dangerous chemicals used by carpet cleaners in the past are no longer used,” says Ullah. “The chemicals used in carpet cleaning are very similar to those used to clean your clothes.” Hill says while there are people who may have reactions to even the most basic of chemicals, most cleaning chemicals that are used in carpet cleaning are less toxic and dangerous than what a consumer can actually by and put under their sink for their own cleaning chores at home. Commercial products are formulated in professional strength, but then they are not significant in regards to chemical sensitivity, according to...

The carpet cleaning industry does not debate the medical community’s point about carpet acting as a sink (as Dr. Berry likes to refer to carpet) to hold dust, dirt and pollutants, but it says that the sink-like qualities of carpet help to protect people from getting sick; there is nothing in hardwood floors that can trap the dust and dander the way that carpet can. (See “ The benefits of carpet cleaning”.) Carpet works much the same way as a furnace filter, Braun says, as the particles filter down through the surface of the carpet, and then are no longer inhaled or get into the eyes, You need to empty the sink when it gets filled up too much with dirt, he states, just as you would do with a furnace filter, because you want the car0pet to continue to pick up pollutants and contaminants so that it is not in the air available to be breathed...