Providing Auto Carpet Care for Customer Health

You don’t have to be a car connoisseur to know that vehicles do not age very well. In fact, the minute customers drive off the lot and see the dealership sign in their new car’s rearview mirror, the value of the vehicle drops almost immediately.

However, something auto detailers and their customers may not know is that the carpeting inside a brand new vehicle can become colonized with bacteria, allergens, fungi, and other contaminants almost just as quickly. These impurities can mar a vehicle’s indoor air quality and result in a variety of health-related problems and issues, especially respiratory.

Vacuuming and spot cleaning the carpet, whether performed while the car is still on the showroom floor, in the new owner’s garage, or at your detail shop, can temporarily put the brakes on bacterial growth. However, these colonies will soon rebound and can return even stronger with time and use of the car.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), soiled carpeting that is damp or allowed to remain wet can provide an ideal setting for the proliferation, growth and persistence of a range of contaminants. Although the CDC was addressing indoor carpeting in its assessment, this danger is applicable to the carpeting found in vehicles.

Contaminants found in autos can actually cause more severe health problems compared to contaminants found in a building. In small, confined spaces, such as a car with closed windows and heating and air conditioning systems that recirculate contaminated air, adverse health effects can be intensified.

According to Ellen L. Garibaldi, assistant professor of internal medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, morning commuters “exposed to allergens in auto carpets can have an immediate reaction of itchy eyes, runny nose, and cough ... and this exposure produces a second wave of nasal obstruction, fatigue, and sinus problems later in the day.”

The ‘Smoking Gun’

According to Garibaldi, respiratory and other problems intensify when tobacco smoke is in the car. There is now evidence that smoking a single cigarette for only five minutes in a vehicle can result in concentrations of respirable suspended particles (RSP) that reach levels similar to those measured in smoky bars, according to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Passengers riding in a car in which someone has recently smoked are exposed to secondhand smoke. Not only is this a health hazard for passengers and drivers alike, we now know that it can be fatal. It is estimated that as many as 54,000 people die each year as a result of secondhand smoke.

Although inhaling secondhand smoke can occur just about anywhere, riding inside an enclosed vehicle can be troubling and dangerous, especially for children. As a result, several communities, five states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico have all enacted laws to prevent smoking in cars.

For detailers, eradicating smoke odors is a common problem and customer request. Although there are systems that can remove the smoke odor, such as ozone-generating equipment, the source of the odor as well as other odor-causing contaminants and allergens must first be removed in order for these systems to be effective. And, as most detailers know, it can be a difficult problem because smoke can penetrate just about any surface in the car, from soft surfaces, like fabrics and upholstery, to hard surfaces, such as metals and wood.

This is true of many other airborne contaminants as well; however, it is in carpeting that the bulk of RSP, as well as many other allergens, bacteria, and contaminants, eventually cause the most concern.

Proper Carpet Cleaning Methods

When car owners attempt to clean the carpets in their cars, they often will use spray-on detergents designed to clean auto carpets; rub the area vigorously by hand; wipe it dry with a cloth; and then allow it to air dry. Many auto detailers follow a fairly similar procedure and might use a fragrance or deodorizer as a finishing touch.

Although this system does remove some surface-level contaminants, it can be relatively ineffective at removing bacteria, smoke, allergens, fungi and other particulates that find their way deep into carpet fibers. Further, this cleaning method can actually harm the health of the detailer, as well as car owners and passengers.

For instance, in one case, an outbreak of aspergillus — a fungus that also grows in automobile carpets — contaminated the carpets in a facility. To alleviate the problem and clean the carpets, custodial workers used a