A scientific approach to Cleaning

CIRI is a U.S. institute which aims to raise awareness of the importance of effective cleaning through scientific research. Founded in 2005, CIRI serves the cleaning and disaster restoration industries in several ways

John Downey chairman of CIRI

The seed for what gave birth to CIRI (Cleaning Industry Research Institute) was a 1994 book written by Dr. Michael A. Berry, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official tasked with uncovering the cause of what was then a new phenomenon called “Sick Building Syndrome.” The book, entitled Protecting the Built Environment: Cleaning for Health, was a prescription for what his investigation uncovered: buildings too often were poorly cleaned. It was necessary to rethink the ways in which cleaning operations were performed, following two leading principles: remove soil, don’t spread it around; remove the source of odor, don’t cover it up with scents. Berry’s message about the importance of effective cleaning to protect and enhance human health was well received by certain cleaning industry leaders, and they birthed CIRI. The institute was established in 2005 with the express purpose of bringing measurement and high-performance to the practice of cleaning.

In its early years, CIRI set about the process of discovering the best and most practical ways to measure cleaning effectiveness. Among scientific methods, a process that measured adenosine triphosphate, commonly called ATP, was found to be the most useful and it was selected as the foundational measurement method used to evaluate cleaning performance in the “Cleaning Standard for K-12 Schools” a joint effort of CIRI and what was then the International Sanitary Supply Association, now known as the ISSA.

A guide for the cleaning sector

CIRI serves the cleaning industry in other ways as well. CIRI is known for its “CIRI Science Symposiums” that feature experts and new research in cleaning, disinfection, remediation and disaster restoration practices. In 2018 CIRI began publishing the industry’s first and only peer-reviewed journal, the Journal of Cleaning Science, or JCS. It features in-depth, peer-reviewed papers on such diverse topics as wildfire assessment, aerosol surface disinfection, and key characteristics of high-performance cleaning. As one might expect, the COVID pandemic resulted in a surge of interest in the work CIRI does. CIRI’s first virtual symposium in late March 2020, was attended by nearly 1,100 cleaning professionals from four continents. This was followed in 2020 and 2021 by a series of well-attended follow-up webinars that provided updated information as our knowledge and understanding of COVID evolved.

On a continuing basis CIRI provides technically objective and validated information - including guidance documents - to the industries it serves. In addition, CIRI’s website hosts a variety of technical and research papers available to the public. The post-COVID world is different from the world prior to the pandemic. The enormous importance of cleaning for health identified by Dr. Berry’s book nearly three decades ago is better understood and appreciated by the public at large. The cleaning industry has an opportunityand an obligation - to step up its game and provide consistently high levels of cleaning performance. CIRI’s place in this is reflected in its recently updated statement of purpose:

“Working with and through its members, CIRI communicates unbiased, peer-reviewed technical information and research about the science of cleaning or restora- tion of the indoor environment to all interested stakeholders.”

CIRI recently announced a new initiative to develop and provide the industry with cleaning-effectiveness testing protocols. Cleaning organizations will be able to use these protocols to determine and improve the effectiveness of their methods and procedures. CIRI will begin rolling out these lab and field verified “how-to” protocols in the first half of 2023. In the meantime, some sectors in the U.S. - especially healthcare, long-term care, education and transportation - have already taken the initiative to verify cleaning effectiveness. Tools such as rapid ATP monitoring, blacklight indicator marking, and white glove tests are providing useful information and validation of cleaning effectiveness.