Thurston County Public Health expands "Beyond Bleach" training for childcare centers and plans EcoPro landscaper sessions
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Summary
Environmental health staff described outreach on safer cleaning products (Beyond Bleach), reported KinderCare locations moving to bleach-free products, and announced an October EcoPro landscaper training with local scholarships.
Thurston County Public Health staff told the Solid Waste Advisory Committee that their hazardous‑materials education and outreach programs are expanding, with a renewed emphasis on childcare‑center trainings, safer cleaning alternatives and professional landscaper education.
Jennifer Johnson (Public Health) introduced the department’s hazardous-waste outreach and then turned to Jessica Goulet, the education outreach specialist, for a presentation on the Beyond Bleach program. Goulet said Beyond Bleach trains childcare staff on safe use of bleach for sanitizing and disinfecting, safe storage and disposal of hazardous products, and alternatives that meet state child-care licensing standards. Goulet said the program has contacted about 185 childcare centers in Thurston County, provided presentations to five centers (about 31 staff) and that those five centers collectively serve more than 250 children.
Goulet said one early success is that KinderCare locations in Washington have moved toward being bleach‑free; county staff will promote trained and bleach‑free centers on the public health website to help families choose less‑toxic childcare settings. The program is also working with epidemiology staff to identify barriers childcare providers face when switching to less‑toxic products.
Jennifer Johnson also described county involvement in the EcoPro sustainable‑landscape program. The county and partners will host a landscaper training Oct. 27–30 (virtual format) and will offer scholarships for the first eight Thurston County landscapers who sign up. Johnson said the program supports groundwater protection and encourages HOAs and parks departments to use certified EcoPro landscapers.
Ending: Public Health staff said they will continue outreach, publish updated multilingual materials and host workshops, and they offered to provide deeper presentations to SWAC on any of these topics in future meetings.