Had lunch with an old friend; very much an "old school" janitorial service provider in the Phoenix area.  Told me a highly amusing story about working a small building with one of his janitors.  Old Friend was in the break room, stripping the floor, and his employee was down the hall doing an initial clean-up on a couple of much abused restrooms.  Friend heard a "thwack" and then a "thump", repeated a few minutes later, and then again.  Curious, he investigated.  Employee had mixed bleach with either ammonia or a phosphate based cleaner (never got quite straight which); both clean "really well"; both produce poisonous fumes (think WWI Western Front). "Thwack" was fainting employee's head hitting the toilet seat on the way down; "thump" was the rest of her hitting the floor.  A few minutes to wake up, get to her feet, take in another whiff of the chemical fumes coming out of the toilet, and the scenario repeats...

As much as I gripe about OSHA's "picky" regulations, I have to admit that they're dealing with some pretty significant problems, some of which can kill the janitor (perhaps the client).  I get to look in a lot of janitor closets in buildings cleaned by my competition; lots of unlabeled chemicals, lots of off-brands and consumer stuff, rarely the required MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) book.  I'm beginning to suspect that a lot of janitor services don't offer their clients an MSDS book because, due to lax franchising and sub-contracting, or lack of training and supervision, they have no idea what chemicals their janitors are using.  Hard to provide chemical specific safety information if you don't know what the chemical is.

Then again, the Mexican restaurant where Old Friend and I lunch produces a salsa almost as corrosive as the chemical mix.....