Safety Matters

Something I came across on another forum that could happen to anyone who might do an event at an indoor kids parks, trampoline park, skating rink or arcade that is cleaned frequently with an ammonia based cleaner.

here is the text from the thread...

from a Karla Thompson ·

Hi all. I needed to share something very important and potentially dangerous.

Was just facepainting at one of those indoor jump/arcade places.

Normally I bring my own bottled water but it's freezing out so I opted to use tap water in the private room we were in.

The kids were jumping for about 10 min before I got there and the first child (birthday girl) came in about 10 min after I arrived.

I did a rainbow sponge across her forehead and then started sponging a butterfly wing. I could see tears starting to fall. These are family friends so I asked her what was wrong and to please open her eyes.

They were blood red and she said they burned and she was in horrible pain.

Immediately I stopped and panicked. I wasn't near her eyes, I have the same brands I always use (mehron, tag and silly farm)

Everything was cleaned.

We waited a bit and finished quick. Que the next child, same burning eyes. The one after her was totally fine, then the next started the same buring and tearing.

I thought maybe the water? The pain? I was in a panic.

After some guessing we realized

That it was indeed a chemical issue

The event spaces uses a heavy duty ammonia based cleaner before and after every group.

The tap water is chlorinated, but when it's warm water it causes the ph to potentially jump from a neutral to a high number

The mix caused a horrible chemical reaction.

We switched to bottled water and not a problem for the rest of the kids.

to sum it up... when the water on the sponges and brushes was put on the kids faces, the chlorine in the tap water mixed with the ammonia in the cleaner that the facility used (which was on the kids from them playing on the freshly cleaned equipment) and created a dangerous gas that burned and stung.