reduce the chemistry required to do daily cleaning? The same principle works in cleaning as for disinfection: a recently pre-cleaned surface is easier to clean than one that hasn't been cleaned in a long time. Routine daily green cleaning is easier than occasional cleaning. Routine daily cleaning doesn't require as strong a cleaner as binge cleaning that is done to reduce buildups.
Less buildup means less harmful cleaning ingredients and perfume. But why should we have to be worried about harmful cleaning ingredients and perfumes anyway? Can't we find ingredients that we not only minimize, but that are themselves harmless? And isn't it about time we admitted that perfumes don't clean?
So, the era continues to evolve. The "clean first" era is already giving way to the "cleaning without harming" era, (green cleaning) in which we take the same principles to their logical conclusions. If you don't need high-strength cleaning chemicals because you are cleaning regularly, shouldn't we be able to find new, milder ingredients for cleaning that con do what is needed without harming?
In fact, the cleaning industry is starting to achieve this vision. Environment Canada's new Environmental Choice PRC-097 Criteria establishes what is expected of cleaners that do not harm. PRC-097 has an extensive list of requirements, ranging from the exclusion of ingredients that involve ethylene oxide in their production, to the limiting of volatile ingredients, to the drastic reduction in aquatic toxicity of "Cleaning Products with Low Potential for Environmental Illness and Endocrine Disruption". PRC-097 also acknowledges that chemical hypersensitivity is a major problem and that cleaning products must accommodate the needs of those who are more sensitive than most.

What about SARS and other Outbreaks?

The world has responded well to new outbreaks like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), but to a large extent the old cleaning/disinfecting paradigm is still at work. Emergency disinfection on infrequently cleaned surfaces is not likely to be nearly as effective as effective routine daily cleaning with appropriate disinfection as required in special areas. Cleaning as the key to good disinfection needs to be part of a longer term, daily strategy, forever. Short-term binges of cleaning and disinfection inevitably leave us back where we started. We may feel better for having done something, but sooner or later we must question whether we really accomplished what we needed to do. And the collateral damage associated with SARS disinfection will no doubt prove to be quite extensive.
The cleaning and disinfection equivalent of "be prepared" is to continue to move towards long term routines that handle soil and pathogens effectively everywhere, all the time, while at the same time minimizing everyone's exposure to hazardous chemicals and minimizing negative impact on the natural environment.

Isn't there a Cheaper Way?

The irony is that using green cleaning as a key to good disinfection is the cheaper way. Establishing effective, frequent and regular cleaning routines with minimum chemistry is cheaper than using high-powered super-cleaners. Cleaning first before disinfecting wherever advisable leads to more effective disinfection with less chemistry and less occupational and occupant hazard.

Sometimes the simplest and most obvious answers turn out to be the best. Often it takes us many years to find that out.