Blood spills are more dangerous than you may realize. Depending on the size of the spill, they can carry hundreds of trillions of viruses, some of which may be infectious. Spread through open wounds, sores and other orifices (i.e. eyes, nose, mouth), these disease-carrying microorganisms—or pathogens—can cause severe illness or death if left untreated. Though the risk of infection depends on the volume of blood involved and the pervasiveness of the virus, it is prudent to consider how to protect yourself against different types of bloodborne viruses. Although they are easily preventable, contracting one demands urgency. As their name suggests, these pathogens travel through the bloodstream infecting host cells and disrupting the body’s biological machinery. As the virus multiplies, cells will die or function improperly, leading to distressing side effects. Here are some of the most common bloodborne infection you should be aware of:
Hepatitis A—Hepatitis A infects the liver. Though the virus commonly comes from food and water contaminated by feces, it can be transmitted through blood and other bodily fluids, such as semen, breast milk and saliva. It is extremely contagious, but given the availability of effective vaccines, most people are able to make a full recovery.
Hepatitis B—Hepatitis B is another highly contagious and severe liver infection that can be spread through blood and bodily fluids. Young people—particularly infants—are more at risk of developing a chronic infection than adults, which can lead to long-term side effects, liver failure and cancer. People infected with acute—or short-termed—hepatitis B are most likely to make a full recovery.
Hepatitis C— This viral liver infection is transmitted blood-to-blood and usually results in a chronic illness. Though hepatitis C is curable today, more than half of those infected are unaware that they have the disease. Unlike hepatitis A and B, there is no vaccine. Treatment involves 12 weeks of oral medication.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)—HIV destroys cells that combat infections. If untreated, it will progress until the infected person contracts AIDS—the final stage of the disease. Spread through unprotected sex, exposure to blood and shared hygiene instruments, HIV affects 1.1 million people today. An effective cure has yet to be developed.
How to protect yourself—The safest way to protect yourself from bloodborne pathogens is by avoiding blood spills and practicing safe, protected sex. Refrain from sharing razors, needles and toothbrushes as well, which may carry traces of blood from someone else. Smaller blood spills—such as those caused by nose bleeds or minor head injuries—can generally be disinfectd safely at home through tight gloves and protective eyewear.
But you’re going to want to contact the professionals for anything larger. Allowing trained specialists to do the work protects you from accidental blood exposure and ensures that your property is thoroughly disinfected. Bio-One hires certified technicians to comprehensively and efficiently clean biohazardous blood spills. Don’t hesitate to give us a call if you have any questions or concerns. We’re always available to assist you.
When a loved one commits suicide it’s fair to assume that first responders will decontaminate the scene. But they don’t, creating yet another dilemma for families who are freshly traumatized by a sudden and devastating loss. Driven to remove the memory from your home as quickly as possible, your first impulse may be to clean the space yourself. But there are several reasons why you shouldn’t take on this burden.
For one, suicide cleanup is a traumatic and overwhelming experience of its own. Although you may think you can push through this task by suppressing your emotions, you’re at risk of developing PTSD and prolonging your grief. It's best to avoid the scene and leave this process to the professionals.
Additionally, you may be subject to harmful diseases if you don’t clean up the scene properly. Pathogens linger long after a surface has been scrubbed, leaving you and your family at risk of developing bloodborne infections like Hepatitis C and HIV if your cleaning process has not been thorough enough. Certified specialists in biohazard remediation are the only people qualified to perform this intensive work. Let them restore your home with the assurance that it will be sanitary.
Bio-One is here to help in this regard. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you need assistance. We’re on standby 24/7, every day of the year, and are always available to answer any questions you might have.
We’re here to meet your needs, wherever you are. From the parched land of Southern Nevada to the aquamarine beaches of West Florida, Bio-One has over 80 offices located across the nation—and we continue to grow. You can find us in areas as metropolitan as Philadelphia and as pastoral as Colorado Springs. But even if you don’t live in one of these cities, our offices service multiple counties nearby. Please visit our “locations” tab on our website to find your neighborhood, and we’ll be available to assist you.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, compulsive hoarding disorder affects an estimated 2 to 6 percent of the population. That’s between 6.5 and 20 million people respectively—if you consider the latest figures from the United States Census Bureau. While inadvertently mythologized through reality television, hoarding is a serious problem that can diminish one’s quality of life and create significant safety hazards. As opposed to collectors, who invariably organize their material in a clean and organized manner, hoarders obsessively and haphazardly accumulate a myriad of items that often have no practical value. They face severe distress when confronted with the prospect of discarding these items, leading to a dangerous and unsanitary aggregation of clothes, trash, broken appliances and more.
In addition to generating mold, harboring disease and creating fire hazards, hoarding—according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America—often causes distress within the family and threatens the social development of children. While the nation’s leading psychiatrists didn’t classify hoarding as a distinct mental disorder until 2013, it’s a significant problem that many Americans face within our local communities. That’s why you shouldn’t feel ashamed if you’re thinking about contacting Bio-One to assist you or a loved one with hoarding cleanup. We will work with you to address your individual situation, especially if that includes removing extreme piles of clutter, searching for sentimental valuables, and restoring your home’s sense of safety and comfort. Don’t hesitate to contact us with questions or concerns. It can be the first step towards recovery.
Sudden and inexplicable tragedies like suicide and homicide are emotionally devastating experiences that leave trauma, property damage and unanswered questions in their wake. Our certified technicians conduct their work in a manner that is sensitive to your needs, considerate of your privacy and empathetic towards your grief. That’s why we strive to be on-site, at your side, an hour after you give us a call. We don't require payment or insurance authorization before a service because our primary concern is restoring your home quickly and courteously. Staying true to this prerogative is what makes us the most compassionate organization in the industry. Don’t hesitate to give us a call if you have any questions or concerns. We’re happy to help—day and night.
Needles and sharps can be dangerous and carry infectous fluids. If you want to know how to properly dispose of your sharps, please visit https://safeneedledisposal.org.
You SHOULD NOT be throwing needles and sharps directly into the trash. They need to be handled carefully and by a trained professional. Did you know Bio-One will pick up these items for you?
If you are a part of the medical field, dental industry, or a tattoo shop, these are all places we can pick up from! If you think you might need this, take a look at our locations page to find a Bio-One franchise close to you.
Decomp/Odor Abatement
On the morning of 15 February, 2018, Bio-One Savannah received a call from a patrol Sergeant with Garden City Police Department, who our sales representatives had recently contacted with information about our services. The patrol Sergeant told us that he would be passing our information on to a local business who would most likely contact us soon after. The following morning, Bio-One Savannah received a call from a local Motel regarding a death that had occurred in one of their long-term rented rooms. 90 minutes later, Bio-One Savannah was on scene with all of our equipment and chemicals.
Upon arrival, the owner of the motel explained to us that the tenant was a Marine veteran who had fallen in his room, sustaining a significant wound to the head, bleeding profusely as he moved about the room, and then eventually he collapsed and perished on the floor. As a veteran owned and operated franchise, this situation hit home very strongly for Bio-One Savannah, as do all other veteran deaths. Unfortunately, since he was a quiet man who kept to hself and had no local family, so he was not found for 8 or 9 days after death, according to the coroner’s estimation. During this prolonged period, the situation changed from a biohazard cleanup to also requiring odor remediation.
Bio-One Savannah’s techs immediately suited up in full PPE and got to work, remediating all surfaces contacted by any potential biohazard, removing a contaminated mattress, parts of the baseboard along the wall that had been contaminated, and several towels and clothing articles that had clearly been used as bandages as the tenant tried to tend to his wound. Bio-One Savannah also had the unfortunate duty of properly disposing of various clothing and porous items that had absorbed the smell and would therefore be both unsafe and emotionally difficult for the departed’s family to take possession of. Before disposing of any personal items, Bio-One Savannah made sure to sort through them to find anything of apparent sentimental or real value and doing everything possible to salvage those items so that the family may have them, including some of the tenants Marine Corps uniforms. Sadly, some items were simply beyond salvaging and had to be properly disposed of as biohazards.
Once all contaminated surfaces had been treated with Bio-One’s proprietary multi-step chemical process, Bio-One Savannah proceeded to treat all porous materials in the room that could have absorbed any odor with our enzymatic cleaning agent and acid wash, which included the entire drop ceiling, all carpets, and the curtains. Once all porous surfaces had been treated with those two chemicals, Bio-One Savannah proceeded to use an anti-odor fogging machine to ensure successful odor abatement. Once finished with the fogging process, to be even more certain that the odor would not return in the future, Bio-One Savannah sealed off all vents and possible air passages to other rooms, set up our industrial ozone machine, and allowed it to run overnight.
Upon returning the following morning, Bio-One Savannah found that our procedures and methods learned during BOTS certification had worked spectacularly, and the odor was no longer present. The owner of the motel was ecstatic with the outcome and very happy to have our information for his future needs, stating that two years prior he had been charged over twice our price for a less extreme situation by another cleaning company, and the odor still lingered for months afterwards. Bio-One Savannah’s techs left the scene with pride knowing that the family of the fallen veteran would never know of or be able to detect the scene or odor that we had cleaned up, as well as with the knowledge that we were able to help a local small business in need who had been taken advantage of in the past. People first, business second.
On the morning of 9 February, a local property management company located in Hinesville, Georgia, which is about 45 minutes away from Bio-One Savannah’s headquarters, contacted Bio-One Savannah regarding an odor issue in one of their properties. Bio-One Savannah was on scene to assess the situation and begin the free estimate process roughly two hours after the initial call came in. The tenant of the house had only recently moved in, and as the first two weeks passed by, there began to be a stronger and stronger odor of dog urine emanating from a sunroom that was an addition onto the original structure of the home. The property management company informed Bio-One Savannah’s free estimate team that the previous tenant had left multiple large-breed dogs in their kennels for a prolonged period of time in the sunroom. As a result, the dogs had no choice but to urinate through the bars of their kennels and onto the sheetrock and brick walls of the room.
That tenant had been asked to leave and the property management company had done their best to remediate the smell by using a bleach/water solution and painting the entire concrete floor with three coats of Kilz. Obviously, since they did not have the enzymatic cleaners, equipment, or specialized training of our BOTS certified technicians, the odor returned quickly and only continued to intensify with time. Bio-One Savannah’s estimation team quickly deduced that a significant amount of urine had absorbed into the sheetrock and underlying insulation of one wall as well as having soaked deeply into the exposed brick of the opposite wall. After calculating the costs and time necessary to remediate the issue, a free quote was sent to the property management company only a few hours after the assessment was completed. It took about a week for the property management company to approve Bio-One Savannah to begin remediation processes.
Once on scene with all of our equipment and chemicals, Bio-One Savannah’s team suited up in full PPE, steamed the brick, treated it with our multi-step series of proprietary chemicals, cut away and removed all contaminated sheetrock and insulation, then treated all underlying wood framing and surfaces with the same multi-step propriety chemical process as used on the brick. After all contaminated surfaces had been properly treated to ensure that there was no longer a biohazard, Bio-One Savannah treated everything porous with an anti-odor fogging process, sealed off the room with plastic tarps, and set up our industrial ozone machine in order to ensure that there was no residual odor left behind. After allowing the ozone machine to run for approximately 4 hours, Bio-One Savannah returned to the home and safely turned off the ozone and allowed the room to air out properly before re-entering. Upon re-entry, it was clear that the odor abatement procedures set forth by BOTS certification were extremely effective and our efforts were a success. Bio-One Savannah contacted the local office of the property management company that had called us and had one of their representatives come and verify that the odor abatement process was, in fact, successful. Afterwards, we proceeded to the local office of the property management company and were very warmly received and thanked for our prompt response time and professional manner. They then issued us a check for our services and told us they would be contacting us for any future situations in which they required biohazard remediation services.
On the morning of 9 March, 2018, Bio-One Savannah was called regarding a biohazard situation in need of remediation. Bio-One Savannah was told only that it was a suicide and that remediation needed to happen immediately, as the scene was in a rental home and the family wanted to retrieve their loved one’s belongings as soon as possible. Bio-One Savannah had a team of technicians’s on site within 90 minutes of receiving the call, only to find out that the departed was a veteran who came from a family of veterans and law enforcement. As a veteran owned and operated franchise, this call struck home for us at Bio-One Savannah very deeply.
Our technicians approached the family outside of the home and advised them not to enter until we had completed our work. The family departed the scene to meet up with other loved ones while Bio-One Savannah worked, knowing that we would call them when we were finished. In close contact with the property owner to ensure that he was aware of everything we were doing, Bio-One Savannah’s team suited up in full PPE and utilized our multi-step proprietary chemical treatment process to treat all surfaces that had been contacted by any kind of potential biohazard. In just under two hours, Bio-One Savannah made it impossible to discern that there had been a firearm death in that home and alerted the family that they could then safely enter to begin collecting their loved one’s belongings.
Bio-One Savannah took with us all signs of biohazard or contaminated objects that could not be safely disinfectd, ensuring that we discretely placed all red biohazard bags inside of rolling trash cans as we transported them to the truck, so that no-one in the family ever saw anything that could even remotely indicate what we had just saved them from having to see. Because the departed was a veteran and he had several family members in law enforcement, Bio-One Savannah’s technicians voluntarily put in our time on scene instead of charging the family for it, significantly reducing the cost of our services. There is nothing that can bring back their family member or properly describe how deeply we appreciate and support our veterans and law enforcement, but hopefully that small gesture can help to make that very trying time a little less stressful for them. Bio-One Savannah is currently attempting to locate programs through the local Veterans Administration that offer grief counseling to the families of fallen veterans so that we may offer those direct contacts to in the future.
