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Contamination Restoration & Remediation​Managing Your Restoration BusinessCleaning and Sanitation

COVID-19: Applying 2020 Lessons in 2021

By Nate Seward PE, CIH
exercise gym

Image from  Smederevac/ iStock / Getty Images Plus via Getty Images

January 1, 2021

It’s not surprising that “pandemic” was one of the most used words in 2020. Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19) has caused a global pandemic that has been devastating in many ways to virtually all countries on earth. As the public continues to practice infection control measures like social distancing, handwashing, wearing face coverings, and staying home as the “new normal”, we need to be fully aware that there is another important side to controlling and managing this novel virus: how and who is disinfecting our homes and workplaces?

 

The Problem

U.S. businesses still seem to be confused and desperate, hiring anyone that has a fogger or a sprayer. But is anyone asking these “professionals” some simple questions:

  1. Do your employees have a pathogen-specific certification for building disinfection?
  2. Are you properly insured to provide services (worker’s compensation, liability insurance, etc.) related to communicable diseases?
  3. Are you following a cleaning and disinfection protocol that is specific to that building?
  4. Are your employees in compliance with OSHA and EPA regulations? (i.e. training, infection control plans, PPE, proper chemicals, etc.)
  5. Do you have a properly written contract specific to COVID disinfection services?

Most of the contractors claiming to provide COVID cleaning and disinfection services:

  1. Do not have pathogen training/certification specific to pathogens (i.e. SARS-CoV-2)
  2. Do not carry the proper insurance coverage
  3. Do not perform services following a building-specific disinfection protocol
  4. Are not in compliance with OSHA and/or EPA
  5. And most importantly, are using unapproved application technologies and cleaning techniques with chemicals that are not only ineffective to inactivate SARS-CoV-2 but also are dangerous to the occupants.
covid compliant

Without qualified, properly-trained and insured professionals performing building disinfection services, we will continue to see COVID-19 infection rates increase and U.S. businesses unknowingly providing a false sense of security to their employees and the public that their buildings are “safe”.

Worker’s compensation claims and premiums will continue to increase, putting more financial pressure employers and COVID-related lawsuits will continue to skyrocket. Sound familiar? This is eerily similar to what we saw developing 25 years ago with the mold remediation industry; the difference is that the current COVID situation is massive and continues to impact all industries, not just those buildings that sustain a water intrusion event.

 

The Solution

Proper training. One possible training and certification possibility lies with The Pathogen Response and Resource Alliance (PR2A), which has established professional training and certification courses. The Founders of PR2A along, with our Advisory Board, provides an unmatched and critical credibility that support our overall mission in developing a nationally recognized COVID Standard of Care, starting with training and certification courses. Industry and infectious disease/disinfection experts combined their knowledge and more than 100 years of environmental infection control and property restoration, health and safety, toxicology, industrial hygiene, engineering, and clinical psychology allow us to provide science-based solutions for anyone seeking to clean and disinfect buildings.

PR2A leads the way for COVID education and has certified thousands of English and Spanish speaking professionals including:

  • Property restoration and abatement contractors (ATI, BELFOR, ServiceMaster, SERVPRO, etc.)
  • Environmental Consultants
  • School District Janitorial/custodial and facility staff
  • Risk Managers
  • Property Managers
  • First Responders
click here

Training programs can be customized for specific industries such as hospitals, schools, airports, restaurants, hotels/casinos, R&D, Fire/Police Departments, churches, ski resorts, etc.

Without a nationally recognized, credible and pathogen-specific certification program for the professionals cleaning our homes and buildings, we will continue to enter and live in buildings that are not properly cleaned and disinfected leading to more infections and another catastrophic economic collapse.

KEYWORDS: COVID-19 disinfection services liability microbial remediation

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Nate Seward, PE, CIH is the owner of two environmental & industrial hygiene consulting firms, Criterion Environmental, Inc. (California-based) and Premier Environmental Consulting (Nevada-based).  Nate is also the Owner and Training Director of The Academy of Textiles, which has a new CORONAVIRUS DISINFECTION CERTIFICATION Course. To date, Nate has performed and reviewed well over 10,000 environmental investigations and have been blessed to obtain various environmental licenses, registrations and certification. Nate is part of the newly formed Pathogen Response and Resource Alliance, and has his IICRC Master certifications in fire and water. Nate is an EPA-approved and IICRC instructor and also provides cannabis consulting services nationally as it relates to indoor air quality and odor mitigation/abatement for several dozen commercial growing and cultivation operations in the US. Contact Nate at: nate@atfinfo.com or www.atfinfo.com 

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