With the potential reopening of businesses and offices as COVID-19 restrictions ease, it is predicted that there will be a rush for cleaning and disinfecting services. This is the first of a two-part guide to disinfecting services, getting the most for your money and how to be a smart consumer. This article will discuss how to qualify and select a disinfecting service. Part 2 will detail how your expert could treat your space.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, it seems like everyone from maintenance companies to carpet cleaners to painters to exterminators are offering disinfecting services. The issue is that many of them do not have any infection control training or understand the requirements for proper disinfection. Here are some tips to help determine the qualifications of the company that you are considering.
Qualifications
Find out if the company has experience pre-COVID-19 with performing disinfecting services. Training for disinfection does exist. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Hazwoper covers Infection Control and Hazard Communication. Infection Control Risk Assessment (ICRA) courses exist that are designed for construction/maintenance staff that work in medical facilities. Additionally, treating a location with a confirmed case versus what is being called “proactive disinfecting” requires a different level of training and experience. Someone disinfecting a space not only must know how to apply a disinfectant product but also know how not to get sick while doing it, how to not to get others sick and how not to spread the virus if they unknowingly have it.
Protection/PPE
There are a few different levels of protection and several different reasons for wearing personal protective equipment (PPE). Anyone not wearing any PPE to apply a disinfectant is violating OSHA standards that require gloves and respiratory protection when handling or applying chemicals. Beyond that, the biggest reason you want the people doing the disinfecting to wear PPE is to avoid asymptomatic workers from spreading the virus. The only way to prevent someone from spreading the virus unknowingly is to have them in full PPE when they enter and work in your facility. The standard level of PPE is hooded coveralls, goggles, gloves and a respirator (a half face respirator or N95 mask, not a surgical mask).
When there is a confirmed case in a space within the past 14 days, the risk is much higher. Anyone entering the space to work should be fully HAZMAT/biohazard-trained and don a higher level of PPE. Very few workers have this training. They are Trauma Cleanup workers, who would clean up a death scene or an anthrax exposure. These workers wear powered air purifying respirators (PAPR), which are a full hood with an air pump. It is not just a higher level of PPE that distinguishes them; it is the training on how to don and doff the PPE without cross contamination. That is the hard part.
Snake Oil Salesmen
Here are some products or processes designed to make money for someone with little or no benefit.
HVAC/Duct Cleaning
HVAC systems are the least likely to be affected by the virus. Even if the system (in a building, not an airplane) sucked in some virus, it would have likely been captured by filtration or settled within the system rather than being blown back out and still be viable enough to infect someone. There may be other reasons to address the HVAC system if it has been inactive for two to three months, but the virus isn’t one of them.
HEPA Air Filtration
I have seen less reputable companies in the environmental or restoration industry using these while doing COVID-19 disinfections, saying that it will help capture any virus that is floating in the air. Based on available information, we know that unless someone is coughing or sneezing in front of you, this is not where you will likely find the virus. But they love to get their toys out and charge you for using them. In addition, if airborne virus is a concern, ultra-low volume (ULV) fog can knock that out of the air at a fraction of the cost.
Ozone Generators
These are a very effective in the restoration industry for odor removal and could kill the virus with enough dwell time. However, ozone is also a harmful gas and oxidizer that is unsafe to breathe and can fade some surfaces. It would have to be used in an unoccupied space, which would then need to be aired out before occupancy.
Carpet Treatments
Some companies are proposing to spray a disinfectant to carpeting in public areas. This is a ridiculous thing to do. The virus does not last more than a couple of hours on carpets, and people are not likely to touch carpeting.
Pricing
What I have found most concerning about costs is that companies are pricing this work by the square foot but are not being clear about what you get for your money. Don’t just ask what process or method they propose to use but also how many people they will send, how long it will take, how much equipment they will bring and how much chemical they are proposing to use.
Finally, the most important thing to know is that hiring an outside company to do a one-time process is not the end-all for this ongoing situation. A vigilant protocol of daily disinfectant wipe downs of touch-prone surfaces is the most effective process to limit the spread of the virus.
Jeffrey Gross, CR (jgross@maxons.com) is the chief operating officer at Maxons Restorations, Inc., a restoration firm in New York City, where he has worked for the past 27 years.
