Biohazard Decontamination

The reliable professionals at Local Trauma Clean can provide biohazard remediation services, decontamination, and sanitation of homicides, suicides, hoarding, accident or crime scenes including Fentanyl and other illicit drug lab and vehicle remediation.

What is a Biohazard?

A biohazard is defined as harmful viruses, bacteria or any infectious biological agent that presents a risk to people and animals either through infection or environmental exposure.

To many, biohazard remediation (commonly known as, crime scene cleanup) sounds like standard cleaning. In reality, the two services couldn’t be more different. Biohazard remediation refers to the removal, cleaning, and disinfection of blood, bodily fluids, and other potentially infectious materials in affected areas after a death, accident, or communicable disease outbreak. Because of the high exposure risk to blood borne pathogens, biohazard remediation is a specialty service that requires proper training, equipment, certification, and licensing.

Where are Biohazards Found?

Anywhere and everywhere! At your job, at your dentist’s or doctor’s office, at your children’s school, or any public place.

Some Examples of Biohazards Are:

• Human blood and blood products: This includes items that have been contaminated with blood and other body fluids or tissues that contain visible blood.
• Animal waste: Animal carcasses and body parts, or any bedding material used by animals that are known to be infected with pathogenic organisms.
• Human body fluids: Semen, cerebrospinal fluid, pleural fluid, vaginal secretions, pericardial fluid, amniotic fluid, saliva, and peritoneal fluid.
• Microbiological wastes: Common in laboratory settings, examples of microbiological wastes include specimen cultures, disposable culture dishes, discarded viruses, and devices used to transfer or mix cultures.
• Pathological waste: Unfixed human tissue (excluding skin), waste biopsy materials, and anatomical parts from medical procedures or autopsies.
• Sharps waste: Needles, glass slides and cover slips, scalpels, and IV tubing that has the needle attached.

Biological hazards are categorized by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC categorizes various diseases in levels of biohazard, Level 1 being minimum risk and Level 4 being extreme risk.

• Biohazard Level 1: Bacteria and viruses including Bacillus subtilis, canine hepatitis, Escherichia coli, and varicella (chickenpox), as well as some cell cultures and non-infectious bacteria. At this level precautions against the biohazardous materials in question are minimal, most likely involving gloves and some sort of facial protection.
• Biohazard Level 2: Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, some influenza A strains, Human respiratory syncytial virus, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures.
• Biohazard Level 3: Bacteria and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which vaccines or other treatments exist, such as anthrax, West Nile virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, SARS coronavirus, MERS coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, Influenza A H5N1, hantaviruses, tuberculosis, typhus, Rift Valley fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, yellow fever, and malaria.
• Biohazard Level 4: Viruses that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, Lassa fever virus, Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic diseases, as well as Nipah virus. Variola virus (smallpox) is an agent that is worked with at BSL-4 despite the existence of a vaccine, as it has been eradicated and thus the general population is no longer routinely vaccinated. When dealing with biological hazards at this level, the use of a positive pressure personnel suit with a segregated air supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent doors from both opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.

[Source for Biohazard Levels: Wikipedia]