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THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (California)
April 8, 2007 Sunday
Meredith May, Chronicle Staff Writer
Walter has stopped hugging his friends. He is throwing out his clothes and furniture, and he rarely comes out of his Tenderloin hotel room anymore. He's not suicidal, but darn near. He has bedbugs.
Nearly eradicated in the United States 50 years ago, resistant strains of "super" bedbugs are infesting mattresses at an alarming rate. In what's being touted as the biggest mystery in entomology, all 50 states are reporting outbreaks of the blood-sucking nocturnal critters.
Pest control companies nationwide reported a 71 percent increase in bedbug calls between 2000 and 2005. Left alone, a few bedbugs can create a colony of thousands within weeks. "We never treated bedbugs until 2002. Now we have a dedicated bedbug crew working on this every day," said Luis Agurto, president of Pestec in San Francisco. Agurto's arsenal includes a vacuum, steam heat to cook the bedbug eggs and targeted spraying of insecticides. It takes three, eight-hour visits and about $500 to $750 to exterminate one room. A whole house would cost closer to $5,000.
The bulk of Agurto's clients live in low-income hotels and shelters in the Tenderloin, but he's been called to five-star hotels and suburban homes in Walnut Creek. Bedbugs have been found in moving vans, public transit seat cushions, airplanes, college dorms and even a Bay Area meditation retreat. They spread by hitching a ride on your clothes or in your luggage and crawling off to infest your home or apartment building.
Nearly 300 bedbug infestations were reported to San Francisco health officials in 2006, more than double the number in 2004. Most of the cases involved travelers discovering bedbugs in upscale hotels. The size and shape of a lentil, bedbugs lay eggs during the day and hide in your bed, clothing and light sockets. At night, they suck your blood, leaving itchy bumps on your skin and little bloody excretions on your sheets. They don't pass diseases, but they are incredibly difficult to exterminate, even following their blood hosts who move to new apartments trying to get away.
The bedbug resurgence has sparked Web sites like bedbugger .com, where people share extermination tips, bite mark photos and counsel each other through the stigma. There are bedbug symposiums, cover stories in American Entomologist magazine and dozens of videos depicting infestations on YouTube. California just issued its first state bedbug guidelines, and New York lawmakers want to ban the sale of reconditioned mattresses after 4,600 bedbug cases were reported in 2006.
"The Laundromat near my building is packed, the tenants are in there, washing everything they own and giving each other knowing glances," said Walter, who has been battling bedbugs for five weeks and fears he will be kicked out of his Tenderloin studio and made a pariah if he reveals himself.
Lady Bug, a beagle professionally trained to sniff out bedbugs, makes regular rounds with Agurto's Pestec crew in San Francisco. On Friday, the dog inspected Tina Blade's room at the Empress Hotel in the Tenderloin, smelling the bed frame, baseboards and carpet.
To Blade's relief, Lady Bug deemed the room all clear. Blade is not among the dozen people who have had bedbug infestations in the 90-room Empress, but she has been bitten at other single-room occupancy hotels in the neighborhood.
"I'd always heard that nursery rhyme, 'Don't let the bedbugs bite,' but I never knew it was real until I moved to San Francisco," she said.
Empress manager Roberta Goodman is proactive about bedbugs. She conducts tenant meetings, keeps Pestec on call and has Lady Bug in every month to make sure the bugs are staying at bay.
"I can keep our community educated, but I can't control the guests who are coming in and out; that's why we do monthly checks," she said.
Bedbugs were nearly eradicated after World War II, when exterminators and homeowners used DDT to get rid of the pests.
Experts say bedbugs are making a comeback because of increased global travel and a shift toward less-toxic pest control. As people are backing away from harsh chemicals and indoor spraying, the bugs are becoming increasingly resistant to the pesticides.
"We don't use as harsh chemicals as we used to, we don't spray mattresses with insecticide before selling them anymore, and the bugs are getting increasingly resistant to the few chemicals we have left," said public health biologist Laura Krueger, who wrote the new bedbug guidelines for the California Department of Health Services.
Nearly all exterminators use pyrethroids, which are a synthetic version of pyrethrum, the substance found in chrysanthemum flowers. But last fall, at the University of Kentucky, some of the nation's best bedbug researchers delivered some sobering news -- while they could kill bedbugs born in the lab with pyrethroids, four groups of adult bedbugs brought in from the outside were unaffected.
Because bedbugs are such a new phenomenon, people don't know what to do about them and are often unwittingly making their problem worse, said Nobugsonme, a New York woman who runs the bedbugger.com Web site to help sufferers cope.
A victim herself who wanted to remain anonymous, No bugs on me said in a phone interview with The Chronicle that a series of pest control visits is the only way to get rid of the bugs. Moving the mattress, sleeping in the living room, using a bug fogger or moving in with a friend will only relocate the bugs, she said.
"People who throw away all their possessions and battle this for months and spend thousands on pest control only to relocate and have the bugs reappear are really traumatized," she said. "They are getting only a few hours of sleep at night, they feel itchy all the time, some go to therapy over it."
Thirty percent of people don't have skin reactions to bedbug bites, and may not notice an infestation until it has gotten out of control.
Pest control researchers are experimenting with alternatives such as steaming or freezing the bugs to death, and some New Jersey exterminators are gassing them with the termite killer Vikane. UC Berkeley urban entomologist Vernard Lewis is trying to get grant money to build a baited bedbug trap. Bedbugs give off a distinctive odor, described as rotting coconuts, and that's probably how the males and females find each other, he said.
"If we can mimic that funk, that stink, I think we could make baits and monitor them," Lewis said.
Until the experts figure it out, bedbug sufferers will have to help each other fight back and raise awareness.
When Atlanta filmmaker Kyle Tekiela made a short bedbug film noir and put it on YouTube, he was shocked by how many people contacted him begging for help with bedbug problems.
"Students from all over the country sent me videos of their dorm rooms," Tekiela said. "This one guy did a 360 where the ceiling meets the walls and there was a three-inch band of bedbugs all the way around."
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ALL ABOUT BEDBUGS BEDBUG FACTS -- Wingless insects of the family cimicidae. -- Small, flat, oval, reddish-brown body. Adults are about the size of an apple seed. -- Feed on human and animal blood. -- Active at night and bite any areas of exposed skin. -- Can infest a home and hide in crevices or cracks around beds or furniture. -- While some bites may go unnoticed, bites may also result in localized swelling and itching, and the areas may become inflamed or infected when scratched. -- Are not believed to transmit diseases to humans. -- Females lay from 200 to 500 eggs, which are covered with a glue and hatch in about 10 days. There are five progressively larger nymphal stages, each requiring a single blood meal before molting to the next stage. -- Can go without feeding for as long as 550 days. -- Can suck up to six times its weight in blood, and feeding can take 3 to 10 minutes. -- Adults live about 10 months, and there can be up to three to four generations of bedbugs per year.
Source: University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources
BEDBUG TIPS
When traveling: -- Check your hotel bed mattress for bedbugs. Look in the seams of the mattress and box spring. Look behind the headboard, and pull out the drawers and check the seams underneath the drawers. Report any bugs to the manager and move to another room, but not next door, directly above or directly below the infested room.
-- Keep your luggage on the luggage rack.
-- Vacuum your suitcase and wash all of your clothes in hot water after you return from a trip. Use dryer on hottest setting.
Day to day: -- Inspect carefully before buying used furniture. -- Use metal instead of wood bed frames. -- Live minimally -- get rid of the figurines, picture frames and clutter near your bed, which make a perfect playground for bedbugs.
Bedbugs in your house:
-- Call a professional exterminator, who will need to make several visits over one to two months to kill all the adults and eggs.
-- Wrap your mattress and box spring with a plastic or allergen cover and place the bed legs in cups of water. -- Fill wall cracks.
-- Wash infected clothing and sheets in hot water and dry on the hottest setting to kill the bugs.
-- When discarding infected possessions, wash and double-bag them in plastic first.
-- Vacuum repeatedly, and immediately put the vacuum bag in double-plastic and discard.
-- Do not move your mattress, sleep in a different room or sleep at a friend's house -- that will guarantee spreading bedbugs to other locations.
-- Do not buy household insect sprays or bombs
-- bedbugs are resistant and will move to another room and infect more parts of your dwelling.
In San Francisco:
-- Reluctant landlords who fail to eradicate bedbugs can be reported to the San Francisco Department of Health, Environmental Health Section, (415) 252-3800. Tenants can also file a complaint at 1390 Market St., Suite 210, San Francisco.
Sources: International Bed Bug Symposium, Washington, D.C., September 2006; www.bedbugger.com
Copyright 2007 San Francisco Chronicle
All Rights Reserved
by Sean P. Abbott , Ph.D.
March 1, 2007
Government agencies, schools and other institutions have recently looked towards heat treatment as an effective solution to some common biological contamination problems. The new technology is being considered as an appropriate non-chemical approach to problems in situations where legislation requires or business climate is leaning towards environmentally responsible solutions to contamination issues.
Most of us are familiar with the term pasteurization. Pasteurization is a process to eliminate human pathogens and reduce the overall concentration of microorganisms in food and industrial processing (Stetzenbach and Yates 2003). Louis Pasteur developed heat preservation processes between 1854 and 1864 when he determined that bacteria were causing wine to spoil. Through experimentation, he discovered that when heated to a certain threshold and held for specific period of time, the bacteria could be killed without damaging the wine. Later applications for pasteurization included other liquids such as milk and fruit juices, and heat has become an important tool for reducing biological contamination and an important method of preservation throughout the food industry. Pasteurization is distinct from sterilization, which uses extreme physical or chemical means to eliminate all biological agents (for example, autoclave treatments of surgical instruments), but may adversely affect the food or other materials being sterilized (Black 1999, Doyle et al. 2001).
In recent years, indoor environmental technicians have honed the engineered application of dry heat to a whole building, a portion of the structure, or its contents, with the purpose of killing targeted organisms. The principle of this process, often termed “structural pasteurization” or “thermal disinfection,” is similar to pasteurization in that it has demonstrated that certain microorganisms are susceptible to heat and that overall microbial levels could be significantly reduced. Each organism has a specific thermal death point, and many of those inhabiting built structures fall within the range of efficacy for this process. The thermal death point for organisms, including species of insects, arthropods, fungi, bacteria and viruses, is a function of temperature and duration coupled with biomass and environmental factors. Death rates at high temperatures for short durations may be equivalent to lower temperatures for longer times.
The application of thermal disinfection processes to biological problems in structures has proved successful in a number of situations. In all cases where heat treatments are employed, the process is used in conjunction with traditional remediation methods that rely on physical removal of contaminated building materials and control of aerosols through the use of HEPA filters.
Insect Control in Schools
With the increasing public concern regarding exposure of children to chemical agents and the implementation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs in California schools, the use of heat treatments for control of insects has recently been expanded. Insect pest control was one of the first applications of heat treatments to structures (Forbes and Ebeling 1987, Ebeling 1994), and has since found wide acceptance in the pest control industry. Effectively employing dry heat as a means of eradicating insects was pioneered by Dr. Walter Ebeling and Dr. Mike Linford at UCLA in the 1970s. The thermal death points were documented for a number of common pests and laboratory experiments were performed to confirm the efficacy of heat against all stages in the life cycle of the insects including adults, larvae and eggs.
Inside temperatures are raised to 140-150 F and structural timbers reach 120 F, maintained for one hour. Currently, heat treatment is one of only two methods approved by the State Pest Control Board of California for whole-building eradication of drywood termites (CA Dept. Consumer Affairs 1998). Other effective applications of heat treatment have been noted for the control of cockroaches in commercial buildings and bedbugs in hotels. In cases of building water intrusion, thermal disinfection may also aid in reducing the spread of mold and other fungi by controlling the insect and other arthropod vectors of dispersal.
Flood Restoration and Remediation of Sewage-Impacted Areas with Associated Bacterial CFlood Restoration and Remediation of Sewage-Impacted Areas with Associated Bacterial Contamination
A private university for photography, film and graphic arts located in Ventura County, Calif., experienced severe flooding from rainstorms in early 2005. During this period, several of the buildings on campus were impacted with water levels reaching two to three feet. A local environmental consultant was called in to determine the extent of contamination by sewage-related bacteria (Escherichia coli and other coliforms), a concern with all the flooding that had occurred through agricultural lands and widespread backup of the County sewer system. The consultant’s initial findings indicated the presence of E. coli, generally considered the most reliable indicator of contamination by human fecal waste. The university needed the facility to be dried rapidly to allow early re-occupancy of the school and prevent the growth of mold, in addition to the need to eliminate the health hazards associated with the presence of sewage bacteria.
Heat treatment was used to accomplish this objective in conjunction with physical sewage clean-up methods. Thermal death points for E. coli have been documented over a range of temperatures and durations, such as 140 F (60 C) for 45 minutes (Padhye and Doyle 1992). Temperatures at this site were elevated to 145 F to accomplish rapid drying and exceed the thermal death point of E. coli. Air circulation was increased with additional fan units and HEPA-filtered air scrubbers. Air scrubbers were used continuously to capture aerosol generated by the thermal movement and air exchange. Post-drying samples demonstrated non-detection of E. coli in all areas inspected. The university was open for business exactly one week after the flooding shut down all operations. Given the concerns expressed by facility management over use of antimicrobials, the quick and effective resolution to a potential catastrophe by using the non-chemical approach offered by heat technology demonstrated the appropriateness of the process for this application.
Hantavirus Disinfection, Yosemite National Park
The National Park Service identified approximately 44 buildings scattered throughout Yosemite National Park that required management for potential rodent infestation in order to manage the risks of park personnel contracting the potentially lethal Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS). The usual vector for the virus is the deer mouse (Peromyscus species), a small rodent common in many natural and rural areas throughout North America.
The difficulties in managing rodent infestation in park buildings are numerable. Rodent activity is easily identified in occupied areas of the structures, but inaccessible areas such as attics, crawlspaces, and wall cavities are also frequently inhabited by the rodents and the presence of rodent excreta and contaminated nesting material is expected in these areas.
A study by the World Health Organization determined that Hantavirus can be inactivated by a variety of methods including chloroform, ether-alcohol, acid below pH 5.0, phenol, sodium hypochlorite, E60 cobalt irradiation and heat at 60 C for 30 minutes (Lee et al. 1999). Given the restrictions on the use of chemicals within National Parks, heat treatment was selected for use in these buildings. The thermal disinfection process monitored the elevation of temperatures in the structures to 150 F (65.6 C) for two hours, to meet or exceed the lethal temperature and time parameters established by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). This was combined with traditional physical filtration processes including cleaning using HEPA vacuums with workers outfitted in appropriate PPE and use of HEPA air filtration devices during the heating and air exchange process.
An additional benefit to using the heat process was the exclusion of rodents. Because of the gradual increase in temperature during heating, any rodents present in the building will be driven from the structure while it is easy to exit. Following the treatment, rodent exclusion techniques were applied to prevent re-entry. Other organisms such as insects, mites, fungi and bacteria were also potentially killed during the process, adding to the overall building hygiene by effectively reducing biological contaminants within these buildings.
Conclusion
The application of heat treatments of buildings and the process of thermal disinfection of the indoor environment clearly has merit in control of insect pests, rapid drying of structures, elimination of viable bacteria in sewage contamination situations and reduction of hazards of exposure to Hantavirus in buildings with rodent infestations. The process also has potential for more widespread control of microbiological organisms and may provide an additional means of combating some of the adverse health effects associated with exposure to biological material in residential and commercial buildings.
Current efficacy studies are ongoing to address the potential application of heat treatment as an aid in situations where mold and bacterial contamination has occurred due to water intrusion events. The potential for heat denaturation of proteins for reduction of some allergen levels in residential buildings is also being investigated.
AAR, Inc., a ThermaPure® licensee, was contracted to remediate mold in the water damaged 4000 square foot Texas DPS Drivers License building. The water damage impacted the ceilings, interior walls and the building envelope. The traditional removal included removing impacted sheetrock, ceiling tile, and other affected materials. Post remediation sampling indicated that the project had not met passing criteria. Additional cleaning was done and once again failed clearance tests. A review of remaining materials concluded that the remaining mold contamination was growing on a gypsum board material between the exterior cladding material and the interior metal studding.
AAR proposed ThermaPure® to kill the active mold growth within the building envelope. The process was accepted by the consultant, TexStar Labs, and the client. AAR placed tarps on the outside of the building and heated both the interior of the structure and the building envelope. They preheated the building using a remote heater with heat exchange units and then used direct fired heaters to boost the temperature to the target of 160F and held it for four hours. Negative air machines and air scrubbers were used to capture aerosol generated by thermal movements and air exchanges.
Post remediation testing was successful and the client was able to begin their build-back. Using ThermaPure® saved the client thousands of dollars by avoiding costly removal and reconstruction of the building envelope. Awesome job AAR!
By Cecily Burt, STAFF WRITER, Insidebayarea.com
EMERYVILLE — Juanita Carroll Young's family is busy with all the tasks many people do this time of year: shop, send out cards, decorate the Christmas tree.
Only this year, like the past two years, the Youngs, and several of their neighbors who own leaky condominiums in the Terraces at EmeryStation, will be spending the holidays in a hotel, not in the comfort of their own homes. It's not by choice. The owners of more than 20 condos in Emeryville have been living a nomadic — but not too spartan — existence at the Woodfin Suites hotel since August 2004. That's when it became clear that water leaks and subsequent mold problems in their condos would be not be quick, easy or inexpensive to fix.
At that point the developer's insurance company moved most of them into the hotel, their furniture and many other belongings left behind or placed in storage. A few people have since moved to apartments, but the bulk of them remain at the Woodfin. And though many of the displaced homeowners — who refer to themselves as "moldies" — feel slightly odd when they complain about having to stay at the very nice and comfortable hotel, that doesn't mean they aren't frustrated as heck by the delay in moving back to their own homes.
"My daughter is 11, she was 8 when we moved in," said Young about her daughter Larissa Campana. "She learned to ride her bike in the parking lot behind the hotel. "Nobody really has that much pity for me, somebody does come in and clean my room every day," she added wryly.
The 101-unit Terraces at Emery Station on Horton Street is the residential component of Wareham Development's planned 20-acre campus that includes two office buildings and the Amtrak station, which is owned and managed by Wareham. The condominium project was completed in 2003, but it wasn't long before residents started reporting drips and leaks when the rainy season started.
Craig Winsor and his partner bought their 1,100-square-foot loft in July 2003. It features floor-to-ceiling windows and an eclectic view of urban life that he loves.
Winsor said he first noticed the drips from his 22-foot ceilings on New Year's Day, 2004. He said management at first blamed it on the bad storms that winter. Then the mold happened, construction defects were discovered, lawsuits were filed and all hopes of quick fixes and promises of moving back have faded as the months go by. Wareham's insurance company pays for their suite at the Woodfin while he continues to pay the mortgage on the condo and $420 a month in Home Owner's Association dues. Winsor has an adjustable rate mortgage due in 2008. He put off refinancing because the wall in his unit is exposed down to the studs, awaiting repair, while the attorneys for both sides haggle over what should be done to fix the problem and get ready for trial in case nothing is resolved.
"I go up and down," said Winsor, who visits his condo from time to time and has remodeled his bathrooms while living at the hotel. "Sometimes I get really livid and frustrated, that's why I don't go to all the meetings (to get updates on the repairs). I'd rather pretend it's not happening, I guess." Calls to Wareham were returned by Tim Gallen of Gallen Associates, a public relations firm. Gallen said the lawsuit prevented him from commenting about anything related to the water or mold problems, the proposed resolution, or the timetable for returning people to their homes.
Wareham's attorney, Erik Buzzard of Palumbo Bergstrom LLC in Irvine, said it is true that Wareham initially thought the problem could be quickly fixed and people would be able to move back in. Buzzard said the developer doesn't own the building and the homeowners association has control over how the repairs are done and Wareham "can't just go in and do whatever it wants." The insurance companies for the developer and subcontractors stepped in and started negotiating with the home owners' association over the type and extent of those repairs. The two sides couldn't agree, and the association filed a lawsuit earlier this year, Buzzard said.
"I couldn't give you all the details on the back and forth," he said. "There is a process in California where the developer gets to do something before litigation starts. That process happened, the insurance companies got involved, now it's just a matter of the insurance companies not being able to agree to what the repairs should be."
Cynthia Truelove, president of the homeowner's association at the Terraces, said both sides hired forensics experts to study the problem. Both sides agree on the cause of the water intrusion and subsequent mold, and both sides agree there were identified construction defects.
But that agreement so far hasn't translated into action. "The magnitude of the construction defects, the costs and adequate funding of the liability, exceeds the amount of insurance in the first insurance policy," Truelove said, adding that a so-called "wrap" insurance policy that covers all the subcontractors been activated, adding more lawyers to the negotiations.
"The case hasn't settled," Truelove said. "There are insurance carriers involved and we are moving to trial on this." Buzzard said Wareham has a good track record in Emeryville and has worked hard to make it a better community for both business and its residents. He said the company has not forgotten about the residents and the company is "genuinely concerned" about them and committed to resolving the problems. Unfortunately, he said, the litigation process slows things down.
"Wareham is devoted to the community and it's not leaving or abandoning the community," he said. That may be, but some displaced residents aren't feeling the love right now. "This is our third Christmas at the hotel," Young said. "We set up a tree, but I couldn't find the box with our Christmas ornaments this year, which really made me mad."
Young's family made the best of the situation, popping popcorn and weaved strands of the fluffy kernels and cranberries to hang on the tree. Larissa designed and cut out paper ornaments and created small cachets of potpourri with hot pink Silly String curlicues, popcorn and cranberries.
"Every spring and summer that comes we are very hopeful there will be a fix, then every September that comes, it's too late because another rainy season is coming," Young said. "You gotta just find some humor in the whole thing."
By: Larry Chase
Indoor air quality (IAQ) issues in schools have become a major problem affecting both property and the well being and performance of teachers and students. The reasons for IAQ problems in schools are numerous and include both external and internal causes. Ranging from weather events to construction and maintenance, the quality of indoor air may be cumulatively impacted by these causes.
Natural events such as storms or hurricanes may cause damage to building systems allowing moisture to enter the structure. Water damage to a structure provides an opportunity for the growth of mold or fungi. Water damage that is the result of flooding or sewage discharge may also result in contamination from other pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa and helminthes. These pathogens may be extremely harmful to the health of school occupants.
High levels of moisture in structures will also lead to an increased presence of insects and arthropods. Some of these, such as dust mites, are primary allergen triggers and will provide an environment that is unhealthy for many occupants, particularly asthmatics. Additionally, insects may be detrimental to the integrity of the structure, such as termites or wood-boring beetles. Insects may also be vectors for the movement of mold spores or other biological pathogens from an impacted area to other areas of the structure.
Indoor air quality issues in structures may also be the result of construction material selection. This is particularly true with the portable structures that are used for much of new school construction. Certain synthetic or manufactured materials such as flooring or wall coverings may emit or off-gas chemicals that include volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs can be irritants and cause respiratory illness. Some VOCs, such as formaldehyde, are known to be toxic or carcinogenic. At higher levels, VOCs are noticeable by odor and many people may experience eye or respiratory irritation.
Other sources of poor indoor air quality may be the result of inclement weather during construction allowing high moisture levels in framing timber. Lumber that is exposed to rain or high levels of humidity during storage may also be high in moisture content and have lumber mold colonies present prior to construction. These higher levels of moisture may not create a visual problem after occupancy, but oftentimes there will be odors present. Odors typically represent a hidden problem and may be difficult to locate a source.
Odor in portable structures may be an indicator of another hidden problem. Odors may be the result of moisture in the sub-area. High moisture levels in sub-areas may lead to biological growth on the sub-floor. Moisture in sub-areas is difficult to control. High water tables, inclement weather, high humidity, lawn sprinkler systems may all contribute moisture to a sub-area.
These paragraphs do not represent all of the potential causes of poor indoor air quality in schools, but list several of the conditions that may be sources of problems. The best response to these and other potential IAQ problems is preventive. Recognition that these problems are typical to all types of buildings, not just schools, and that they can be prevented before they become a health issue is the cornerstone to healthy schools.
The primary preventive process should be whatever is required to prevent moisture from intruding the structure. Known water leaks from damaged roofs, plumbing, windows, etc., should be repaired or replaced. Damaged materials need to be replaced and visible contamination should be removed.
Oftentimes, this is not enough, water intrusion is complex and difficult to find. There is a preventive process that can be deployed that will provide a healthier building under all of the circumstances previously listed. ThermaPure® is a process that is used to disinfect a structure of many unwanted pathogens, pests and odors. Similar to the process used for 150 years to pasteurize food products, ThermaPure® can be used to “pasteurize” or disinfect a structure. It should be noted that ThermaPure® also has value as a remediation tool, but these comments are as a preventive tool.
ThermaPure® is a patented process that employs the application of heat to a structure for the purpose of reducing biological growth, chemical off-gassing, and various attendant odors. ThermaPure® is known to be effective in killing mold, bacteria, viruses, protozoa, helminthes and insects in a structure. It will reduce chemical sensitivity by increasing the off-gassing process and capturing or exhausting VOCs. Using a convective heating process, the structure reaches uniform temperatures at levels known to kill or reduce the target organisms or chemicals. Using engineering controls, ThermaPure® delivers temperatures capable of preventing the continued growth and development of potential biological pathogens.
In schools, ThermaPure® may be implemented as a preventive measure after new construction, during continuing school maintenance operations, or following significant impact events such as floods or hurricanes. In each of these applications ThermaPure® will resolve multiple potential indoor air quality problems. Heat does not differentiate between the targets. In other words, the treatment of a structure with heat will dry the structure, impact the potential colonization of mold, bacteria, and other pathogens, reduce VOCs, kill insects and remove odors simultaneously. And, it is a non-chemical, non-invasive process.
School Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs are mandated in some states and recommended in most. One of the principle tenets of a successful IPM program is the reduction of the use of harmful chemicals. ThermaPure® can be used for pest eradication without the use of chemicals and also can be used in place of biocides for mold and bacterial remediation. Structural pasteurization with ThermaPure® is a good addition to a school’s preventive maintenance and IPM programs.
Preventive Maintenance Indoor Air Quality Safety Program:
The application of ThermaPure® during the following situations:
New Construction:
The benefits are:
New Portables:
The benefits are:
Existing Structures Impacted by Storms or Hurricanes:
The benefits are:
Existing Structures Impacted by Maintenance Items:
The benefits are:
Ongoing Maintenance in a Humid Environment:
The benefits are:
There are chemical alternatives to ThermaPure®. Healthy school initiatives and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs are directing schools away from the application of chemicals. Following are some of the reasons that ThermaPure® is a preferred alternative to chemical biocides:
Michael S. Fullerton
CA
May 2007
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