CREATING SAFETY FROM AIRBORNE PATHOGENS IN BUILDINGS HOW PREPARED ARE YOU?Simple Steps to Reducing Health Risks in Buildings* There has been a great deal of concern about airborne pathogens in buildings and the safety of personnel working in them. Many steps can be taken to protect individuals and reduce the risk of contaminant exposure.* The most important step is to develop a comprehensive administrative policy to handle anything that could be a vehicle for entrainment including mail, clothing, and even transmission through air handlers such as has been experienced in the Capital Building in Washington, D.C.* By investing some time and responding rather than reacting to airborne pathogen challenges, more comprehensive, cost effective, and most importantly, greater solution oriented methods of achieving success can be attained.* After preparing your administrative protocol, engineering controls should be provided. The following outlline offers some of the controls that are available and, based upon your own risk assessment, these can be combined to provide greater or lesser levels of risk reduction.RECOMMENDED STEPS for AIRBORNE PATHOGEN CONTROL in BUILDINGS1. DEVELOP and implement a comprehensive administrative protocol. This should include how to handle possible vehicles of contaminate entering the building such as outside air, mail, and even personal clothing.2. ENSURE quality fresh air make-up from the outside. This is essential for quality indoor air. Some people have suggested capping off the make-up air intakes in the event a warning has been received. This is NOT a good idea as new challenges will be created including: a. how to dilute the CO and CO2 generated within the building and ... b. disruption of pressure balances throughout the building.Our approach is to utilize equipment in the duct system that is designed not only to remove pathogens, but to actually destroy them. BioPlus air cleaning systems, manufactured by Technovation, give us the ability to do this using a patented electronic process.3. CONDUCT a risk assessment.4. TAKE ACTION !! Depending upon the outcome of your risk assessment, different courses of action may be necessary. a. LOW RISK: Perhaps the only step you need to take is to ensure the quality of your make-up air. b. MODERATE RISK: If your evaluation indicates that it is advisable to address a specific area, such as a mailroom to reduce risk, we offer ceiling mounted BioPlus systems. With these, we can hel0p you create an environment that has greatly reduced bio-burden levels through Fugitive Collection which greatly reduces the risk of infection. c. HIGH RISK: If your evaluation deter;mines a high risk of handling possible contaminate through the mail, we can provide highly advanced technology workbenches. The benches are available from 2.5 to 8' widths and are created with the BioPlus award winning technology that provides, literally, a source collection of contaminate. This is the highest risk reduction method possible as contaminate is removed before it can enter the air mix. Gloves as well as masks should be worn at this risk level. Suspicious material should be "red bagged" ( as per Universal Precautions ), and the proper authorities alerted.If your would like further information , have questions we can assist you with, or would like to schedule an appointment, please go to our CONTACT page, fill out and submit the survey form to us. Of course, you can always call us at 1 (888) 646-9002.