Bio-One of Jersey Shore decontamination and biohazard cleaning services

Biohazard Disposal: What to Do and Not to Do

Most people never plan on cleaning up a crime scene or other biohazard. However, if you are confronted a situation requiring biohazard disposal New Jersey, there are some important dos and don’ts that you should keep in mind when approaching cleanup.

 

There are some important things you should do before cleaning up a biohazard.

 

Do:

 

Assess the scene. Many times, biohazards are the result of a criminal act. If the biohazards are the result of a homicide, suicide, accident, violent crime, or other criminal event, you need to contact the police. There could be criminal consequences for cleaning up a scene without contacting the police. It can also keep police from solving a crime. If there was no crime, you may need to find out if the hazardous material requires reporting to another regulatory agency. Not sure if it needs to be reported? Call local law enforcement and they should be able to help direct you on the reporting process.

 

Find a place to stay until the scene can be cleaned. Processing a scene may take days before cleaners can begin. Depending on the extent of the contamination, cleaning a scene can take days, as well. Depending on the products used in the cleaning process, there may be a delay between the end of cleaning and when it is safe to be on the premises. Even if there are no lingering hazards from products, you may need to give time for things to dry.

 

There are also important things not to do when scheduling a biohazard clean up.

 

Do Not:

 

Ignore Qualifications. Many cleaning companies will offer biohazard cleaning services. However, you need special skills and qualifications to thoroughly clean up biohazards. The company you choose should be skilled in handling biohazards and crime scene clean up.

 

Expose yourself to diseases. Biohazard scenes can contain bacteria, fungi, and viruses that can cause illness and disease. Using improper cleaning equipment or the wrong personal protective equipment (PPE) can leave you vulnerable. Professionals know the right equipment and products to use to safely clean these dangerous materials.

 

Try to clean it yourself. Even if you are qualified to clean up biohazards, you need to consider more than the physical impact of cleaning them. Cleaning up a crime scene, site of an injury, or after a suicide can be deeply emotionally traumatic, especially if the person involved was a loved one. Getting a professional to handle the cleanup allows you some emotional distance from the scene.

 

Dealing with biohazards can be challenging, especially if they are the result of a traumatic event. Bio One is the most trusted biohazard cleanup company in the area. You can rely on our services to help you.

If you are handling biohazard waste, it is important to dispose of it safely.  That is because biohazard waste poses a threat to public health.  It can lead to the spread of disease, putting people at risk.  At Bio One, we can help you with biohazard disposal New Jersey.  We specialize in handling biohazard clean-up, from crime scenes to medical waste disposal.  

Biohazard Waste

As the name suggests, biohazard waste refers to any type of waste that poses a biological hazard.  We often think of blood, feces, urine, pus, and body parts as biohazards, and they are.  However, biohazards can also include any tools or instruments that come into contact with those items, such as needles or even broken glass.  In addition, animal products, lab waste, tissue specimens, liquids, and bodily fluids may also be biohazards.

Safely Disposing of Biohazards

You may not think you need a biohazard protocol in your workplace.  However, if you have customers or multiple employees, then you need to establish a biohazard protocol.  That is because it is easy to get a small workplace injury that results in bleeding.  In addition, you may have people at your workplace who need to use needles for insulin or other medications.  At a minimum, you want to establish a biohazard protocol, have a sharps container for easy use, and have access to biohazard bags. 

Steps for Disposing of Biohazard Waste

  • Apply personal protective equipment (PPE), including gloves. 

  • Place the waste in a biohazard safe container.

  • Place sharps in a designated sharps container. 

  • Label the waste appropriately. 

  • Place waste in a waste accumulation site that is labeled as biohazard waste. 

  • Contact your waste management company for pick-up if pickup is not regularly scheduled.

Contact Bio One

Does dealing with biohazard waste seem daunting?  Do not worry.  Bio One can streamline the process.  We can visit your workplace and assess your company’s biohazard needs.  For the average business, we can install sharps containers and help you set up an emergency kit for dealing with unexpected biohazard waste.  For medical facilities or other facilities that regularly generate biohazard waste, we can set up more extensive collection systems and a regular removal schedule.  Whether you deal with biohazards regularly or occasionally, Bio One can help. 

 

Contact us today to set up your company’s biohazard management system.  Have biohazards at home?  We handle residential jobs, as well. 

While the name is daunting, you have probably handled biohazard waste.  If you have ever thrown away a bloody bandage, you have technically handled a biohazardous material.  However, when we talk about bio hazard clean-up New Jersey, we are rarely talking about bandages at home.  Instead, we are talking about sufficient biological material that could pose a threat to public health.  That may be because it is identified as infectious, could be infectious, or poses another threat to safety.  

Biohazard Levels

Not all biohazards are the same.  The Center for Disease Control has identified four levels of biohazard.  Level 1 is the lowest risk and Level 4 is the highest risk.  

  • Level 1 is considered minimally threatening.  It includes material that could contain diseases like E. Coli, Naegleria gruberi, and Bacillus subtilis.

  • Level 2 is considered severely threatening to individuals who have direct contact with infected materials. It includes diseases like HIV, salmonella, and hepatitis B. 

  • Level 3 includes serious diseases that can be airborne.  Tuberculosis, Coxiella burnetiid, and COVID-19 fall into this category. 

  • Level 4 is for the worst of the worst diseases.  These are diseases that are infectious and do not have treatments.  Ebola is the best-known example of a level 4 biohazard. 

What Are Biohazards? 

Biohazards can be any type of biological material that poses a threat to other living organisms.  They can refer to plants, animals, microorganisms or any of their by-products.  Biohazards can be found anywhere, which means that most people will encounter them during their lifetime.  The most common biohazards are: 

Human blood.  Blood is a known carrier of a number of pathogens, and you should always treat any blood as if it is potentially contaminated.  That means, at a minimum, using gloves before handling any blood or blood products.  It also means safely disposing of items that may contain blood. 

Human body fluids.  Any human body fluid could also contain pathogens.  This includes semen, vaginal fluid, amniotic fluid, cerebrospinal fluid, peritoneal fluid, and pleural fluid. 

Human waste.  Human waste has been one of the major vectors for disease transmission over the course of human history.  It can carry a number of diseases, most notably E. coli. 

Animal blood.  If we have learned anything from Covid-19, it is that diseases can move between animals and humans.  Animal blood could contain pathogens that can infect people.

Animal waste.  Like animal blood, animal waste can contain pathogens that can either directly infect humans or pose a risk to our food supply. 

Microbiological waste.  This type of waste is common in laboratory or medical environments.  It includes cultures, tools or instruments used to grow or measure cultures, and discarded viruses or bacterial. 

Sharps.  Anything that contains a needle is considered a sharp.  This is a very specific type of biohazard waste, because it adds in the risk that a needle will break through someone’s skin and pierce PPE like gloves, increasing the risk of infection. 

Pathological waste.  This is waste from medical procedures and biopsies. 

 

Bio One Can Handle Your Biohazards

Whether you are a medical facility that needs regular biohazard management or a business owner dealing with a biohazard cleanup, Bio One can help.  Contact us today to find out more.

Losing a friend, family member, or loved one to suicide is traumatic.  Because of the stigma surrounding mental health issues, many survivors blame themselves and wonder what, if anything, they could have done to prevent the death.  Even with professional help, many survivors really struggle in the wake of a suicide.  

 

Cleaning up after a suicide only exacerbates that trauma.  In most instances, suicides occur in private locations, usually homes.  This leaves family members to clean up afterwards.  The task is daunting.  It is extremely emotional.  However, it is also biologically very dangerous.  Suicides leave behind bodily fluids that can leave people who are cleaning up afterwards at risk of infection. 

 

The obvious solution is to hire a professional team to clean up after a suicide.  At Bio-One, we specialize in biohazard remediation. It is our job to handle scenes with biohazards like blood, bodily fluid, and decomposition.  We treat the scene and our customers with respect, while working hard to remove all traces that the suicide occurred.  If you are facing cleaning up after a suicide, we are here to help. 

 

Of course, before cleaning can begin, you need to make sure that law enforcement is finished processing the scene.  Most suicides are investigated by the police.  The investigation may be brief or extensive, depending on the individual circumstances involved.  Before you hire someone to clean the scene for you, you want to ensure that law enforcement has gathered any evidence that they need and has released the scene.  

 

At Bio-One, we are proud to do everything we can to help people after a suicide has taken place. 

 

  1. An owner will answer your call, 24/7/365 to make sure that every situation is taken care of correctly and professionally.
  2. We respond very quickly - typically within just a few hours.
  3. We are very discreet and do everything possible not to add to the trauma of the recent events.
  4. Bio-One will never bill a family up front. We do everything possible to work with insurance so that survivors are not faced with large costs especially after such a traumatic incident has taken place.

 

If this all sounds overwhelming, you are not alone.  Contact Bio-One to handle the clean up for you.  We will do everything we can to restore the area, so that you are not faced with visual reminders of the scene.  

 

Crime is messy.  Not only does it disrupt lives, damage property, and hurt people, but it also leaves behind a physical mess.  Some of these messes can be really horrific.  There may not be anyone left behind to clean them up, or they may have taken place in homes or businesses where the same people who are normally in charge of cleaning have an emotional connection to the crime. These kinds of messes also shouldn’t be cleaned up by the average person as they can be dangerous if not properly handled.  That is where we come in.  At Bio One, we specialize in cleaning up biological hazards, including crime scenes.  We routinely work with dangerous materials and have the skills, equipment, and products required to help restore a crime scene back to normal. 

 

When a criminal commits a violent crime, they leave behind blood and other bodily fluids.  However, you might be surprised to find out that a huge part of the mess at crime scenes is actually due to the police and forensic investigators.  In addition to handling blood and other bodily fluids, our cleanup crews have to be able to deal with special chemicals, such as luminol, that these professionals may use in a crime scene.  In addition, while crime scenes are not cleaned until they have been released, we have to be aware of the fact that a crime occurred on-site.  If we uncover any additional suspicious material while cleaning, we have to be willing to work with law enforcement.  

 

Blood and other bodily fluids are considered biohazards because of the contaminants they may contain.  That is true for a body discovered immediately after death and definitely for one that has not been found for days or weeks.  When bodies have begun the decomposition process, cleaning can involve a bunch of other challenges.  It can even expose people to potential disease or infection.  Our crime scene cleanup crews are trained in how to safely handle biological waste and thoroughly disinfect areas to make them safe.  

 

Even if you feel up to the challenge of cleaning a crime scene, there are psychological reasons to hire professionals.  It can be traumatic to witness a crime scene, much less a clean one.  While our workers are not immune from trauma, they do have the tools to process it.  In addition, because they do not have personal relationships with the victims, they do not experience the same type of trauma that a person would experience cleaning up the blood or bodily fluids of a victim that they knew. 

 

At Bio-One, we cannot change the lifelong impact that crime can have on you.  However, we can reduce the trauma, restore your property, and help you move forward.  

 

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The California Police Athletic Federation (CPAF) is proud to announce that the 2021 United States Police & Fire Championships (USPFC) are now Presented by Bio-One, Inc. 

 

Operating under the motto, "Help First, Business Second," Bio-One provides high-level decontamination and biohazard cleanup services while offering clients the privacy and compassion needed at difficult times. Bio-One operates in 41 states with over 110 locations and is committed to providing first-class service. 

 

"We are thrilled to add Bio-One as the Presenting Sponsor for the 2021 USPFC because   First Responders warrant our support," said California Police Athletic Federation President LC Collins. "Bio-One’s reputation is second to none, and with their partnership, we can offer first responders a health and wellness outlet.  We look forward to working with them for years to come."

 

Founded by San Diego Police Lieutenant Veon "Duke" Nyhus, The United States Police & Fire Championships were first held in San Diego in 1967. Duke recognized the need to promote physical fitness and camaraderie among the Public Safety and First Responder community members. 

 

The USPFC caters to active and retired public safety and first responders who participate in Olympic-style competitions and open to individuals representing firefighters, law enforcement, and officers from corrections, probation, border protection, immigration, and customs across the country. Traditionally athletes compete in 45+ sporting events from biathlon to motocross across 35+ venues in Southern California.

 

"At Bio-One our support for Law Enforcement and Fire Service Officers is unwavering, and we're thrilled to partner with the California Police Athletic Federation during this memorable event," said Nick-Anthony Zamucen, founder of Bio-One. "We wish each athlete success and look forward to celebrating these everyday heroes."

 

The 2021 USPFC Presented by Bio-One will take place from June 10th to the 19th in venues across San Diego, California, and strengthen the relationship between First Responders and the community for many years to come!

 

About the United States Police and Fire Championships

The California Police Athletic Federation (CPAF) is the parent organization of two multi-sport programs designed for peace officers and firefighters. The World Police & Fire Games (WPFG) are open to active and retired law enforcement and fire service personnel throughout the world. The United States Police & Fire Championships (USPFC) are open to active or retired public safety and first responder personnel from an eligible agency within the USA. For more information, please visit www.uspfc.org.