Blog

Key Steps in the Decontamination Process

Decontamination is the most effective method to get rid of potentially dangerous substances and bring the premises back to their original state. This comes in handy for gas leaks in office blocks, chemical spills in laboratories, or presence of harmful viruses or bacteria in hospitals.

During the decontamination procedure, the professional complete commercial cleaning service that carries out the job follows a preset process to ensure the correct cleaning of the affected area according to a suitable standard. Since the human eye cannot always see germs and chemicals, this kind of attention to detail is critical.

Three Basic Levels of Decontamination

Decontamination has three levels that are applicable to various approaches to things that require cleaning. Depending on how severe the spill is and the specific contaminant in question, these approaches can be used together or separately and all three are applicable to complete and thorough cleans.

These three levels of decontamination include the following:

1. Cleaning

Cleaning is the starting point of decontamination that involves removing the contaminant and all the unwanted substances from walls, floors, windows, and doors with the use of detergents, simple cleaning products, and water and soap in some cases.

2. Disinfection

Disinfection is the more advanced staged wherein microbes are removed from objects and surfaces to lessen the risks of infection with the use of heat or chemicals on individual items. Even if there is no guarantee that disinfection kills all microorganisms, this can reduce their presence to prevent harmful diseases and bugs from spreading.

3. Sterilization

Sterilization eliminates the remaining viruses, microorganisms, and bacterial spores. This is done in various ways like through dry heat, moist heat, use of chemicals, or radiation. Sterilization is often used in healthcare settings and is mainly utilized on decontamination equipment because this eliminates all traces to prevent the moving of unwanted substances elsewhere.

The Decontamination Process at a Glance

To protect the safety and health of professional cleaners and make sure that the process of surface and air decontamination is performed accordingly, a certain structure is being followed. While this might differ a lot based on the substance involved, the people who do the cleaning, and the area that needs to be cleaned, all decontamination processes are pretty much the same.

• Professional cleaners will change into PPE to keep their skin protected from the contaminant.
• The contaminant will be surrounded by absorbent materials to prevent its spread before it is cleaned from the outside inwards.
• After disposing the contaminant’s visible remnants, a cleaning product will be sprayed on the area.
• The area will be swabbed often during the cleaning to know the amount of leftover contaminant if there is any.
• More advanced devices might be used to destroy the remaining contaminants in the air or on surfaces and protect surfaces to ensure that the contaminants don’t appear again in the future.
• Once cleaning is finished, the professional cleaners will get rid of all the items used to sanitize or dispose them accordingly.

Decontamination is a complex process best left to the hands of professionals like Courtesy Building Services, Inc.