Journal of Infectious Diseases & Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

Environmental practices in the built environment have evolved rapidly in the past fifteen years. There is an arms race in the fight to maintain the building environment to cross-contamination and infections. Our reaction to solutions to environmental problems in the built environment in a lot of cases has been put on the reactive side do to bottom line costs, yet when an unfavorable event occurs, C level executives and insurance carriers are shocked. This presentation will go over some of the current facility hygiene issues, proper cleaning practices and cross-contamination prevention strategies for future consideration. It looks at a holistic approach to cross-contamination prevention from the residential home to the facility such as healthcare, food and drug manufacturing and transportation environments. A review of new risk reduction technologies that assist environmental professionals in maintaining facilities will be discussed. In addition, we will go over some new certifications and a code of ethics developed by the American Bio-Recovery Association ABRA for contractors, sanitation teams and environmental service providers that will help maintain credibility for those working in the field of biological remediation services. We have learned a lot in the past couple of years regarding bio-remediation practices and emergency preparedness. In many ways we have learned how unprepared we are. The goal of this presentation is to open the eyes of many to the current conditions and the standards we have to develop for the future.

Biography

Thomas Licker has a BS in Environmental Science from Slippery Rock University and has over 20-years experience in handling event driven hazardous materials and biological response actions. He holds an accredited certification as a Council Certified Environmental Infection Control Remediator recognized by the Council for Engineering and Scientific Boards. He is the Director of Infection Control Technologies, a premier bioremediation services company and serves as the Director of Operations for Decontamination Professionals International.

Email: tlicker@irs-restoration.com tlicker@infectioncontroltech.com