Biohazards are incredibly harmful and need to be handled with caution. The term “biohazard” is an umbrella term for a group of different kinds of hazards. While this might seem like something that can be painted in broad strokes, all biohazards can be divided into subcategories. This can help identify the source and how to treat it if a biohazard occurs. Today, we’re going to look at these common types of biohazards and what their differences are. When you encounter a biohazard, you need Portland biohazard cleanup.
What is a Biohazard?
Before we dive into the different types of biohazards, we should define what a biohazard is. A biohazard is a biological substance that is a threat to a living organism, like humans. This covers a wide variety of categories that we will delve into shortly, but anything from viruses to microorganisms to even toxins are considered biohazards.
Types of Biohazards
There are four main categories of biohazards. These categories are as follows.
Biological agents
The first type is biological agents. This category can get divided into subcategories on its own but usually includes fungi, bacteria, parasites, and viruses.
These kinds of biohazards can be easy to contain. However, if this kind of biohazard isn’t contained, it can lead to some serious health risks and issues. Some examples of biological agents include bacteria like E. coli and viruses like COVID-19.
Biotoxins
This kind of biohazard is a subset that is poisonous to humans. These kinds of toxins are made by certain animals, plants, insects, and bacteria. While these can cause harm, they’re not always deadly.
Often, biotoxins can cause inflammation in the body that might make one uncomfortable. Some examples of biotoxins include abrin, brevetoxin, colchicine, digitalis, nicotine, ricin, saxitoxin, strychnine, tetrodotoxin, and trichothecene.
Blood and blood products
Believe it or not, blood itself isn’t a biohazard. What makes blood a potential hazard is what it can carry. Blood can get contaminated in a number of ways or can carry infection. Things like bloodborne pathogens create a huge health hazard for anyone who comes into contact with them.
Products of blood such as plasma, tissues, white and red blood cells, and platelets also need to be carefully handled or they can also become hazardous.
Environmental specimens
These biohazards refer specifically to water, plants, or soil that contain either biological agents or biotoxins. These are not so much biohazards on their own, but known carriers of those types of biohazards.
Why Are Biohazards So Dangerous?
Biohazards like fungi, viruses, parasites, and mold can cause serious issues to your health if you’re exposed. These can cause problems if they’re inhaled, come into contact with skin, or are ingested.
Biohazards can cause things like tetanus, food poisoning, respiratory issues, parasite infections, and viral infections. These can vary in seriousness from simply becoming sick or having an irritant to being deadly. This is why you need to avoid biohazards, and you need to ensure they’re disposed of properly.
How to Handle Biohazards
Different biohazards are going to have their own specifications when it comes to how they are disposed of. No matter what the situation calls for, three essential steps need to be followed: containment, disposal, and disinfection.
When it comes to containing a biohazard, it’s important to make sure that you keep contamination to a minimum. You need to block off as much as you possibly can before delving into the rest of the process. This ensures that the contaminant doesn’t spread. This is because not only does this stop the spread of the biohazard, but it also makes it easy to clean.
The second is disposal. Proper procedures need to be put into place when disposing of a biohazard. This part works in conjunction with containment, as removing a biohazard from an area means using proper disposal procedures to keep the biohazard from spreading outside of the contained area. This will remove the biohazard from the area so cleaning can commence.
Finally, there’s disinfection. It’s not enough to just wipe down a biohazardous area and call it a day. It’s important to get the proper disinfectants in the area to kill off any remaining parts of the biohazard on a microscopic level. This will make sure the area is clean and prevent it from getting contaminated in the future.
If You Need Portland Biohazard Cleanup, Call PNW Restoration
Biohazard cleanup is a pretty serious undertaking that you shouldn’t be risking. Call the team at PNW Restoration at (971) 247-3470 to have your Portland biohazard cleaned up today.
We’re available 24/7 to handle whatever situation you need cleaned up. Our team is IICRC certified and will make sure that your biohazard is properly contained, disposed of, and disinfected, giving you a perfectly clean area.
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