I remember the first time I saw my toddler eat something he had just dropped on the floor. I was too far away and couldn't stop him. It completely grossed me out because I couldn't stop thinking of the shoes that had walked across that floor and all the places they'd been. I later learned that he was building immunity in a very natural way. It must have worked because he almost never gets sick. I still think it was gross.
Although most of the germs on my living room floor are probably pretty harmless to a healthy person with a normal immune system, there are dangerous pathogens lurking out there. One of the worst of those is Staph; the very mention of which sends terror through doctors and hospital administrators. They hate that word so much that they don't even like to refer to their employees as "staff." It's unnerving how many people develop Staph infections during their hospital stay. Then there's MRSA (often pronounced Mer-sah), a type of antibiotic resistant staph infection, which has been a problem in athletic locker rooms for a several years now.
As if those two weren't enough, there's also Listeria; Salmonella; E. coli; Norovirus; and even Ebola (which terrified the world last year, even though it has been around for decades).
There are blood-borne pathogens and there are pathogens that come from all the other various bodily fluids secreted in all the routine ways. Some are airborne, and some just linger on surfaces, waiting for us to touch them so they can get into a cut or end up on our potato chips when we dip into the bag before remembering to wash our hands. It's almost enough to make you go all Howard Hughes and hide from the world!
Since most of us aren't wealthy enough to skip work indefinitely and lock ourselves into our mansions, we have to find another way to cope with pathogens. Well, ServiceMaster by Cornerstone now has a quick, easy solution, and we're happy to reveal our "dirty little secret": Chlorine Dioxide (Clo2), and a method perfected by our friends at Prokure1.
This stuff is going to revolutionize the way we deal with germs. Unlike past methods of pathogen control, Clo2 doesn't just combine with the pathogen; it actually breaks it down into it's basic parts (carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen), and causes it to dissipate harmlessly. The best part is that unlike many commonly used chemical agents (bleach and popular spray disinfectants), Clo2 leaves no carcinogenic (i.e. cancer causing) residue. It's also color safe, so you don't have to worry about damaging carpets, curtains or upholstery.
It gets even better! Clo2 not only works on pathogens, it eliminates even the most stubborn odors, and it kills mold. We've used it to convert smoking apartment units into non-smoking ones, and we've even used it to deodorize and disinfect the homes of hoarders where the odor was extreme. On a less pleasant note; we've also used it successfully for cleanup after an unattended death where a body has begun to decompose. It handles both odors and pathogens in that scenario. To top it off, Clo2 is even being used against the highly contagious Ebola virus in Africa.
Here's something that truly amazes me: As of this writing, ServiceMaster by Cornerstone is the ONLY disaster restoration company in the mid-south using this method of odor and pathogen control.
Germs and odor will always be a part of life on earth, but it helps to know that there's a devastating new weapon in our arsenal that will solve both problems quickly and safely.
