E1: COVID-19 Innovators, UV Light Technology w/ Bill Amador
November 18, 2020
In 2020, a highly contagious virus, shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), and changing funding structures radically altered many of the day-to-day operations of fire departments across the United States. In response to COVID-19 and its various impacts, first responders and innovators across the country have stepped up to meet the challenge. These inventive thinkers have developed new tools and methods for providing care, while also protecting crews on the front lines of response.
In this episode, we speak with Bill Amador, a retired Fire Chief and current Director for Capture Management at Constellis. Bill discusses the benefits of UV light technology, and how it can be used by first responders to effectively combat the spread of COVID-19.
No time to listen to the whole episode? View our show notes summary below:
E1 Show Notes
In this episode, we speak with Bill Amador, a retired Fire Chief and current Director for Capture Management at Constellis. Constellis provides integrated security, mission support, and risk management services to corporate, governmental, and non-profit clients. Bill discusses the benefits of UV light technology, and how it can be used by first responders to effectively combat the spread of COVID-19.
William “Bill” Amador
Director for Capture Management
[email protected]
constellis.com
Retired Fire Chief Bill Amador currently serves as Director for Capture Management at Constellis. He has disaster management experience and works closely with numerous fire service organizations including the Western Fire Chiefs Association (WFCA) and the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF). Bill works in partnership with representatives from these associations to assess crisis and disaster response.
Excerpts:
“The advantage that ultraviolet light has is it is actually a germicidal… so it’ll kill all pathogens whether it’s viral, whether it’s fungi, whether it’s bacterial in nature and there’s been proven studies on this technology independent… and as a matter of fact, the CDC has done a study on the efficacy of UVC in the hospital setting using the devices that we use to prove that there is total eradication of pathogens.” [1:31]
“The relevancy now with COVID-19 is the viral aspect of it. Viruses are easily… particularly this virus... airborne and then also when it falls on the surface and the surface is agitated… it becomes airborne, that’s unfortunately how it’s introduced into our system... but what UVC does is it completely destroys those pathogens whether they are on the air or on the surface.” [2:13]
“The NIH came out with a study showing that you only remove 50 percent of contaminants by surface cleaning, so there’s an element that’s missing and UVC takes care of that.” [2:50]
How can UV technology help your department combat COVID-19? • “There is a lot of applications that’ll help them … being able to decontaminate not only their apparatus, but more importantly their fire stations because they live there, they spend a third of their life there… surface cleaning is good, but if you could thoroughly clean it… and again, whether it’s done daily, weekly, monthly… that could be a department decision, but it’s extremely important.” [7:20]