Emily Kil is co-owner of Eco Bear, a leading biohazard remediation company in Southern California. An experienced entrepreneur, Emily assisted in founding Eco Bear as a means of combining her business experience with her desire to provide assistance to people facing challenging circumstances. Emily regularly writes about her first-hand experiences providing services such as biohazard cleanup, suicide cleanup, crime scene cleanup, unattended death cleanup, infectious disease disinfection, and other types of difficult remediations in homes and businesses.

Potential Health Risks Related to Mold Contamination

In the past few years, there’s been a considerable degree of public and media discussion about the potential health risks associated with mold contamination and exposure. From a medical and scientific standpoint, there remains a considerable amount of uncertainty as to specific health risks associated with mold exposure. With that said, health problems and ailments…

Fire Restoration Tools and Their Uses

In the world of fire restoration, there are many types of equipment that will need to be utilized for remediators to achieve their overarching goal of restoring the fire affected structure back to its original state. This equipment, though highly effective, requires the skill and expertise of a well-trained technician and comes with a few…

Meth Remediation: Steps to Collect Samples

A key element of meth remediation is to determine whether contamination exists in the first instance and the extent of that contamination. This crucial step is accomplished through thorough testing, which requires the appropriate collection of samples. There are a number of key steps associated with collecting samples to ascertain whether or not meth contamination…

Testing for Meth: How It Works

The first phase of the meth decontamination process is to test the premises to confirm contamination. Testing occurs directly after a property has been secured properly to prevent anyone unauthorized from entering the structure. In order to undertake a safe, thorough, effective meth decontamination, you first need to understand how to properly test for the…

Meth Decontamination: Health and Safety Protocols

A key element of meth decontamination is following important health and safety protocols. The health and safety protocols associated with meth decontamination begin the moment a suspected site is identified. There are five broad categories associated with the health and safety protocols associated with meth decontamination: Thorough site assessment Secure contaminated premises Proper personal protective…

HAZMAT Teams and Contaminated Fentanyl Sites

Fentanyl. The word looks innocuous, harmless.  The stark reality is that fentanyl has become the driver of the national opioid epidemic in the United States, including in the state of California. Fatal fentanyl overdoses have become a major cause of death among people who improperly use prescription medications and among those who purchase the drug…

Fentanyl Decontamination and Personal Protective Equipment

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced people across California, throughout the country – indeed, around the world – to personal protective equipment or PPE. When it comes to fentanyl decontamination, personal protective equipment plays a crucial role in keeping people safe. The stark reality is that exposure to a fentanyl contaminated site can present profound health…

Fire Restoration Technicians and Safety

Nothing can prepare you for the devastation that surrounds being personally affected by a fire. It is for this reason that fire restoration technicians take their jobs seriously, and seek to aid in rehabilitating any structural damage that they can.  To do this, a fire restoration technician must follow strict laws and guidelines and must…

State, Local, and Institutional Standards for Meth Contamination

If you have a property that is contaminated by meth in some manner, there are a number of preliminary steps that you need to take in advance of diving into the task of remediation itself. Overriding everything associated with meth decontamination is understanding that you really cannot effectively engage in this type of work on…

The Fentanyl Distribution Network: “Warehouses” – Apartments, Motels, Homes

Illicit fentanyl use has become a major contributing factor to the opioid epidemic in California and across the United States. Thousands of people die each year as the result of opioid overdoses. An increasing percentage of these fatal overdoses involve fentanyl. The expanding use of fentanyl necessitates a better understanding of the distribution network associated…

Overview of Fentanyl Site Assessment

Fentanyl contamination is an expanding problem in California and across the United States. As will be discussed in greater detail in a moment, there are a number of reasons why and how different types of properties become contaminated with fentanyl. In advance of fentanyl decontamination of a property, a specific fentanyl site assessment must occur.…

Hardwood Flooring and the Restoration Process

Wood flooring comes in a variety of shapes, sizes, colors and styles. They’re often made from sundry materials and are a common finding in school gyms, residences, offices and commercial buildings.  Though hardwood floors certainly have their benefits, restoring them after they’ve become waterlogged can become quite a task. Because hardwood is composed of low-porosity…

What Is Fentanyl?

Fentanyl is a powerful opioid drug that is used for legitimate therapeutic purposes. Additionally, fentanyl has become a primary drug that is being widely utilized illegally in California and across the United States. How Is Fentanyl Used in a Medical Setting? In a medical setting, fentanyl is used as a painkiller in limited circumstances: Fentanyl…