By Jamie Woodhall, Technical and Innovation Manager at Rentokil Specialist Hygiene
Smell is a very powerful sense, and has the ability to trigger strong emotions and feelings. Businesses often use smell as a selling tool. For example, a study from Nike found that a positive scent inside a store can increase intent to purchase by 80 percent. And the converse is almost certainly true, an unpleasant smell can turn people off at an alarming rate.
Bad smells don’t just affect businesses – malodour around the home has been in the news recently too. We’ve heard families complain about a ‘stink’ near a recycling plant in South London, and even Robbie Williams has had trouble selling his large estate because of a nearby ‘smelly rubbish tip.’
So what can you do if your home or business falls foul of a bad smell?
Address the cause
The most important stage is to address the root cause of the bad smell. Many types of malodour are a byproduct of a chemical breakdown of protein molecules, bacteria and organic matter. If left untreated, the breakdown will continue to occur and the odour will intensify. Air fresheners or perfumes will only mask the malodour temporarily, they will not fix the problem permanently.
The most common causes of bad smells include cigarette smoke, mould, mildew, and decaying organic matter, or biohazards, such as urine or faecal matter.
Time to turn to ozone
Rentokil Specialist Hygiene uses ozone to address stubborn and persistent malodours. We use ozone generators to disperse a measured amount of ozone gas to attack airborne pollutants. Ozone is made up of three oxygen molecules, and very easily attaches itself to airborne particles such as smoke or car emissions, mould, bacteria and viruses. In a process called ‘oxidation’, ozone treatments effectively eliminate these airborne particles and odour molecules, leaving an area smelling fresh and clean.
Safety first
Exposure to ozone can carry risks to humans, so treatments are always carried out by trained professionals. Rentokil Specialist Hygiene technicians will all have passed specific ozone generator training to ensure the activity is carried out safely and effectively. Our staff are also all equipped with the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) and respiratory protective equipment (RPE), as well as specialist monitoring equipment. This monitoring equipment provides audible alarms in the event that ozone concentration levels become too high, to reduce any health and safety risks.
We also support our customers that need to plan around the management of their spaces which can’t be used while ozone generators are in use. An accurate treatment time is calculated using the room volume and completed using the correct generator for the size of the treatment area. This allows us to work around customer requirements to ensure minimal disruption, while a post-treatment technical report is completed for peace of mind that there’s no residual ozone left.
Final words
Our odour removal service uses ozone generators to help ensure time and money is not wasted on services that could be ineffective at getting rid of smells. However, it is essential that an ozone treatment is conducted by trained professionals. Our technicians have access to the latest cleaning and specialist disinfectant innovations including UVC disinfection, electrostatic disinfection and mist blowing space treatments, so should a clean up operation also be necessary on the premises we can help with that too.
If you’re interested in hearing more about our odour removal service.