Press Release - Friday, May 18, 2007
Germ warfare
They do battle alongside robots, donning environmental suits and critical breathing apparatuses, armed with chemical weapons and special foggers that look every bit like ray guns.
At first glance, they’re the heroic army of a blockbuster sci-fi flick.
But for the employees of TechClean Industries Ltd., things are a lot more science than fiction. And while they are an army, of sorts, they don’t fight against alien monsters on a distant moon; their battlefields are the businesses, laboratories and hospitals of Long Island and their enemies are fungi, microbes and nasty pollutants.
“All we really are is glorified exterminators,” said Kenneth Coffey, president of the Ronkonkoma-based company. “We just kill bugs you can’t see.”
Glorified indeed, and packing enough geeky toys to turn Mr. Spock green, er, greener.
Among other not-your-normal-exterminators gear, TechCleaners use laser particle counters, endoscopes, fiber-optic boroscopes and thermal imaging cameras that can detect moisture, a good environment for contaminants and fungi – yes, Coffey has discovered mushrooms in ventilation systems.
Also in the arsenal are robotic inspection vehicles that look like miniature tanks, complete with tiny treads and perfect for inspections or cleaning, when brushes are attached. Standing by to suck up whatever contaminants are dislodged by the cleaning process are high-suction filters.
Crowded field
Such advanced equipment helps TechClean, launched in 1983, compete in a growing air quality market. The American College of Allergists says nearly half of employee illnesses are caused or worsened by indoor air pollution, costing businesses more than $1 billion in medical costs and an additional $60 billion in sick leave and lost productivity every year.
Modern buildings are so effectively sealed for heating and cooling that fresh air can’t freely circulate, which can lead to toxic buildups. A growing awareness of “sick building syndrome” has presented TechClean with a business opportunity, and Coffey has seized it; the company had revenues of about $5 million last year.
According to MindBranch, which provides targeted market research, consulting and testing services were valued at $1.5 billion in 2005 and should reach $2.7 billion by 2011, based on a 10 percent average annual growth rate.
Environmental services – including mold remediation, asbestos abatement and radon mitigation – were valued at $1.6 billion in 2005, and should reach $2.9 billion by 2011, MindBranch reported.
And the Indoor Air Quality Association, an industry group, today lists more than 5,500 members.
Thanks in part to its cutting-edge approach, TechClean has landed some big contracts. The Ronkonkoma-based company worked in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and did extensive work in lower Manhattan after 9/11, including building decontaminations “literally surrounding the pile,” Coffey said.
Shield at full power
Along with such high-profile work and the more routine cleaning of ventilation and air systems, TechClean also provides services after fires, floods and even crimes. The firm also performs laboratory maintenance, decontamination and decommissioning. In animal laboratories, the company has cleaned up after infection outbreaks – one of its most well-known clients is the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, a federal facility located off Orient Point that studies highly contagious livestock diseases.
TechClean offers a product called the Aegis Microbe Shield, a product of Aegis Environments in Midland, Mich. The shield attaches itself to surfaces and kills the germs it contacts – by electrocution, of all things. When a nasty microbe hits the barrier, its cell membrane is ruptured and the cell is “electrocuted” by the shield’s positive charge.
That sounds extremely deadly, and to germs it is, but the “non-leaching” shield – that means it won’t transfer to human skin – can be applied to a number of surfaces, everything from desks to socks to baby diapers.
Prominent among Coffey’s clients for the microbe shield are hospitals.
“Hospitals need to start looking at new strategies for infection control,” he said, noting both of his parents contracted infections in hospitals.
Representatives of Coffey’s client hospitals declined to comment.
Wrestling mats and hospitals would seem to have little in common, but to Coffey they’re both opportunities. With all the sick people in hospitals, the need to control the spread of infections is clear; but since wrestlers often get abrasions, wrestling mats are also popular transfer points for germs. Therefore, TechClean has also found success applying the microbe shield at area schools.
Friends in high places
Coffey long has been interested in air quality. He says he’s not entirely sure why, but one theory is that he’s been exposed to a lot of dirty air.
He was a New York City firefighter until knee injuries sustained in the line of duty forced him to retire. When he launched TechClean, Coffey focused first on toxic mold, and 20 years later, in 2003, he was appointed special consultant on toxic mold to state Sen. Carl Marcellino, chairman of the Senate’s Environmental Conservation Committee.
Coffey is largely self-taught in the field and has learned a lot along the way by attending conferences and talking to scientists. Some of his earliest training was in Sweden, he said, where he learned robotic duct cleaning and other European systems of microbial detection, remediation and prevention.
He’s learned his lessons well, and according to those in the industry, he’s done it in a difficult field.
“In what he does, he’s one of the most sophisticated people in the United States,” said Charles Gilbert, a principal at the Epidemiology and Toxicology Institute of Hauppauge and longtime TechClean consultant.
Buffalo-based Anabec Systems also has a long track record with TechClean. When Anabec developed an environmentally safe method for removing mold and bacteria from porous materials, it sent TechClean one of its first postcard announcements. Coffey signed on and has had great success; he’s quickly became Anabec’s premier applicator, according to Anabec President Steve Meyers.
“We’re happy with him because he’s very astute and he does it right,” Myers said. “He’s our best advertisement.”
11/2/2006 - TechClean Enterprises speaks at the New York Clean Buildings Seminar
[ Click to see the New York Clean Buildings Homepage ]
TechClean Enterprises was heard at " The New Indoor Environmental Toxins: Are You Prepared? " conference in New York on November 2nd, 2006. The conference covered a wide range of topics from what to do if you find your building has a case of the Avian Flu, all the way to the hidden liabilities of your IEQ (Indoor Environmental Quality). Ken Coffey represented TechClean with his presentation on "Prevention, Remediation & Management of Indoor Environmental Issues". Towards the end of the conference Ken fielded several questions from the audience and received some wonderful feedback from the attendees.
