Shawn Forsythe
RIP
<style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Courier New"; panose-1:2 7 3 9 2 2 5 2 4 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Wingdings; panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:2; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 65536 0 -2147483648 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} /* List Definitions */ @list l0 {mso-list-id:298613481; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:920307674 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693;} @list l0:level1 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Symbol;} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;} --> </style> A word on beating odors.
There are a number of means we might employ to counter an offensive odor. The very best way is complete source removal. If you can completely remove the source of an odor from an environment, then simply aerating the vicinity is all that is necessary to alleviate any trace of perceptible odor, permanently. However, this is not always practical, or even doable. Porous materials, or location can make complete source removal impossible (as is the case most of the time you are performing a deodorization). Hence, all we can do is remove what is practical, and treat the remainder. How we treat the remainder determines both the short-term and the long-term success.
It can’t be stressed too strongly that every effort to clean or remove as much of the source as possible, is the very first step that must be taken. No deodorizer, short of complete incineration, will work to permanently remedy an offensive odor situation without a thorough cleaning. As well, special steps may be required for certain causes of odors a carpet cleaning technician encounters. Urine is a good example. Fresh urine rinses out with routine cleaning rather easy. However, let it dry and age, and it undergoes changes that both make it harder to simply rinse to remove enough source to be effectively deodorized. Urine then requires tailored acidic cleaning compounds to make soluble the urine salts for rinsing. If you leave these salts behind, your subsequent deodorization may only be temporary.
Any deodorization compound subsequently employed must reach every bit of the remaining trace substances emanating odor. This might mean saturation, fogging, or liberal spray, depending on the use instructions. But all are the same. Unless the deodorizer physically reaches its target, it simply doesn’t work.
By far the oldest method of treating an offensive odor is masking. By using a pleasing fragrance, we may try to overpower, or "mask" the offensive odor. By using a strong, volatile oil fragrance, the masking can be made to linger, hopefully long enough, for the trace source material to either "dry up" or decay to imperceptible levels. The downside to complete reliance on masking, is that you have not done anything to alleviate the actual presence of the offending trace source after cleaning, and the occupants are forced to breath a concentrated new odor. Your fragrance mask at first may be pleasing, but soon wears thin on anyone’s tolerance. So, you look for a better way.
Where odors emanating from the activity of residual bacterial respiration are present, some deodorization compounds that rely on masking utilize an additive to literally “kill” the residual source. The use of an antimicrobial compound is combined with the masking agent. The antimicrobial kills the bacteria generating the odor, while the masking agent “covers” the already generated residual scent until it is dissipated. The downside to this methodology is the use of broad spectrum antimicrobial compounds, which can have adverse health effects on occupants and technicians. As well, these antimicrobials only work on bacteria generated odors, at best, relying solely on the mask agent for anything else. Manufacturers of these products also must be careful that no actual claims of bactericidal activity crosses the threshold of needing EPA registration. For this reason, users don’t often know that they may be even using what might be a rather harsh disinfectant, at all.
Ideally, a good deodorizer would attack offensive odor molecules, while minimizing any problems with long lingering scents, nor present potentially adverse health consequences. To this end, true deodorizers are made to target odorous molecules, and little else. These compounds ordinarily fall into a few categories we are used to hearing;
· Neutralizers
· Pairing Agents
· Encapsulants
However, that is not to say that any deodorizer you may use is even labeled correctly. A Pairing Agent might be labeled or called an odor neutralizer by the company who makes it. It’s not unknown to see even cheap odor masks called “neutralizers”.
Neutralizers, to the odor chemist, are chemical compounds, which react with other compounds (odor molecules) to decay, to degrade or change the former odor molecule to a non-odorous one or more. Ozone and Hydroxyl neutralization is a couple of examples. These, in addition to peroxide type chemistry, work by oxidation, or “chemical burning” of the odorous materials. But Neutralizers also work as more complex formulations that target and react with certain classes of chemical compounds known to create odors humans find offensive. Enzymes are such a form of odor neutralizer, as they serve to chemically bio-degrade generally only biologic odorous compounds to simpler non-odorous substances. On the other hand, the oxidation neutralizers are rather non-specific, and can represent safety hazards during application. Ozone itself can also negatively affect certain materials such as plastics and leather.
Most, but not all, offensive odor molecules produced by natural processes are odorous because their molecules exhibit a structure with what are called “characteristic functional groups”. Our nasal receptors respond to these functional groups and give us the sense of smell, experiencing their existence. Humans seem to regard certain types of these groups as universally offensive. Amongst these are compounds called mercaptans, sulfides, amines and certain aldehydes. With a formulation of specialized chemical compounds that combine with these target molecules, a deodorizer serves to change them and remove the ability to have usable functional groups to bind with our nasal receptors.
A Pairing Agent is a specific chemical compound with an affinity to molecules with a functioning group from one of the classes, such as mercaptans, sulfides, amines and certain aldehydes. In “pairing” with these odorous molecules, they render them inert to our sense of smell, and hence are no longer detectable.
Another type, an Encapsulant is broad descriptive term for a deodorizer. These should not be confused with encapsulant cleaners, as they are unrelated, except in name. This type of deodorizer may be said to work either macroscopically, or microscopically. If of the “macroscopic” variety, the encapsulant type deodorizer seals a porous material, to prevent the escape of odorous substances to the breathable airspace. A microscopic Encapsulant actually interacts directly to “envelope” odorous molecules, trapping them and rendering them incapable of using their functional groups to generate a scent response. The microscopic encapsulants generally, but not always, purposefully exhibit functional group affinity (reactivity) to certain molecules.
As Pairing Agents and Encapsulants seem to garner the greatest attention to research and development in our industry, there is a wide variety of product offerings with a range of applicable odor types. The product label may only list examples. It helps to know what functional group type these examples represent, so that other applications may be presumed. Here is where you ask the supplier what he might know about the product, so you can know both the limitations of and other non-label cases you may find for the deodorizer.
Whether the deodorizer be a Neutralizer, a Pairing Agent, or an Encapsulant, pleasing fragrances may be added, but not usually to serve as a mask., so to speak. The reason such a deodorizer may contain a quick dissipating fragrance is strictly for marketing. It is well known that buyers and users of deodorization compounds often prefer a pleasing fragrance for the product itself, or in use, to offer some tangible evidence of benefit apart from eliminating odor.
Because all these types of deodorizers have associated strengths and weaknesses, it’s helpful to know to what the source odor will respond with the least undesirable effects or cost. One should ask a lot of questions of their supplier to understand what product may be best chosen for which type of odor situation. Fortunately there are some rather broad-spectrum Pairing Agents and Encapsulant deodorizers to work for general purposes, but it should be noted that some Neutralizers have no equal for efficacy in other specific situations. Knowing more about your deodorizers means you buy and carry all you need to work, and don’t buy what might not work, or duplicates what you already have.
There are a number of means we might employ to counter an offensive odor. The very best way is complete source removal. If you can completely remove the source of an odor from an environment, then simply aerating the vicinity is all that is necessary to alleviate any trace of perceptible odor, permanently. However, this is not always practical, or even doable. Porous materials, or location can make complete source removal impossible (as is the case most of the time you are performing a deodorization). Hence, all we can do is remove what is practical, and treat the remainder. How we treat the remainder determines both the short-term and the long-term success.
It can’t be stressed too strongly that every effort to clean or remove as much of the source as possible, is the very first step that must be taken. No deodorizer, short of complete incineration, will work to permanently remedy an offensive odor situation without a thorough cleaning. As well, special steps may be required for certain causes of odors a carpet cleaning technician encounters. Urine is a good example. Fresh urine rinses out with routine cleaning rather easy. However, let it dry and age, and it undergoes changes that both make it harder to simply rinse to remove enough source to be effectively deodorized. Urine then requires tailored acidic cleaning compounds to make soluble the urine salts for rinsing. If you leave these salts behind, your subsequent deodorization may only be temporary.
Any deodorization compound subsequently employed must reach every bit of the remaining trace substances emanating odor. This might mean saturation, fogging, or liberal spray, depending on the use instructions. But all are the same. Unless the deodorizer physically reaches its target, it simply doesn’t work.
By far the oldest method of treating an offensive odor is masking. By using a pleasing fragrance, we may try to overpower, or "mask" the offensive odor. By using a strong, volatile oil fragrance, the masking can be made to linger, hopefully long enough, for the trace source material to either "dry up" or decay to imperceptible levels. The downside to complete reliance on masking, is that you have not done anything to alleviate the actual presence of the offending trace source after cleaning, and the occupants are forced to breath a concentrated new odor. Your fragrance mask at first may be pleasing, but soon wears thin on anyone’s tolerance. So, you look for a better way.
Where odors emanating from the activity of residual bacterial respiration are present, some deodorization compounds that rely on masking utilize an additive to literally “kill” the residual source. The use of an antimicrobial compound is combined with the masking agent. The antimicrobial kills the bacteria generating the odor, while the masking agent “covers” the already generated residual scent until it is dissipated. The downside to this methodology is the use of broad spectrum antimicrobial compounds, which can have adverse health effects on occupants and technicians. As well, these antimicrobials only work on bacteria generated odors, at best, relying solely on the mask agent for anything else. Manufacturers of these products also must be careful that no actual claims of bactericidal activity crosses the threshold of needing EPA registration. For this reason, users don’t often know that they may be even using what might be a rather harsh disinfectant, at all.
Ideally, a good deodorizer would attack offensive odor molecules, while minimizing any problems with long lingering scents, nor present potentially adverse health consequences. To this end, true deodorizers are made to target odorous molecules, and little else. These compounds ordinarily fall into a few categories we are used to hearing;
· Neutralizers
· Pairing Agents
· Encapsulants
However, that is not to say that any deodorizer you may use is even labeled correctly. A Pairing Agent might be labeled or called an odor neutralizer by the company who makes it. It’s not unknown to see even cheap odor masks called “neutralizers”.
Neutralizers, to the odor chemist, are chemical compounds, which react with other compounds (odor molecules) to decay, to degrade or change the former odor molecule to a non-odorous one or more. Ozone and Hydroxyl neutralization is a couple of examples. These, in addition to peroxide type chemistry, work by oxidation, or “chemical burning” of the odorous materials. But Neutralizers also work as more complex formulations that target and react with certain classes of chemical compounds known to create odors humans find offensive. Enzymes are such a form of odor neutralizer, as they serve to chemically bio-degrade generally only biologic odorous compounds to simpler non-odorous substances. On the other hand, the oxidation neutralizers are rather non-specific, and can represent safety hazards during application. Ozone itself can also negatively affect certain materials such as plastics and leather.
Most, but not all, offensive odor molecules produced by natural processes are odorous because their molecules exhibit a structure with what are called “characteristic functional groups”. Our nasal receptors respond to these functional groups and give us the sense of smell, experiencing their existence. Humans seem to regard certain types of these groups as universally offensive. Amongst these are compounds called mercaptans, sulfides, amines and certain aldehydes. With a formulation of specialized chemical compounds that combine with these target molecules, a deodorizer serves to change them and remove the ability to have usable functional groups to bind with our nasal receptors.
A Pairing Agent is a specific chemical compound with an affinity to molecules with a functioning group from one of the classes, such as mercaptans, sulfides, amines and certain aldehydes. In “pairing” with these odorous molecules, they render them inert to our sense of smell, and hence are no longer detectable.
Another type, an Encapsulant is broad descriptive term for a deodorizer. These should not be confused with encapsulant cleaners, as they are unrelated, except in name. This type of deodorizer may be said to work either macroscopically, or microscopically. If of the “macroscopic” variety, the encapsulant type deodorizer seals a porous material, to prevent the escape of odorous substances to the breathable airspace. A microscopic Encapsulant actually interacts directly to “envelope” odorous molecules, trapping them and rendering them incapable of using their functional groups to generate a scent response. The microscopic encapsulants generally, but not always, purposefully exhibit functional group affinity (reactivity) to certain molecules.
As Pairing Agents and Encapsulants seem to garner the greatest attention to research and development in our industry, there is a wide variety of product offerings with a range of applicable odor types. The product label may only list examples. It helps to know what functional group type these examples represent, so that other applications may be presumed. Here is where you ask the supplier what he might know about the product, so you can know both the limitations of and other non-label cases you may find for the deodorizer.
Whether the deodorizer be a Neutralizer, a Pairing Agent, or an Encapsulant, pleasing fragrances may be added, but not usually to serve as a mask., so to speak. The reason such a deodorizer may contain a quick dissipating fragrance is strictly for marketing. It is well known that buyers and users of deodorization compounds often prefer a pleasing fragrance for the product itself, or in use, to offer some tangible evidence of benefit apart from eliminating odor.
Because all these types of deodorizers have associated strengths and weaknesses, it’s helpful to know to what the source odor will respond with the least undesirable effects or cost. One should ask a lot of questions of their supplier to understand what product may be best chosen for which type of odor situation. Fortunately there are some rather broad-spectrum Pairing Agents and Encapsulant deodorizers to work for general purposes, but it should be noted that some Neutralizers have no equal for efficacy in other specific situations. Knowing more about your deodorizers means you buy and carry all you need to work, and don’t buy what might not work, or duplicates what you already have.
