The top-growing metro area in the country is right here in North Carolina, according to new data from the do-it-yourself moving company U-Haul.
The Raleigh-Durham market was No. 1 for growth in 2019, said the company, which says it made its list after calculating the number of self-service trucks that went to and left on one-way trips.
“We’re seeing Silicon Valley talent and companies flock to the area,” Kris Smith, the company’s Raleigh president, said last week in a news release. “With a competitive cost of living, good wages and job growth, Raleigh-Durham is experiencing a boom in population.”
Statewide, North Carolina ranked No. 3 for growth in the United States, a jump from No. 24 the previous year, according to U-Haul.
So how did the location earn a spot near the top?
“Arrivals of one-way U-Haul trucks in the Raleigh-Durham market were up more than 3% while departures dropped more than 2% compared to the market’s 2018 numbers,” the company said in its news release.
The Triangle area wasn’t the only region in the Tar Heel State to show up in U-Haul’s latest data. Wilmington earned a No. 24 spot among the top 25 places for growth.
U-Haul says its numbers don’t have a direct correlation to population but can be “an effective gauge of how well cities and states are attracting and maintaining residents.”
Data from Carolina Demography has found people in 2017 were flocking to North Carolina, with more coming from Florida than any other state, The News & Observer reported.
And a recent analysis from WalletHub determined the Raleigh suburbs of Apex, Holly Springs and Wake Forest were among the best small cities in the United States.
Taken from an article from the News & Observer by Simone Jasper.
Karen & Rick Jacobs are the owners of Bio-One of Raleigh and Raleigh Hoarding. We offer trauma, mold and hoarding cleanup services including biohazard, blood cleanup, suicide/homicide, feces & bodily fluid, animal waste, undiscovered death, and mold testing & remediation.
We proudly serve North Carolina’s Triangle and surrounding areas including Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary, Apex, Pittsboro, Holly Springs, Clayton, Carrboro, Fuquay-Varina, Garner, Hillsborough, Mebane, Morrisville, Wake Forest, and Wendell; as well as the following counties; Wake County, Durham County, Cumberland County, Guilford County, Orange County, Chatham County, Harnett County, Johnston County, Nash County, Franklin County and Pill County. We also provide services to Greensboro and other areas throughout North Carolina.
Bio-One Inc. is the world's first crime scene cleaning franchise. Nationally respected and locally owned, Bio-One has earned its reputation through being trusted to handle the Mandalay Bay mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017, the Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida in 2016, and consulted on the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012. In 2019, Bio-One was once again included in the best and most comprehensive franchise ranking list – Entrepreneur Magazine.
"Where do you want to die?" According to a Washington Post article, when asked, the vast majority of Americans answer with two words: "At home." Unfortunately, most often that is not the case. For example, 70 percent of individuals surveyed said they wished to die at home, yet 68 percent do not.
WHEN SOMEONE DIES SUDDENLY
If someone dies at home unexpectedly and they are alone, it is called an unattended death or undiscovered death. Body decomposition begins as soon as the person dies so it is vital to be aware of the possible heath hazards that come with finding a dead body in a residence.
Bodies that aren't discovered right away can quickly decompose, especially in the warmer and humid months, causing body fluid splillage that can carry bloodborne pathogens and other harmful diseases, such as MRSA, HIV, Hepatitis B and C,. Even is the person is not knowingly infected, they could still be a disease carrier and unaware of it, so treating the scene as a biohazard is of utmost importance.
As owner, Jason will work with you to determine whether insurance is available and will speak with your insurance company to open a claim. This allows you to focus on notifying family and friends.
In the days and months ahead, other small and large matters will need to be taken care of including:
All these tasks may see overwhelming but you don't have to go through this alone. Bio-One has been providing biohazard and trauma cleanup services since 2011. Our motto of Help First, Business Second, means our focus is on the road to recovery for grieving families and communities.
We are local, When you call, day or night, you will speak directly with an owner - no call center or answering machine. We offer immediate, on-call services and will be onsite within hours of your call. 919.800.9435
Mold is a naturally occurring organism that can be found anywhere, but it can cause a handful of problems if it is present in the workplace.
Many people are allergic to mold, and it deteriorates things like sheetrock, wallpaper, insulation, drywall, carpet and upholstery. Mold grows very quickly and breaks down or consumes whatever it sticks to.
Mold grows wherever there is moisture and can cause health issues in the workplace.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) says that office buildings, schools, and other nonindustrial buildings may develop moisture and dampness problems from roof and window leaks, high indoor humidity, and flooding events, among other things.
Mold in the Workplace Can be Harmful to Employees
Exposure to mold spore contaminants can cause respiratory problems, allergies, asthma and even immunological reactions, according to the World Health Organization. The most common responses are upper and lower respiratory issues, but they can also include breathing difficulties, skin rashes, headaches, cough, wheezing and asthma. Some molds can cause deadly reactions in people.
Long-term exposure can cause chronic fatigue, cold- and flu-like symptoms, shortness of breath and weakness.
Older buildings can hide mold easily. It can grow behind paneling or underneath carpet. If you see signs of moisture problems, like rusty pipes or warped walls, and employees in your office building are showing signs of mold allergies, that’s a pretty good indicator that you have a problem. Mold smells musty, so try to track down the source of the odor.
How do I decrease mold in my workplace?
You cannot always completely avoid indoor mold. However, you can take precautions. Prevention is key.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends the following steps to prevent mold:
If you have a leak, or if your business was damaged by flooding, repair the leak source and dry everything out as well as possible. Again, do not keep wet carpets. Keeping a dehumidifier running in areas that are chronically damp, like basements, will help.
If mold is a problem in your bathroom, you may need to increase the ventilation. And that is not just limited to bathrooms — starting in the 1960s, builders started building homes and commercial buildings that were more tightly sealed. While that is great for power bills, it prevents moisture from easily escaping.
Small areas of mold growth can be removed from hard surfaces with soap and water or a bleach solution (no more than one cup of household laundry bleach in one gallon of water). Do not ever mix bleach-based cleaning products with ammonia-based products. That creates a toxic mix that is dangerous if inhaled. Check the ingredients listed on all household cleaners.
Any mold growth more than 5 feet should be contracted out to a mold remediation company, like Bio-One. There is a risk of spreading the mold when you clear out materials like wall board, paneling or ceiling tiles. There is a possibility you will spread more mold spores when you attempt to remove it, so the area needs to be sealed off while decontamination is taking place.
What to do if mold is suspected in your workplace?
NIOSH recommends the following steps if mold is suspected:
Final word
If mold is growing on things like produce or food left in a shared refrigerator, throw those items away. However, if mold is growing on the walls, floors or ceilings of your office space or business, that will have to be taken care of for the health of your employees and the maintenance of your building.
Remember that mold grows quickly. Finding the source of moisture and treating it will prevent additional mold from growing.
Eliminating moisture sources is the best thing you can do to prevent mold overgrowth in your home.
For mold testing, mold removal, mold remediation and vapor barrier installation, contact Bio-One for a free inspection of the area and estimate. Bio-One serves the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) and surrounding areas.
Hard to imagine your life without motorized transportation or the feel of slipping into a luxury model racer, right? Yet, along with all that freedom to roam comes the potential for problems – in fact, one might say, enough to EXHAUST your bank balance.
Beyond the typical repairs, there is one issue that is enough to drive you to the brink – CAR MOLD. The unsightly and indistinguishable smelly, unhealthy fungus inside your otherwise reliable driving machine. Seats, carpets – nothing is safe. A car can be the perfect petri-dish for mold growth especially when you consider it can become locked up for a long period of time during the wet weather.
While you may be able to disguise the musty smell in the very short-term, the problems are actually more serious. Mold is associated with some health effects including allergies, infections and toxic mold disease. Eliminating mold requires expertise and protection.
The real solution is to let Bio-One and our mold remediation experts work our disinfecting magic. Our mold-certified technician will come to you, determine the remediation necessary, to include chemicals designed to kill the spores, fogging, ozone machine treatment, and complete cleanup.
The result – your automobile is once again ready to be the King of the Road.
To receive a FREE quote, contact Bio-One today. Bio-One serves the entire Triangle and surrounding areas.
SEP 01, 2017 by PAUL MARVEL
If you find yourself looking at a crime scene, your initial reaction may be to clean it yourself. You may want it to be gone as soon as possible and that's completely understandable. Here's some reasons why you shouldn't do that.
1. Fluids! Coming into contact with bodily fluids, especially blood, can be harmful. It can carry disease and pathogens that you just don't want on or near your body!
2. Invisible to the eye! If you don't take care of all of it, you can still receive harmful effects. This means if you try and clean it and leave behind any traces of the scene (even germs and pathogens you can't see), your home won't be as sanitary as you think it is. You know how they say won't you don't know won't hurt you? Well in this case, it can.
3. Don't stress! While you may be worried that you can't afford crime scene cleaners, your insurance will usually take care of it! Don't let this detail keep you from getting the professionals in the door!
Never try to clean a crime scene yourself! You'll be happier, more sanitary, and less stressed when you let the professionals come take care of it.
At Bio-One, we are here to help and take care of the scene, quickly, professionally and discreetly. We serve the Triangle and surrounding areas. Call us now, we are available 24/7/365, and you will speak directly with the owner.
Discovering a murdered loved one in the home can trigger post traumatic stress disorder. After the first responders leave the scene, some survivors may feel compelled to clean up the aftermath themselves. Confused that the paramedics don’t complete this work, they may think the cleanup process is their responsibility and act immediately. After all, they want to restore the scene as quickly as possible. Operating in a state of shock, they’ll remove the blood stains, body tissue and contaminated materials from the home without recognizing the threat to their physical and mental health. In addition to exposing their body to dangerous bloodborne pathogens, survivors may experience traumatic flashbacks of the experience in the future and suffer from heightened anxiety and emotional numbness. These PTSD symptoms prolong the recovery process, making it even more difficult for survivors to cope with their new lives.
Bio-One works with communities across the nation to avoid this outcome. We employ certified technicians that respond to scenes of violent crime and clean up dangerous biohazards that pose a threat to you and your family. When we receive a request for our services, we’ll send a team to the job site within an hour to assess your situation and perform a comprehensive cleaning solution that restores the property. Our powerful, environmentally friendly chemicals eradicate harmful pathogens that spread Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV, giving you assurance that you will be safe long after the area is decontaminated. We’ll dispose of the infected materials that cannot be salvaged and replace flooring and other furnishings if we need to. Once the area is thoroughly cleaned, we’ll return it to its pre-incident state so you can focus on recovering.
We conduct this work because we want to help people who have been left to deal with a difficult, painful task. That’s why our company motto is “Help first, business second.” We don’t ask for payment until after the job is complete because we want to remove the safety threat from your home as quickly as you do. Every person on our team will arrive on-site with an understanding of the trauma you are going through and a respect for your privacy and personal needs.
Contact Bio-One today. We serve the Triangle and surrounding areas, and are available 24/7/365.
By Linda Carroll, NBC News & Health
November 26, 2019
Once MRSA gets into households, the deadly superbug can take hold and spread easily, a study published Tuesday shows. And more often than not, the bacteria hitched rides into the homes on children.
Researchers found that in households of people with a MRSA infection, the bacteria can be found on surfaces including refrigerator handles, bath towels, light switches, video game controllers and even pets, according to the study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. MRSA, or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, is a bacterium that’s resistant to several antibiotics, including methicillin.
“It’s a hardy bacterium that lives on surfaces,” said study coauthor, Dr. Stephanie Fritz, an associate professor in the division of pediatric infectious diseases at Washington University in St. Louis. “People can pick it up and bring it home and the house can become colonized.”
Not long ago, MRSA infections were primarily associated with hospital stays, but since the turn of the century, the bacteria have been turning up in daily settings more frequently.
Before the late 1990s and early 2000s, the infection wasn’t a problem outside of hospitals, said Dr. Graham Snyder, medical director of infection prevention at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who wasn’t involved with the new research.
People can become infected with MRSA if the bacteria enter the body through a break in the skin. Indeed, when people get MRSA outside of health care settings, the infections most often show up as skin infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms can include redness, swelling, pain and pus, and oftentimes, fever.
Snyder estimates that each year, around 11,000 people die from MRSA. If the infection spreads to the lungs, it can lead to pneumonia; if it gets into the bloodstream, it can lead to sepsis.
To learn more about how MRSA gets into homes and is then spread among the residents, Fritz and her colleagues focused on the households of 150 otherwise healthy St. Louis children, with an average age of 3, who went to a doctor or a hospital because of a MRSA infection.
Fritz and her colleagues visited each home five times over the course of a year and each time, they took samples from all family members’ nostrils, armpits and groins, as well as from the noses and backs of any household cats and dogs. At the outset, they asked the study participants more than 100 questions about hygiene and personal habits.
The researchers found MRSA on nearly half the people and on one-third of the pets at least once during the year. One surprising finding, Fritz said, was that it looked like people often were passing the bacteria on to their pets, rather than the other way around.
Another surprise was the length of time the bacteria survived on surfaces. “In one household when we went the very first time, we were told the video game controller hadn’t been touched in six months so we wouldn’t need to swab that,” Fritz said. “We swabbed it anyway and recovered MRSA.”
And while anyone can bring MRSA into the house, “we found children were more likely to be bringing new strains into the house than adults,” Fritz said.
One of the worst forms of animal cruelty—hoarding—affects an estimated 250,000 animals per year. Unlike generalized hoarding, the motivations for animal hoarding are different. Animal hoarders are motivated by the thought they are somehow saving these animals’ lives and they are the only ones who can care for them.
Although the animals are typically found in very poor living conditions and may be sick, injured or starving, the hoarders do not see it this way and are suspicious of any help that is offered.
In addition, animal hoarders must think about where the animals go if their disorder is to be dealt with. Removing and finding new homes for the animals is a more emotional process than removing hoarded objects from a home.
Getting an animal hoarder to accept help may be challenging. A pet hoarder needs to be convinced his or her animals are in immediate danger and need immediate assistance. Due to safety issues, the cleaning of an animal hoarder’s home should be left to professional biohazard technicians.
Bio-One technicians are carefully trained to remove left behind animal waste, disinfect the environment deodorize the area and restore the home to a habitable condition. Our staff utilizes personal protective equipment to ensure safety.
Contact Bio-One for a free, no obligation consult. We are compassionate and trained to discreetly provide the assistance needed. We are here to work with you or your loved ones.
Bio-One serves the Triangle and surrounding areas. We are available 24/7/365 and offer same day response.
Before
After
MRSA stands for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus S. aureus is found in the noses or on the skin up to 30% of healthy individuals. Through the use of antibiotics in healthcare settings, S. aureus developed a resistance to a class of antibiotics and became MRSA.
Methicillin is one of a group of infection treatments called beta-lactam antibiotics. These include all the antibiotics you may be familiar with such as penicillin, amoxicilin, oxacillin, and methicillin. Because it resists this class of antibiotics, more aggressive antibiotics are needed to treat the infection.
MRSA can lead to extended hospitals stays and slower healing, but it can also cause death. If a MRSA infection cannot be treated with antibiotics or removal of infected tissue, it continues to invade a patient's body and can lead to fatal organ failure.
Community-acquired MRSA, or CA-MRSA, can lead to infections outside of healthcare settings. CA-MRSA outbreaks can occur in locker rooms, unsanitary or crowded living quarters, or long-term nursing homes. These infections can be very difficult to treat, even though most of the infected patients are otherwise healthy.
You can help prevent the spread of MRSA by washing your hands often with warm water and soap, for at least 30 seconds. You can prevent being infected with MRSA or CA-MRSA by making sure to keep open wounds covered and clean. If you use a public locker room or play a contact sport, never share towels, clothing, or toiletries.
To avoid the creation of MRSA, always follow your doctor's instructions about antibiotic use. Do not take antibiotics for a virus, and always take your entire dose, even if you feel better halfway through.
From the EOS blog by Erica Mitchell.
Contact us with any questions about MRSA clean up or if you need assistance with a communicable disease cleaning.
