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In many of the more affluent regions of the United States, there has been an increase in demand for resident-owned senior living facilities that offer the best lifestyle, wellness, educational classes, and other high-end amenities for retirees.

One well-known facility in Northern California provides these types of options, to ultimately offer an engaging, dynamic lifestyle for today’s active seniors. For this particular facility, providing a clean and odor-free environment is always the top priority.

For Maria Saralegui, Director of Housekeeping and Laundry, the best way to fight foul odors is to continually treat the cause/source of the odor. However, there are often things that happen that require a more comprehensive solution for fighting bad smells.

For example, there was recently a small fire caused by a resident putting a towel in a microwave oven. Approximately eight resident rooms had to be evacuated immediately in order for the housekeeping team to remediate the area and effectively rid it of harsh smoke odors. The smoke odor also permeated that entire wing of the facility.

As the first step in the treatment process, the housekeeping team aerated the room with the Fresh Wave IAQ Air & Surface Spray. The Fresh Wave IAQ Air & Surface Liquid is a proprietary blend of environmentally friendly ingredients, including water, lime, pine needles, aniseed, clove, and cedarwood. This blend is effective at eliminating tough odors such as smoke, mildew, chemical fumes, vomit, feces, urine, and food. In addition, as this is a safe, eco-friendly solution, there is no need to evacuate the area being treated while the unit is in use.

After this initial treatment, the team used a mobile Fresh Wave IAQ M130 Vapor Phase Unit, which dispersed the “dry” Fresh Wave IAQ Air & Surface odor eliminator solution into the affected room. As a result of this two-step process, the team was able to remove all of the smoke odors in only two hours – and all evacuees could safely be in their respective rooms during the treatment.

“Our residents and colleagues were very impressed at how quickly the smoke smell was eliminated that same evening,” said Saralegui in a glowing recommendation letter to Fresh Wave IAQ. “Additionally, what has been especially helpful to us is how effective the line of products is, while still being safe to work within the same area.”

“Healthcare facilities in particular are very conscious of the safety of the cleaning products they use on a daily basis,” said Sylvia Kim, Senior Field Sales Manager at OMI Industries, makers of Fresh Wave IAQ. “Fresh Wave IAQ offers comprehensive documentation pointing to the safety of our solutions, and it’s exciting to see organizations like this embrace ways to quickly, safely and effectively fight any foul odor.”

Prior to using Fresh Wave IAQ, the team used more traditional air fresheners and antimicrobial solutions that merely masked the foul odors with a synthetic fragrance. Saralegui and her team learned about Fresh Wave IAQ through WAXIE Sanitary Supply, and were so pleased with the results they recently purchased a second M130 Vapor Phase unit for the Community.

“I can testify that the odor control onsite has been much more manageable since we started utilizing the Fresh Wave IAQ system,” added Saralegui. “We cannot remember how we got along without it.”