The Centers for Disease Control has issued general disinfecting guidance in the wake of the COVID-19 coronavirus, but questions, concerns and misinformation might still arise for a collision repairer attempting to protect customers and employees in the real world.

A Society of Collision Repair Specialists webinar next week featuring “professional restorers experienced in restoration, decontamination and infectious disease control” might bring more clarity to body shops and other companies on the issue.

Encircle business development Vice President Kris Rzesnoski, Gearhart and Associates founder Norris Gearhart, Property Insurance and Restoration Conference administrator Jordan Hendler and European Motor Car Works owner Kye Yeung will join SCRS Executive Director Aaron Schulenburg for the event at 1 p.m. Tuesday, April 28. Register for the free event here.

“The conversational webinar will explore topics on how to manage customers’ expectations, and what practices, processes and disinfectant agents work – and which ones don’t,” SCRS wrote in a news release Monday. (For example, the Centers for Disease Control recommends disinfecting with products on the Environmental Protection Agency’s List N.)

“The program will identify potential procedural takeaways based on your teams’ skill sets and accessibility to disinfectants, and the importance of appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) utilization in potentially infectious environments, and alternatives solutions that may exist.

“Additionally, the session will cover topics including false advertising, liability around improper terminology that misrepresents tasks performed, and technology that does not comply with the standard of care.”

For example, SCRS has cautioned repairers to examine how they communicate vehicle sanitization to customers.

“We’ve also seen examples of businesses promoting services to ‘clean’, ‘sanitize’ or ‘disinfect’ customer vehicles,” SCRS wrote. “The Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) urges caution with the language used in your promotion of services. For instance, your facility can assure that you ‘apply disinfectant’, but there is no testing protocol to ensure that you ‘disinfected’ the vehicle. In our interaction with other industries, this has been a repeated caution; describe only what you perfomed, rather than a promise of what it accomplished.”

According to Rzesnoski and Gearhart bios provided by SCRS, both have experience with biological contamination:

Kris Rzesnoski is the Vice President of Business Development at Encircle. He guides the technical development of Encircle’s solutions to ensure they exceed industry expectations. With over 15 years of experience in the restoration and insurance industries and works with restorers and insurers around the world including Canada, USA, Australia, and Europe. Kris holds several certifications and designations, including being a Certified Restorer, Water Loss Specialists and IICRC Master Restorer designated in Water, Smoke, Fire, and Textiles. Kris has specialized experience in applying his restoration knowledge to perform restoration services of water damaged and biohazards in luxury yachts, emergency service vehicles and insurance claim vehicles.

Norris Gearhart has been involved with disaster response, mitigation, and restoration services since 1985 and holds multiple national and international certifications and professional designations. He provides technical consulting globally, and frequently provides expert testimony in legal cases. Prior to forming Gearhart and Associates, LLC., Norris was the Chief Operating Officer for TOMI™ Environmental Solutions, Inc. (OTCQB: TOMZ) a global bacteria decontamination and infectious disease control company, providing solutions for indoor surface decontamination through manufacturing, sales and licensing of their premier platform of Hydrogen Peroxide aerosols, products, and technologies. He has served as an instructor for the Restoration Industry Association’s (RIA) highest professional designation; Certified Restorer (CR).

Hendler’s PIRC conference is also relevant to the subject. It’s “a uniquely-formatted conference held in the restoration industry, where property insurance and restoration industry professionals discuss industry issues and communicate possible solutions and/or best practices to improve the property restoration industry,” according to the SCRS news release.

SCRS recently offered the industry another COVID-19 resource: A Web portal compiling links to “relevant information that we believe provides you with access to tangible solutions and easy-to-digest breakouts of what are very complicated measures being taken to help small businesses and citizens across the U.S.” Access it at www.scrs.com/covid19-resources.

More information:

“Registration Open for SCRS Webinar – Ask the Experts: How Professional Restorers Deal with “Disinfecting” Vehicles – COVID-19 Special”

Society of Collision Repair Specialists, April 20, 2020

CDC interim COVID-19 guidance for businesses

CDC guidance for businesses with suspected/confirmed COVID-19 cases

Centers for Disease Control COVID-19 coronavirus portal

Environment Protection Agency “List N” of COVID-19 disinfectants

SCRS COVID-19 coronavirus information portal

Images:

An apoptotic cell, red, is infected with SARS-COV-2 COVID-19 coronavirus particles, yellow, in this colorized scanning electron micrograph image. (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode)

SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 coronavirus particles are seen in this color-enhanced transmission electron micrograph image. (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode)