(car awareness)
Greetings from the Hemet Car Guy, Last Sunday my wife Bambi and I set out to do battle; armed with masks, gloves disinfectant and hand sanitizer; actually, we went grocery shopping for our home and her mother who lives alone. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything and now personal hygiene is more important than ever. Ok, let’s relate this to our cars since I’m the Hemet Car Guy It is now more than ever more important keeping our vehicles clean and helping prevent the spread of disease.
VIP Autos is taking every precaution while we keep our business running, and we want you to be safe, too. In past articles and on our web page hemetcarguy.info, we showed how to clean your car and even change the cabin filter, however, now we have taken it to the next level because we know it’s not just cleaning our cars but also protecting ourselves from infection, and protecting others.
The general guidelines for preventing the spread of any disease are the same around cars as anywhere else. Wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds after touching any unknown surface that someone else might touch, whether you’re picking up a car from a repair shop or doing some socially-distant car shopping. You can get the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). If you don’t have access to soap and water, hand sanitizer works as a backup. Also, keep your distance. Don’t get in a car with someone from outside your household; at VIP Autos, we have made it a new policy to have our clients test-drive vehicles alone.
We are told Coronavirus isn’t classified as airborne, which is confusing because it definitely can be spread through sneezing and coughing, so wear that mask!! We know Coronavirus can spread through people who aren’t showing any symptoms, and we don’t want to risk exposure in the confined space of an automobile interior. With that said, we have taken additional safety measures in our Detail Department. VIP Auto’s detailer Kevin always wears a mask, eye protection, because as a professional detailer, he comes into contact with car-related germs on a daily basis.
Kevin had always focused on the six areas in the car most likely to host viruses, bacteria, and other infectious material: the steering wheel, cup holders, and seat belt, inside the door, handles, gearshift knob, and radio buttons, but now he needs to do more before because he knows there is a difference between cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting. Cleaning is the act of physically removing dirt and other substances from a surface, usually with a detergent. Sanitizing lowers the number of germs on a surface while disinfecting uses chemicals to kill germs actively.
(car awareness)
This is very important to do without using bleach products inside the vehicle. Because of the additional steps with disinfectants, it takes twice as long to get a vehicle ready. Kevin deep cleans the whole interior with high-pH products that need to sit on the soft material for some time to work, and besides disinfecting the whole interior in addition to those six high touch areas, and sanitizing Kevin changes the cabin filter and then finishes off with an ozone generator. Ozone is a gas that has proven to be a powerful sterilant and weapon against bad smells and bacteria.
Because it is gas, it can permeate just about every crevice of your car, reaching those hard to locate and hard to reach odors. If there’s a foul smell in your car, chances are there is also bacteria floating around. Ozone will kill both, leaving your car smelling good and the interior climate healthy. The ozone generator uses UV light to generate ozone. And, once ozone comes into contact with other molecules, it will destroy them instantly through the process of oxidation. Yes, it’s all terribly scientific, but all you need to know is that ozone will destroy bacteria and odors on contact, removing them permanently from your car. Ok, we are not making claims, of ozone sterilization being used to kill the current strain of Coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (technical name of the Coronavirus which causes the COVID-19 disease).
However, there are reasons to believe it would be effective: For example, during the SARS epidemic of 2003, ozone sterilization was successfully used to purify environments infected with the deadly Coronavirus, SARS-CoV-1, the virus, which causes the SARS disease. As SARS-Cov-1 is also a member of the Coronavirus family, it is highly likely that ozone sterilization would be effective at killing SARS-CoV-2, the Coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease. Kevin does use cleaning, sanitizing and disinfectant products. Still, Kevin and I don’t pretend to be a disinfecting disease expert – we are doing our best to figuring this out as we go. And don’t forget to clean your keys.
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