Disinfectant

which is sold now under the names of Crystal Clean and Turnout Clear.

Being in the mold remediation business, he contacted the company that is the only manufacturer of the product developed by the federal government, Intelagard Inc. of Lafayette, Colorado.

Soon, he became the worldwide technical adviser, master distributor and a training center for Intelagard.

The distribution part of the business received a major boost when VWR, the Radnor-based worldwide supplier of laboratory equipment, started in September to offer it to its customers in biopharma, university and government research.

Adrian Scioli, federal contracts administrator for VWR, said the solution is superior to bleach, which many labs use for cleaning.

The higher cost of EasyDECON is justified because it takes fewer applications to permanently disinfect work spaces, he added.

“I believe very quickly the market is going to see the value of the product,” said Scioli, who researched the product’s effectiveness for VWR. “I’m a person that really looks for solutions ... This is a product that will sell itself.”

EasyDECON has a long and fascinating history with roots in the fight against terrorism, according to background information provided by John Aberle, a business consultant to Mold N’More and Intelagard.

It was developed in the late 1990s at the request of the U.S. Department of Defense by Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in response to the March 20, 1995, Tokyo subway attack when the chemical agent Sarin killed 13 people and injured over 5,000.

Since then it has been used during the 2001 Anthrax scare in Washington, D.C., New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida. It also was used during the Ebola Virus Panic in Dallas, Texas during the fall of 2014 and after the Boston Marathon bombings.

It is now used by U.S. Special Operations/Special Forces throughout the military, Aberle said, as well as to destroy biological and chemical weapons worldwide. The FBI and several other government law enforcement agencies use EasyDECON as their go-to product for any decontamination, he added.

In the last three years Young has discovered two more uses for EasyDECON. It helps to reduce cancer in firefighters by cleaning and disinfecting their turnout coats/bunker gear; and it is the only known decontaminant/disinfectant that can take just about any facility that has been used as a clandestine laboratory/meth-lab and rehabilitate it to where it is entirely habitable and usable once again, Aberle said.

“Bill and I have stuck with this for 2½ years,” Aberle said. “It’s about to hit big. There’s nothing else out there like this.”

Young said he thinks work with firefighters and schools present the biggest potential markets for EasyDECON.

Firefighters have a 9 percent higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer and a 14 percent higher risk of dying from cancer than the general U.S. population, according to research by the CDC/National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH). The cancers mostly responsible for this higher risk were respiratory (lung, mesothelioma), GI (oral cavity, esophageal, large intestine), and kidney.

“Because it’s worldwide, that would have the biggest market potential,” said Young. “Profits are important, sure, but our emphasis will be to protect firefighters, especially volunteers.”

Schools, meanwhile, are increasingly using artificial turf fields. Keeping those and gym areas free from disease-bearing germs is potentially a huge market, he said, along with hospitals, prisons and any institutional setting. On the Web: http:// moldnmoredecon.com/ To contact Business Writer Brian McCullough, call 610-235-2655 or send an email to bmccullough@21stcenturymedia.com.