Pest Control Policy for Firefighters

Policy Purpose

• Provides steps for detecting and addressing bed bugs and various other pests firefighters may encounter.
• TFD personnel are to utilize standard precautions as a primary strategy for pest contact minimization.
• Specific operational guidelines are outlined for employees to follow if pests are discovered at an incident or TFD facility.
• Strategies may be applied to other pests which includes cockroaches, lice, fleas, and mites.

Definitions

• PPE is specialized clothing or equipment worn for protection against hazards, but does not include general work clothes.
• Standard precautions treat all human blood and body fluids (except sweat) as infectious for infection control.
• Work practice controls are actions that reduce exposure likelihood by altering task performance.
• The Pest Control Ensemble PPE includes eye protection, medical gloves, Tyvek suits, over boots, and head bonnets; Tyvek suits with integrated hoods and over boots are also acceptable.

Responsibilities

• The Deputy Chief of the Administration Bureau ensures workplace safety at TFD facilities and maintains the pest control policy.
• The Assistant Chief of Operations Bureau ensures battalion chiefs and incident commanders understand and can initiate decontamination procedures.
• Battalion Chiefs notify the Assistant Chief, Operations Bureau, or the Duty Chief when a pest infestation or exposure occurs and request service from listed pest control vendors while working to prevent contamination.
• Station Captains maintain a minimum station supply of Tyvek suits and pest control accessories in sizes 3-4XL, 3-3XL, 3-2XL, and 3L, ensure properly sized pest control ensembles and orange pest control garbage bags are immediately available on apparatus, and store pest control ensembles and containment bags in PVC storage bags.
• The policy outlined applies to all TFD personnel.

Operating Guidelines

• Bed bugs have proliferated in residential and commercial settings.
• Bed bugs are difficult to exterminate after an infestation, making training on identification and prevention imperative.
• Identifying and preventing other types of pest infestations in TFD facilities is imperative.

Bed Bugs

• Bed bugs should be visible to the naked eye.
• Bed bugs can be found anywhere and are not a sign of poor cleaning.
• Bed bugs are not known to spread disease but are considered a public health pest.
• Bed bug bites alone cannot be relied on for identification.
• Bed bugs neither fly nor jump, and unlike lice, do not live on the human body.
• High heat exposure for over an hour or extreme cold for several days are known methods for killing bed bugs.
• Routine monthly inspections are useful for early detection and hygiene.
• Pest activity should be noted on the Smartsheet station inspection form with high priority.
• Evidence of bed bugs includes tiny brown or black fecal spots, dried dark blood, and cast skins, while sizable infestations may produce a sweet, foul odor.
• Adult bed bugs are brown, quarter-inch long, oval-shaped, and wingless.

Station Hygiene and Bed Bugs

• Maintaining station hygiene is critical for a healthy work environment.
• Mattresses must be encased in zippered nonporous covers.
• Mattress covers, bedsheets, and bedspreads must be laundered weekly.
• Bedding should be cleaned with hot water and dried on high heat for at least 60 minutes.
• Clothing, towels, and linens should not be kept on the floor.
• Reducing clutter and vacuuming can help manage bed bugs.
• Resilient flooring is preferred over carpeting to minimize infestation spread.
• Rugs, upholstered furniture, bed frames, and under beds require vacuuming, including cracks and crevices.

Lice

• Lice are wingless, parasitic insects that feed on blood.
• Types of lice are head lice, body lice, and pubic lice.
• Head lice are found on the scalp, especially at the nape of the neck and over the ears.
• Body lice reside in clothing and on bedding, commonly affecting those with poor hygiene.
• Pubic lice, or crabs, occur in the pubic area and occasionally on coarse body hair.
• Adult body lice are 2.3–3.6 mm long and lay eggs on clothing, moving to the skin only to feed.
• Body lice spread disease.
• Body lice infestations spread via close contact, often among those in crowded conditions and with poor hygiene.
• Dogs, cats, and pets do not transmit human lice.
• Over-the-counter and prescription medications are available for head lice.

Evidence of Lice

• Intense itching.
• A tickling feeling from hair movement.
• Lice on the scalp, body, or clothing. Adult lice are sesame seed-sized.
• Lice eggs (nits) on hair shafts can be mistaken for dandruff.
• Small red bumps on the scalp, neck, and shoulders.

Recommended Treatment for Lice

• Persons exposed to or confirmed to have lice should seek professional healthcare instead of being in the workplace.
• Treatment involves OTC or prescription medication, following these steps:
  • Removing clothing that could become wet or stained from treatment.
  • Applying lice medicine (pediculicide) per instructions.
  • Using a second bottle of lice medicine for hair longer than shoulder length.
  • Following instructions on the label on how long to keep the medication in the hair and how to wash it out.

Scabies

• Scabies is a skin infestation caused by the human itch mite (Sarcoptes scabiei var. hominis) where the mite burrows into the upper layer of the skin to live and lay its eggs.
• Common symptoms include intense itching and a pimple-like skin rash.
• Scabies spreads through direct, prolonged skin contact and affects all races and social classes worldwide.
• Scabies can spread rapidly where there is close body and skin contact.
• Nursing homes, extended care facilities, prisons, and child-care facilities are often sites of scabies infestations.
• Crusted scabies is a severe form that occurs in immunocompromised, elderly, disabled, or debilitated individuals.

Evidence of Scabies

• Persons with crusted scabies have thick skin crusts containing many scabies mites and eggs.
• Crusted scabies is very contagious and spreads through skin contact or contaminated items.
• Persons with crusted scabies may not show usual itching (pruritus) and rash.
• Crusted scabies requires prompt and aggressive medical treatment.
• Diagnosis is made by the appearance and distribution of the rash and presence of burrows.
• Whenever possible, the diagnosis should be confirmed by identifying the mite, mite eggs, or mite fecal matter (scybala).
• This confirmation can be performed by removing a mite from the end of its burrow using the tip of a needle or by obtaining skin scraping to examine under a microscope for mites, eggs, or mite fecal matter.
• A person can be infested even if mites, eggs, or fecal matter cannot be found; in healthy persons, only 10-15 mites may be present on the entire body.
• Persons with crusted scabies can be infested with thousands of mites with high contagiousness.

Recommended Treatment of Scabies

• Personnel exposed to or confirmed to have scabies should seek care from their health care provider and should not be in the workplace.
• Treatment involves prescription ointments, creams, and lotions, some may be administered orally.
• Medicine is usually applied at night, when mites are most active, and washed off the next morning.
• More aggressive treatment may be needed for severe or widespread scabies.
• Ivermectin (Stromectol) may be given to people who do not improve after initial treatment or have crusted or widespread scabies.
• No over-the-counter scabies treatments have been approved by the FDA.

Rodents

• Common urban rodents include Norway rats, roof rats, and house mice.
• Norway rats, also known as brown, wharf, or sewer rats, are found where humans live and are attracted to areas with hiding and food.
• Roof rats are agile climbers in urban settings.
• House mice are well-adapted to reside in homes and offices and can survive long periods on cereals and food scraps without a steady water supply.

Evidence of Rodents

• Seeing a rat in the open often signifies infestation, but a detailed inspection is needed as rodents are secretive and active at night.
• Look for scattered rat droppings near pathways, feeding locations, or shelter.
• Look for scratches and gnawing marks on doors, ledges, corners, and stored materials.
• Look for dark, greasy rub marks from rat fur oil on painted surfaces or wooden beams.
• Check for tracks and tail draglines indoors on dusty surfaces and outdoors in loose soil and mud.

Procedure for Eliminating Rodents

• Rodent control requires addressing all factors associated with the infestation
• These factors include rodent harborage outside the building or unit, entry points, harborage points inside the building, and food and water sources.
• Integrated Pest Management combines these factors with proper extermination and education.
• Any rodent infestation should be documented on the station inspection Smartsheet at a high priority level.
• Notify the Battalion Chief for follow up with the Assistant Chief, Administration Bureau for pest control.

Strategies for Reducing Infestation at TFD Facilities

• To prevent secondary exposure at TFD facilities, receiving centers, and potential transmission to employee homes, decon steps should be taken at the emergency site to reduce contamination.
  • Pests should be identified and avoided whenever possible.
  • The patient and personnel should be isolated using TFD-provided pest control ensembles (Tyvek suits)
  • Evidence of pests or bites in a facility requires reporting to the Battalion Chief and facility supervisor immediately.
  • Battalion Chiefs and facility supervisors should then notify the Duty Chief and Assistant Chief, Administration Bureau.

Procedure for Station Decontamination

• If keeping infestation out of is unsuccessful, crews backtrack to determine how extensive the infestation may be, with the goal is to reduce the number of exposures that must be remediated.
• If a pest infestation is suspected, request a commercial exterminator and cleaning company to address the possible infestation
• Notify the Battalion Chief, who will contact both the vendor and Duty Chief.
  • Contact Stop Bugging Me Pest Control at (206) 800-7029 or (206) 749-2847 (BUGS), or Alternate – Sprague Pest Solutions (253) 572-6500.
• Company officers and Battalion Chiefs should consider decommissioning the company.
  • Treatment of lice or scabies is prohibited in the workplace.
• Using a dog specifically trained to detect lice is currently the best method for identifying the presence of bed bugs.
• Do not reoccupy the facility until the infestation has been resolved.

Procedure for Scene Decontamination

• The goal of on-scene decontamination is to isolate the contamination to the emergency scene and reduce exposure to gear, apparatus, facilities, and emergency receiving centers.
• When requested to an address known for infestation, deploy Standard Precautions and pest control ensembles for pests for all crew members.
• Limit the number of personnel exposed as much as possible.
• If there is time and urgency, ask the patient to come outside of the building, where the patient can be provided a Tyvek pest ensemble before beginning care.
• Exposure of turnouts should be avoided.
• When time is short and the pest ensemble cannot be donned, attempt to give the patient the a pest ensemble and provide notification to the emergency receiving center about the patient's condition.
• The crew should then don their full pest ensemble as soon as possible.
• After patient care, the officer is to notify their battalion chief and Safety 3 for on scene, hospital, or facility decontamination.
• Battalion Chiefs should determine an alternate method of transporting personnel from the scene to prevent apparatus contamination.
• All exposed clothing, shoes, boots, soft-sided aid gear bags should be double bagged with prescribed bagging equipment.
• Avoid carpeted areas.
• Shower immediately.
• Don spare uniform and/or spare turnouts.
• The exposure and resulting procedures should be documented in a supervisor's report of incident or injury and in the IRS unit comment field.

Procedure for PPE Decontamination

• When gear, turnouts, and uniforms become infested or likely were exposed to bedbugs or similar parasites, the following guidelines will be followed to reduce cross-contamination of our apparatus or facilities.
• All exposed items will be double bagged. The item will first be placed in a general-purpose garbage bag, then placed in an orange pest control garbage bag.
  • Red bio-hazard bags shall not be used for pests.
• Tag the bag with a white pest-specific plastic tag marked with the last name and date of exposure.
  • Do not use traditional wire equipment tags, as they can puncture the bag.
• Enter the name and date on the Smartsheet for pest exposures.
• Take the contaminated items to Station 2 and place the bagged items in the freezer for a minimum of 4 days.
• After freezing for 4 days at or below -5 degrees Farenheight, the bagged items will be placed in a thawing bin.
• Turnouts will be washed in extractors and hung.
• Gear, such as aid bags and equipment covers will be washed in extractors and hung.
  • No contaminated uniform or gear shall be washed in a station or OPIM washers.
• When uniforms are exposed, Safety Captain or Safety 3 will notify Northwest Safety Clean for pickup at Station 2.
• Uniforms will be picked up every Thursday OR the Safety Division will arrange a pickup sooner.
• Boots will be frozen separately from turnouts and washed separately in the extractors.
• Safety 3, 2, or 1 will assist with needing additional turnouts, boots, and uniforms if necessary.

Procedure for Non-Fire Station Facilities Decontamination

• Notification of the facility supervisor, who will then contact commercial exterminator and cleaning company, and the Assistant Chief, Administration Bureau, is required in the event of pest exposure or infestation.
  • Contact Stop Bugging Me Pest Control at (206) 800-7029 or (206) 749-2847 (BUGS), or Alternate – Sprague Pest Solutions (253) 572-6500.