The Remediation of Urine

2/22/2016 (Permalink)

Urine is a solution of metabolic wastes and certain other, often toxic, substances that the excretory organs withdraw from the circulatory fluids and expel from the body. Part of the problem with urine is in understanding the habits of the animals of the home where the urine problem exists. For instance, cats do not always make a “spot” in the corner or against the leg of a chair. Find all of the problem areas before attacking the “problem."

Treatment

Before taking on a deodorizing job, it is important to keep in mind that the cost of odor control should not exceed the cost of replacement of the textile.

It is imperative to remove the source (that means keeping the pet away) from the urine contaminated area.

The problem with urine on textiles, especially carpet, is twofold:

1. If the urine is allowed to sit, it will develop a putrid odor from microbial action or natural oxidation, and especially on areas where it has been repeated voided.
2. The staining due to the coloring pigments present naturally in urine or from the bacterial or fungal growth associated with these areas.

Stains

One pigment that gives coloration to urine, urochrome, is the oxidized form of a colorless urochromogen.
Chromogen, on treating with an oxidant, gives a yellow coloration.
To treat such a stain, the best approach is to use reducing agents (the opposite equivalent of oxidizing agents).
Likely, heat may be required in conjunction with a reducing agent, as in the heat transfer method.

Deodorization

Urea is an excellent culture medium in which microorganisms grow with great rapidity. The bacteria can either be cocci or bacilli.

One of the changes that occurs when urine is allowed to remain at room temperature is a variable increase in pH secondary to proliferation of urease producing bacterial contaminants and escape of carbon dioxide from urine.

Acidifying the affected area will slow down the action of bacteria and help dissolution of the urine salts.

The real dose of a wide variety of bacteria comes from the environment into which the urine is deposited. Skin scales, old urine deposits, dirt and other organic and inorganic materials in indoor environments are teeming with all kinds of bacteria.

Your weapons are cleaning with a slightly acidic cleaner and very good deep extraction, bacterial microorganisms, germicides, durable antimicrobial treatments and the transient fragrance deodorizers.

No one of these is magic, and how you identify the problem areas and use these tools will prompt either success or failure. Equally important is to try to understand your customer”s expectations.

If urine on the textile, such as carpet, is promptly tended to by spray extracting, the problems associated with odor and staining will not occur. However, in real life situations, this is not the case, since pets tend to pick a spot and frequent that area repeatedly.

Continuously voided urine over the same area of the carpet will impregnate not only the backing but also the carpet fibers and could also damage the sub-flooring, especially if it was wood, unsealed concrete or similar material, and may make it difficult to deodorize.

Pets may also void all over the area and the odor goes unnoticed and the voided urine “just sits there”.

Some pet owners may not notice the odor problem, as their sense of smell becomes desensitized. If the pet is removed from the area and the urine dries, the smell may not be discernible. But in such situations, the odor can come back after the carpet becomes wet, for instance, from cleaning. Humidity can also increase odors.

One method of treating is based on the fact that when urine is preserved with antibacterial agents like formaldehyde or thymol, it will not develop odor.

First, it is best to flush and remove as much urine as practically possible. Then acidification before application of germicide is helpful as it retards bacterial action.

The contaminated area is then treated with an appropriate germicide containing a suitable perfume. The germicides can be oxidizers, iodophors, phenolics, quaternaries (quats).

Some germicides work better than others. The germicide must be compatible with area to be treated. The germicide kills the odor-causing bacteria and the perfume acts as a masking agent.

Depending on how badly the area is contaminated by the urine, the padding and backing of carpet must be treated by direct application or needle injection, and a second or third application may be necessary.

Use of the durable chemically reactive silane quaternary ammonium treatment provides longer-term control of offending bacteria, yeast or fungus.

Another approach is based on the natural decomposition of urine in soil, where naturally occurring bacteria is able to degrade the urine.

This is done by seeding and inoculating the area with non-pathogenic bacterial cultures (incorrectly called enzymes). The logic being that the introduced bacteria will rapidly consume the food source in urine and hence consume the source of odors.

In such cases, the area must be kept moist and warm for 24-48 hours for this approach to be affective, and maintained within a narrow pH range. The success of deodorization will depend on holding these conditions, which are conditions difficult to sustain on carpet in the field. These are the same conditions that promote mold growth. For low levels of urine contamination, this approach can conceivably work, but for heavy contamination the abatement of odor will be difficult.

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