Steritech sales executive Kristen Bergmeier sits in the sterilization company’s control room.
By Jessica Craike
TUCKED away in Dandenong South is the frontline of Australia’s quarantine defence.
Whether it is an everyday lipstick or a gold medal Olympic wreath, more than 100 items must be decontaminated each day at local sterilisation plant Steritech.
Quarantine procedures are in demand more than ever with foreign diseases such as the avian flu knocking at Australia’s door and home-grown pests invading the farming industry.
Large shipping containers arrive daily which may house potential threats to the vulnerable Australian environment.
Steritech chief executive George West said quarantine was absolutely essential in Australia.
“Australia has the toughest standards in the world but that’s why we are disease-free,” he said.
Mr West said new developments in the decontamination industry had offered some relief to troubled farmers.
Until recently, supermarket shelves faced a shortage of honey with the infectious ‘peculiar disease’ killing off bee colonies.
Technicians then discovered a way to sterilise hives without destroying any bees.
Mr West said wine packaging had also improved significantly.
Previously, mould flourished on wine bottle corks, giving birth to deadly bacteria spores.
Sterilisation procedures have found a way to prevent this mould growth in wine, Mr West said.
Mr West said it took three to four days to fully decontaminate material, and the medical industry was a high priority for the sterilisation plant in Dandenong.
Operating tables, medical apparatus and surgical equipment undergo sterilisation to ensure a sanitary environment for hospital patients.
“Even the packaging is sterilised,” Mr West said.
Operating for 30 years, Steritech is a pioneer for solutions, the CEO said, with a disposable medical kit the latest breakthrough offering doctors the guarantee that their medical kit was safe.
Steritech has one of the largest irradiation plants nationwide.
Its sterilisation and decontamination processor never stops with the plant working for 24 hours, seven days a week.
The business is a nominee in the Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce Premier Regional Business Awards, to be held in March.
