Small Business Comeback Tour: Sterile Space Infection Defense

By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso

West Orange, NJ (WCBS 880) — Sterile Space Infection Defense was ahead of its time, but it’s now in high demand at workplaces, childcare centers and schools.

“We go around and provide infection prevention, control, and eradication services,” said owner Irwin Stromeyer on the WCBS Small Business Comeback Tour, sponsored by PSE&G.

Unlike a cleaning service, West Orange-based Sterile Space Infection Defense sprays an EPA-registered antimicrobial coating on all surfaces where germs can spread.

“If you could see the coating on a microscopic level, it would look like zillions of little swords sticking up and as that cell comes down, it gets impaled on the coating and the coating has an opposing electrical charge, which in essence electrocutes those cells so they are in essence rendered neutralized,” he said.

Stromeyer founded the business in 2013 at the time that his father, who was a physician, was struggling with numerous infections that ultimately took his life.

“Unfortunately when somebody said the word ‘pandemic’ in March of 2020, that really catapulted the business, but we were in business long before the pandemic.”

Before running Sterile Space, Stromeyer sourced and supplied surgical instruments and other medical equipment to hospitals and doctors’ offices.

“Forever, we have felt that if it looks clean and smells clean, it’s got to be clean and safe, which is so far from the truth, it’s not funny,” he said. “People get sick most often by touching a contaminated surface and then touching their eyes, nose or mouth.”

With a focus on health during the pandemic, finding customers has become easier.

“It’s been mostly word of mouth,” said Stromeyer.

See more on Sterile Space Infection Defense on the WCBS Small Business Comeback Tour video above.