Page 8 - JAN2021

Page 8 Community
By Paul Bemis
For most of our lives we have given little thought to the issue of indoor air cleanliness; the emer- gence of COVID-19 has forever changed that. According to a June 2020 paper by the National Academy for the Sciences, the primary transmission pathway for COVID 19 is airborne trans- mission. Furthermore, the higher the concentration of this patho- gen in the air, the higher the probability of infection, which may lead to sickness, and - in many cases – death. The death rate in America alone is now approaching the number of US soldiers who perished in WWII.
Newfound Lake Life
Cleaning The Air That We Share
January 2021
This need will not end with a COVID-19 vaccine; rather, we need to consider indoor air qual- ity as an important way to proac- tively reduce the risk of disease transmission – for all airborne pathogens. There are many air- borne pathogens including the flu, ChickenPox, Measles, Tu- berculosis, Influenza, and the common cold. The last major outbreak of Influenza occurred in 1918 and was responsible for the death of 50 million people. Influenza outbreaks are cyclical and some epidemiologists are
predicting we are due for an- other outbreak with death ex-
pectations in the millions. Reducing the ability for these pathogens to spread within in- door spaces can significantly reduce these numbers, and the technology to do this is well un- derstood and can be delivered at a reasonable cost. Air Cleanser Inc is a new company based in Bristol committed to delivering a solution to the transmission of airborne pathogens in the places we eat, drink, work, play, and pray. If you are interested in learning more about what we can do for your school or busi- ness, please visit our website at www.aircleanersinc.com or con- tact me, Paul Bemis, at paul@
aircleanersinc.com.
To reduce this transmission, we must reduce the concentration of pathogens within indoors spaces, and dilute the polluted stale air with clean fresh air.
As and example, a young high school student was recently infected with COVID-19 after eating in a small restaurant in Jeonju, a city in southwestern Korea. Epidemiologists were stumped because the city hadn’t had a coronavirus case in two months. It was later learned that a traveling sales person, who was infected but asymptomatic, had also been at the restaurant. But the two were only in the same space for 5 minutes, and were
seated more than 15 feet apart. A careful study of the event that included cell phone data, virus genomic testing, and airflow pat- terns from the air conditioning system concluded the infection was caused by the airborne SAR- CoV-2 pathogen carried by the air flow in the room. Yet, people with their backs to the airflow did not get infected.
The Issue for NH’s Small Businesses
Most small businesses do not own the buildings from which they operate. The heating and cooling systems are typically owned and controlled by the building owners and not the small business owners. This cre- ates a natural conflict between the small business owner who
would like healthy clean air for their customers and employees, and the building owner who is attempting to hold down oper- ating costs. Solutions are needed to provide the small business owners with the ability to protect their customers and employees without relying on the building owner.
The good news about the COVID-19 pandemic is that ef- fective vaccines have now been developed and are on their way. However, COVID-19 has raised our collective awareness around airborne disease transmission and the need for effective solu- tions to address this challenge.
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CUSHIONS WINDOW TREATMENTS PILLOWS & ACCESSORIES HEADBOARDS ALTERATIONS
www.yourfavoritedecorator.com favoritedecor@gmail.com
Office: 603-744-9433 Bristol, NH Cell: 603-738-3399
First Snow
Loon Island, the morning after the storm. Photo by Dave Redman