Frequently Asked Questions
Question 1: Why does the air in an enclosed space need to be sterilized?
Question 2: What can be done to prevent germs and viruses being transmitted from one person to another?
Question 3: How do germs and viruses spread from one person to another?
Question 4: What can SafeAirTM products do to help reduce the chances of infection?
Question 5: If SafeAirTM products sterilize the air I breathe, will this reduce the effectiveness of my immune system?
Question 6: What is UVGI technology?
Question 7: What effect does UV-C have on germs and viruses?
Question 8: Has the use of UVGI technology for the removal of germs and viruses from the air been recommended by an
authoritative body?
Question 9: Does UVGI technology have any other applications?
Question 10: How do I know that SafeAirTM products will render germs and viruses suspended in the air harmless?
Question 11: How do I know which SafeAirTM product is suitable for my purposes?
Question 12: Are there any technologies other than UVGI that are effective in sterilizing the air?
Question 13: If I already have air processing equipment, why should I consider using SafeAirTM products?
Question 14: Can my business benefit from the use of SafeAirTM products?
Question 15: If I purchase SafeAirTM products for my business, will I ever see any return on my investment?
Question 1: Why does the air in an enclosed space need to be sterilized?
Answer 1: Every year millions of working days are lost and the lives of otherwise healthy people are made miserable as a result of contracting illness by infection from airborne pathogens (micro-organism as that cause disease). Taking various forms of medication can make symptoms of some such illness more bearable, but this does not prevent it from being contracted in the first instance.
Question 2: What can be done to prevent germs and viruses being transmitted from one person to another?
Answer 2: To prevent transmission of infectious diseases hand washing, covering of the mouth when coughing and sneezing, as well as other methods to avoid contact are recommended, but this does not prevent pathogens suspended in the air from being inhaled in sufficient quantity to overcome the defence of the body's natural immune system, thereby causing infection.
Question 3: How do germs and viruses spread from one person to another?
Answer 3: Young children are recognized as a major catalyst for outbreaks of the common cold (rhinovirus), influenza and many other infectious diseases. A child is often first exposed in a communal area such as a school. Then, after the child has become infected, but before symptoms have developed, the disease is transmitted to their friends and carers at school and to other members of their family in their home. Likewise anyone who visits a health care establishment either as a patient or a visitor knows of the potential for contracting an illness purely through being exposed to the germs exhaled by other patients in the vicinity. This includes some of the so called “hospital superbugs”.
Question 4: What can SafeAirTM products do to help reduce the chances of infection?
Answer 4: Without SafeAirTM we have to contend with naturally contaminated airspaces. The purpose of the SafeAirTM system is to almost eliminate pathogens from the air that is circulated through our machines by application of UVGI technology. With this technology SafeAirTM products are able to significantly reduce the risk of a person inhaling a sufficient concentration of pathogens for them to be overcome by illness.
Question 5: If SafeAirTM products sterilize the air I breathe, will this reduce the effectiveness of my immune system?
Answer 5: Generally the answer to this question is no.
Within any building (enclosed airspace); the concentration of pathogens suspended in the air will be dependent upon the size of the population within the airspace and whether members of that population are suffering from, or are incubating, a bacterial or viral infection.
While ever infected people are present they will continually introduce germs into an airspace from their breath, thus resulting in a certain concentration of airborne pathogens. All too often this concentration is at a higher level than the human immune system is able to tolerate, and it is this situation that leads to the immune system becoming overwhelmed by germs, thereby resulting in infection and illness being spread from one person to another.
By the appropriate selection of SafeAirTM products the concentration of pathogens in an enclosed airspace can be reduced to a level that significantly reduces the risk of infection being transmitted from one person to another.
However, a certain concentration of pathogens will inevitably remain in the air, but at a level a typical human immune system will be able to tolerate; thus maintaining the need for the immune system to successfully fight infections that naturally occur in the environment.
Question 6: What is UVGI technology?
Answer 6: Ultraviolet energy is a part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which also includes visible light. UV-C is the "short wave" of ultraviolet. Unlike UV-A and UV-B, which are present in sunlight, very little UV-C reaches the earth's surface. It is believed that because germs are not normally exposed to UV-C, the photolytic effect of its radiation inactivates them so they can no longer multiply. The application of UVGI technology exposes airborne germs to UV-C, and in doing so renders them harmless.
Question 7: What effect does UV-C have on germs and viruses?
Answer 7: The known effects of UV-C on airborne viruses and bacteria are well established and have led to renewed interest regarding mutations in the influenza virus, avian influenza (Bird Flu), SARS and other aerosolized viral agents which can be transmitted in the air.
Numerous recent studies have indicated that airborne transmission of MRSA takes place in hospitals, and it follows that the associated risks can be significantly reduced by UVGI technology.
UVGI is also proven to be effective in the fight against SARS, Bird Flu, tuberculosis, E-coli, salmonella, and symptoms associated with sick building syndrome.
It is known that some germs, especially virus cells, are extremely small (<.3 microns) and therefore can actually be suspended in air (aerosolized). However, when virus cells are exposed to a 'dose' of UV-C energy for a sufficient amount of time, they are rendered harmless; their DNA is altered so that they cannot spread.
Question 8: Has the use of UVGI technology for the removal of germs and viruses from the air been recommended by an authoritative body?
Answer 8: Recently, many authorities in the USA have started to specify and recommend UV-C applications for air treatment. UV-C air treatment has been neglected over the last 50 years or so due to the emergence of antibiotics and effective vaccinations which have been successful in treating and preventing two of the most prevalent diseases that can be spread through the air; these are tuberculosis and measles.
Question 9: Does UVGI technology have any other applications?
Answer 9: UVGI technology is used widely in water purification and food processing. It has also been used to treat air for decades within large, expensive installations, typically within hospitals. However, the stand alone SafeAirTM products are now available for effective use in the home and the workplace, making the improvement in the quality of the air you breathe affordable.
Also the Chinese Ministry of Health have now certified SafeAir equipment to be used in their Hospitals, thereby SafeAir is the only portable UVGI product which has this accreditation..
Question 10: How do I know that SafeAirTM products will render germs and viruses suspended in the air harmless?
Answer 10: The performance of both of these products has been tested by highly reputable organisations.
Question 11: How do I know which SafeAirTM product is suitable for my purposes?
Answer 11: If you wish to sterilize the air within a single room, such as a living room, a consulting room, a modestly sized waiting area or an air space of comparable size to this, then the SafeAirTM 1200 will probably be best suited to your application.
If you wish to sterilize a larger, typically open plan air space, then the SafeAirTM 3500 will probably be best suited to your needs.
Locations in which the SafeAirTM 3500 would be most effective are communal areas within hospitals, residential, child and day care centres, schools, factories, open plan offices, call centres etc.. In the home, they will be particularly suited to relatively large areas of an open plan design.
Question 12:Are there any technologies other than UVGI that are effective in sterilizing the air?
Answer 12: Yes, Ozone is very powerful agent which can be used to sterilize an airspace. Equipment specifically designed to produce and release Ozone into an airspace is available on the market today. However, while the sterilizing properties of Ozone are active, the gas is toxic; meaning that in order to effectively carry out the sterilization process it is necessary to evacuate the area. Then, once the sterilization process is complete and the area is re-populated, the sterilization process cannot be contnued or repeated until the area is again evacuated. A major advantage of SafeAirTM UVGI air sterilization over the Ozone process is that it can continuously sterilize the air in the background of a populated area, therefore removing the need for the area to be evacuated completely, and it is effective in diluting the quantity pathogens that are suspended and are continually introduced into the air by the population within it.
Question 13: If I already have air processing equipment, why should I consider using SafeAirTM products?
Answer 13: There are many air cleaning and freshening products on the market, but it is the application of UVGI technology that
makes SafeAirTM stand out from the rest.
Types of air processing equipment commonly used include air fresheners, air filters and ionizers, none of which are designed to apply UVGI as their primary function.
There is a large family of simple air freshening devices that are designed to either continually infiltrate the airspace, or to periodically squirt a scented mist into the air.
These devices are certainly able to produce a pleasant fragrance but practically, this simply masks the knowledge that nasty germs could still be suspended in the air.
Filtering devices certainly have a beneficial effect, taking very small/microscopic (but still relatively large when compared to bacteria and viruses) particles out of the air. These can include pollens etc to help people with ailments, such as asthma, to some extent. However, such filtering devices are not capable of removing significant proportions of bacteria or viruses, from the air because they are extremely small
and can pass through filters. SafeAirTM equipment does include filtering, but this is secondary to the application of UVGI technology which is purposely designed to destroy germs that are airborne.
Many ionizers use "corona discharge" to cause high voltage to cause electrons, which naturally repel each other, to "jump" onto air molecules passing through the equipment, turning them into ions. Negative ions repel each other and, in a gentle breeze, form a "cloud" in front of the ionizer which disperses in all directions into the airspace, thereby placing an electrostatic charge into the air. If the ions then collide with particles of smoke or pollution near the ionizer, they pass on their electrostatic charge. These particles are then attracted to the nearest "earthed" surface, which could be a wall or the shelf on which the ionizer is placed, or it could even be a person. As the ions drift, pollutants such as dust, pollen, cigarette smoke and even vaporized substances such as aerosol propellants and car fumes are attracted to each other and cluster around the ions. This has the effect of making the ion grow in size and eventually become too heavy to remain suspended in the air, thus causing the ion to fall to the nearest surface. During this process any germs in the particles can remain active and can be inhaled by individuals populating the airspace, with the obvious risk that they could become infected.
Many ionizers are effective in removing particles from, whilst supposedly adding "vitality" to, the air. However, the ionizing process cannot offer the level of protection to occupants of an airspace that SafeAirTM can provide. Unlike ionizers, SafeAirTM equipment is specifically designed to use UVGI technology to destroy the germs in the air as they pass through the equipment, making the air leaving the equipment safe. Unlike ionizers, the use of SafeAirTM equipment does not result in any unpleasant or potentially hazardous fallout from the air.
Question 14: How can my business benefit from the use of SafeAirTM products?
Answer 14: With SafeAirTM equipment significantly reducing the presence of airborne bacteria and viruses, a Field Trial carried out in 2007 has shown that the health and wellbeing of staff can be dramatically improved, resulting in a marked reduction in staff absence and therefore costly lost time.
Question 15: If I purchase SafeAirTM products, will I ever see any return on my investment?
Answer 15: Because SafeAirTM units are available at very low cost, the capital investment is necessarily small for the floor area to be covered, and the cost of lost or inefficient staff days is comparatively high, the savings to be made on lost time are very significant, resulting in an extremely short term payback period. During Field Trials it was estimated that return on investment was achieved within a few months, and well within the 12 month warranty period.