Chiun Mai Communication Systems, Inc.

Be careful! Enclosed spaces with inadequate ventilation will become a hotbed for airborne viruses. CDC: Indoor purification should use ultraviolet germicidal light (UVGI).

Image: www.cdc.gov

The Covid-19 outbreak has spread to various countries. Even Taiwan, which has taken pride in its success defending itself against the first wave of COVID-19’s attack, cannot escape the devastation of the epidemic and enact nationwide Level 3 alert for COVID-19 on May 19, 2021. A few days ago, the Xinyi District Elderly Care Center in Taipei City reported a cluster infection, resulting in a total of 25 residents and 9 staff received a positive result from a COVID-19 rapid test (United Daily News, May 24, 2021). Elderly people are the high-risk groups, and how to avoid indoor cluster infections has become the important thing in this wave of epidemic prevention.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced in early May that people are infected with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) is through exposure to respiratory fluids carrying infectious virus. The virus in the aerosol can stay in the air from several seconds to several hours, and spread over 1.8 meters. It will be accumulated in the poorly ventilated indoor air. Even if the distance exceeds 1.8 meters, people may still be infected by virus. CDC recommends that ventilation interventions can help reduce the number of infectious viral particles (e.g., SARS-CoV-2) in the air. Ventilation interventions include opening windows, using fans, adding high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) fan/filter systems, and adding upper-room ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI).

Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation, or UVGI, is the use of ultraviolet (UV) energy to kill viral, bacterial, and fungal organisms. UV research on SARS-CoV-2 indicates that the virus that causes COVID-19 is similar to other coronaviruses (for example, SARS and MERS) regarding the UV dose necessary to inactivate it. Upper-room UVGI refers to a disinfection zone of UV energy that is located above people in the rooms they occupy. This kills airborne pathogens in the room where they are released. UVGI fixtures produce UV-C energy, which has shorter wavelengths than more penetrating UV-A and UV-B rays and can break down viruses. Fixtures are installed to prevent direct UV exposures to people in the room. According to CDC recommendations, high-risk indoor environments, which included hospital waiting room, crowded spaces, the spaces where people must take off masks to eat or drink (for example, school/institutional cafeterias, restaurants, break rooms), or areas where it is difficult to stay at least 6 feet apart from others, need to set UVGI fixtures for reducing the possibility of COVID-19 virus infection.

“FusionAir indoor purification system” also uses the principle of UV-C energy for indoor purification. It can not only directly photolyze and destroy the DNA of bacteria and viruses for achieving the disinfection effect, but also use Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) to ionize oxygen and water vapor in the air which works as a factor for purifying the environment. The purifying agents not only can actively damage virus DNA/RNA and proteins to make them inactive but also aggregate and break down particulate matter as small as 2.5 microns (5-10 microns smaller than general aerosols) through the principle of the attraction of positive and negative charges. This indirectly reduces the risk of airborne transmission. The purifying agents can also effectively remove odors, eliminate bacteria on the surface so that indoor can keep fresh air at all times.

In addition, we also use advanced technologies such as AIoT, cloud and big data in the purification process. We provide 24 hours environmental risk monitoring and indoor data collecting and upload to the cloud (indoor data such as: PM2.5, formaldehyde, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, ozone, carbon dioxide, TVOC, etc.) and then build an environmental risk assessment model based on the collected big data, and provide real-time purification performance for different pollution levels. At present, many elderly care centers, care centers, medical centers, etc. have cooperated with us. “FusionAir indoor purification system”  can provide people with healthy and good air 24 hours a day.

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