Oregon OSHA Wants to Extend Mask Regulation

Revolution Fibre Testing Nanofibers for Media Better than N95

Big Increase in Meltblown Production

Deborah Birx Joins ActivePure.

Los Angeles Music Center Receives UL Healthy Building Verification

METRA Buys MERV 13 Air Filters for 700 Railcars


Johnson Controls Introduces Portable HEPA

Actress Uses Clear Umbrella with Fan and HEPA

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Oregon OSHA Wants to Extend Mask Regulation

The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) wants to extend the COVID-19-related rules for masks, social distancing and training in workplaces until the pandemic ends.

Oregon OSHA adopted temporary emergency rules last November to protect against COVID in the workplace, but the rules expire May 4. The rules require masks, social distancing and training related to the pandemic.

Per existing state law, OSHA can't extend the existing temporary rule beyond 180 days. The agency plans to pass a permanent rule and then repeal it when the pandemic is over. The plan to repeal the rule is included in the proposed draft. 

 

Revolution Fibre Testing Nanofibers for Media Better than N95

Auckland, New Zealand-headquartered nanofibre manufacturer Revolution Fibres has invested in new a testing machine to enhance the development and performance of its filtration media.

The Palas PMFT 1000 testing rig analyses the ability of protective face masks to filter particles, bacteria and viruses such as Covid-19.

“The machine is key to advancing the performance of our Seta nanofibre filter media product which is used in face masks that meet and exceed N95 and N99 standards,” said Revolution CEO Ray Connor. “It enables us to test the masks to ensure they meet required standards and properly protect people and health workers who are on the frontline of the pandemic in New Zealand and around the world.”

The pedigree of Palas technology speaks for itself, he adds, with its certified fine dust measurement, in the context of environmental monitoring, making the company one of the most important partners for manufacturers and suppliers when testing filters and filter media.

The investment gives Revolution the opportunity to test its filters instantly to the required international standards, as opposed to sending the material overseas to be tested. Once its products are ready to take to market, they are then sent to a third-party testing lab for certification.

“A lot of the work we do to enhance and improve our products involves increasing the capability of nanofibre filtration media,” Connor said. “As part of this, we compare the performance of our Seta product to traditional filtration media using the machine as it provides us with incredibly specific data and results.”

The machine has played an instrumental role in the advancement of Revolution’s new filter media with added functionality, including anti-microbial properties.  

Dr Gareth Beckermann, technical manager at Revolution, says the diameters of the nanofibre ranges from 10-300 nanometers, which is 10-100 times smaller than conventional melt-blown microfibers, meaning they are very effective in protecting against viruses such as COVID, bacteria and other toxic particles.

“It means nanofibre filter media are very effective at protecting against viruses such as Covid, bacteria and other toxic particles which can be just 100 nanometers. Our nanofibre filter media can trap 99% of microscopic particles such as spores, allergens, and bacteria.”

Revolution Fibres supplies filtration media to multiple overseas face mask manufacturers, such as Halo in the US, as well as filters for HVAC systems.

Using a proprietary electrospinning process Revolution Fibres creates nanofibre rolls in lengths of hundreds of meters long and tens of thousands of square meters for export to markets such as Asia, Australia and the USA.

 

Big Increase in Meltblown Production

“About one year ago, it became apparent that face masks and respirators were the best course of defense against the virus,” says Ashish Diwanji, president of Lydall Performance Materials. “We heard from customers and associations that supply of these materials used in hospitals had stopped because China—where many of them were made—had prioritized the needs of their own country.”

As healthcare workers and front line workers scrambled to gain access to personal protective equipment (PPE), meltblown equipment manufacturers began bracing for an unprecedented surge in demand.

Reicofil, a German producer of meltblown equipment, began ramping up meltblown machinery production even before the orders started coming in, according to Marcus Müller, head of sales.

“We thought something may be coming--so in January or February, we started to just start manufacturing three meltblown lines at our own risk,” he says. “If we had known what was coming, we would have made a few lines more but there was no way to predict the surge in demand.”

Initially, Reicofil was fielding hundreds of inquiries per day both from companies well established in nonwovens and companies that were looking to capitalize on demand. Even though many inquiries did not bear fruit, sales skyrocketed and Reicofil has been delivering up to one meltblown line per week—significantly more than two per year, which was what the company sold in 2019.

“If you had told me this 14 months ago, I would of thought it was insane, unthinkable but with the right team, and the right effort, anything is possible,” Müller says.

To speed up its delivery times, Reicofil made the decision to stick to standard designs, offering only 1.6- and 3.2-meter lines and making its operation as lean as possible. Additionally, Reicofil partnered with a company nearby whose business was suffering and rented space, workers and machinery.

According to nonwovens industry consultant David Price, the number of new meltblown lines and their collective capacity varies widely by region.

The largest increment in new meltblown capacity installed since the outbreak of Covid-19 (mid first quarter of 2020) across the world has been in China where an estimated 100 lines have been added. Behind China, the greater Europe region including Turkey and the U.K., has seen the second highest number of stand-alone meltblown investment in 2020-2021 where 25-30 lines have or will soon be commissioned. In North America, one line will be installed in Mexico to serve face mask demand while 20 additional standalone lines have or will soon be commissioned elsewhere on the continent. Additionally, some existing meltblown lines were repurposed to supply face mask demand after the pandemic outbreak, some of which remain in production to serve face mask demand. 

According to Price, like in China, there were many more standalone meltblown lines announced for purchase in the first half of 2020 in the Western world than will be installed. “Early interest and even contracts with a number of potential new investors to acquire meltblown capacity has faded according to Price, not all of the surge capacity added in 2020-21 will be needed as demand stabilizes and then ebbs.  “We think that meltblown nonwoven demand will remain elevated but stable during 2021 and weaken in 2022 particularly that to serve face mask demand,” he says. “We think there will be some capacity rationalization in 2022 as face mask demand subsides but not as dramatic as one might be led to believe.” 

According to Claudia Henkel, marketing and communication specialist, Oerlikon Neumag, recent line investments will continue to produce face mask materials throughout the life of the pandemic, which has changed the requirements and demands of meltblown nonwovens. “Special emphasis is placed on quality

 

Deborah Birx Joins ActivePure.

Dr Deborah Birx, the former Trump White House coronavirus taskforce coordinator, is taking a private sector job, joining a Texas manufacturer that says its purifiers clean Covid-19 from the air within minutes and from surfaces within hours. So she will have the challenge of proving the value of ionizers which have not been completely endorsed by much of the filtration industry.

Birx will join Dallas-based ActivePure as chief scientific and medical adviser, she and the company said on Friday.

An expert in global health, Birx came to the White House in 2020 to help lead the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic.

But she was criticized for not standing up to former president Donald Trump as he played down the virus, predicted it would disappear, and questioned whether ingesting bleach could help cure infected Americans.

While her friend and former mentor, Dr Anthony Fauci, was promoted to become a top medical adviser to Joe Biden, Birx did not get a job in the new administration.

“The Biden administration wanted a clean slate,” she told Reuters in an interview. “I understand that completely.”

Birx left government last week. She and Fauci, she said, asked themselves regularly what could have been done differently over the last year.

“When you have the 100,000 people we lost over the summer, and the 300,000 people we lost over the fall-winter surge, you have to ask yourself and have to know that it didn’t go as well as it should have,” she said.

“All of us are responsible for that.”

The coronavirus has killed more than 530,000 people in the United States, more than any other country.

Birx said she was still processing regrets and steps she could have taken to do be more effective.

“I’m trying to rank order them,” she said. “We have to be willing to step back and really analyze where we could have been and why we weren’t more effective.”

Birx said she remained concerned about the level of testing in the country, but she praised the new administration for modelling mask-wearing and other behaviors that help to combat the virus.

“I think the messaging has been very good, very consistent,” she said of the Biden team. “That’s really important when you’re asking people to change their behaviors.”

In addition to her role at ActivePure, Birx has also joined the George W Bush Institute as a global health fellow and the biopharmaceutical company Innoviva as a board member, she said.

ActivePure Technologies, LLC, says  that its air purifying technology inactivated over 99.9% of highly concentrated airborne SARS-CoV-2 virus in an enclosed setting in just three minutes, below detectable levels. Testing of the ActivePure Technology® was conducted by one of the world’s top biosafety testing facilities, the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), which primarily tests for the U.S. military and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). “These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the technology in a laboratory setting,” said Dr. William S. Lawrence, PhD, director of the Aerobiology Services Division at UTMB’s Galveston National Laboratory. ActivePure Technologies foresees widespread use of the technology to reduce the amount of SARS-CoV2 virus present in the air and on hard surfaces in commercial, residential, and medical settings.

ActivePure Technology has been on the retail market as an air purifier for more than 10 years. It is installed as part of HVAC systems or as the core technology inside the company’s portable air purification units. ActivePure Technologies currently sells about 500,000 ActivePure units annually across all brands and product lines but is seeing an enormous increase in demand from its distributors due to the pandemic. “ActivePure Technology enables us to go on the offense against airborne coronavirus with real-time elimination of viral particles so we can reclaim the spaces – the gyms, restaurants, diners, theaters, beauty salons and barber shops – that are near and dear to our hearts,” said Joe Urso, Chairman and CEO of ActivePure Technologies, LLC. “Unlike conventional, passive, filtration-based air purifiers, ActivePure works immediately and does not require capture or exposure time. It rapidly and continuously fills a room with virus-neutralizing particles that instantly break viruses down to their component parts, rendering them harmless.” “ActivePure surrounds a person with protective virus-inactivating air,” Urso added, “which is especially important in a medical setting. I think of it as a form of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).”

The Cleveland Clinic is conducting a 2-year study with ActivePure units in its operating rooms to see if the technology can reduce surgical site infections. Daniel Sessler, M.D., chair of outcomes research, said, “The Cleveland Clinic continuously adapts practices to ensure we are providing the safest care for our patients.” “In this deadly pandemic,” Urso added, “

 

Los Angeles Music Center Receives UL Healthy Building Verification

The Music Center in downtown Los Angeles  is the first performing arts organization in the country to receive a UL “healthy building” verification, representing high standards for air quality at four venues — Walt Disney Concert Hall, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre.

Don’t throw away your mask just yet though.

“This isn’t necessarily a COVID program. It’s not about putting up a force field for keeping a building completely safe from COVID. You can’t do that,” said Sean McCrady, director of assets and sustainability, real estate and properties at UL, the safety science company that issues the Verified Healthy Buildings for Indoor Air Verification Mark, which will be posted at the entrances of Music Center venues.

McCrady reiterated the scientific consensus that air purification and good ventilation can reduce airborne germs in indoor spaces. In September the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance to say the coronavirus spreads most commonly through the inhalation of droplets and tiny respiratory particles that can remain suspended in the air.

The UL verification program emphasizes filtration, ventilation and the overall hygiene of air systems and of buildings in general. Buildings are required to use MERV 13 air filters, which remove particles between 1 and 5 microns. The coronavirus is smaller than that, but McCrady said the filter has an 85% efficacy rate and captures much of the particulate matter to which the virus hitches itself. Prior to COVID-19, the industry standard was the lower-performing MERV 8 filter.

UL verified buildings must bring in fresh air and move it effectively around the space. The Music Center will be facilitating four to six air changes per hour, which is recommended by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. That means the air volume of a building will be replaced an average of every 10 to 15 minutes.

The more a venue turns over the air in its space, McCrady said, the more that air is running through the MERV 13 filter as well.

The hygiene of the air filtration and ventilation systems also is crucial. If mold spores or fibers are present, the technology won’t work as it should.

“Preventative maintenance makes for a system that operates better and provides better air quality,” McCrady said, adding that UL also looks at the chemicals used in the cleaning of the space and makes sure that they don’t pollute the air.

UL will test a venue’s air quality when all the requirements have been met and will return at least once a year to make sure systems are operating as they should. Verification lasts for one year and must be renewed.

The Music Center hopes the UL verification will help to maintain the trust of audiences, said Chief Operating Officer Howard Sherman. The verification is another layer of safety, just like wearing a mask, washing hands and getting vaccinated.

If the science surrounding the virus and how to protect against it changes, or if the CDC or more local health officials issues new guidance, the Music Center intends to pivot too, Sherman said.

UL introduced its verification program in September. Prior to that the company issued recommendations. McCrady said the Music Center had worked with UL for years prior to the pandemic, so the organization was in good shape to elevate its air-quality systems — a process that took about four months to complete.

“I can say with confidence,” McCrady said, “that you’re certainly much better off coming into a space that is managing this stuff, than if this stuff wasn’t being done.”

 

METRA Buys MERV 13 Air Filters for 700 Railcars

Metra is significantly upgrading the ventilation system on its railcars with a new three-stage filtration and purification process, as part of its efforts to create safety and build rider confidence. 

The new system uses ultraviolet light, electrical fields and stronger filters to create the safest possible environment for its customers. Metra says it is among the first agencies to adopt such a comprehensive system for its railcars. 

The new system is expected to remove and eliminate 99 percent of all airborne particulates, bacteria and viruses, including the virus that causes COVID-19. Metra already refreshes the air every four minutes and uses hospital-grade MERV 13 filters on its train cars; the new system will be the equivalent to or better than MERV 17 or HEPA standards. 

“The air in our trains is already proven safe and healthy, but this new cutting-edge system sets the highest industry standard for quality,” said Metra CEO/Executive Director Jim Derwinski. “Combined with all the other steps we have taken to clean, disinfect and sanitize our system, and to promote healthy behavior by riders and workers, this is just one more reason our customers can ‘Commute with Confidence.’” 

The Metra Board of Directors approved a contract with Transitair Systems LLC, of Hornell, N.Y., to provide the new air filtration and purification system on nearly 700 railcars for $6.6 million. The contract will cover all cars that are not due to be replaced when new cars (with a similar or better system) enter the fleet. The system, designed to fit in the same space as the existing HVAC system, will be tested on 50 cars before options for additional units are approved. 

Under the new system, air will be cleaned in a three-step process. 

The first step relies on an electrical attraction between airborne particles and the interior surfaces of a filter. Air will pass through one filter, and then through a unit that charges particles in the air, which are attracted to oppositely charged surfaces as the air passes through a second filter. 

The second step uses ultraviolet light to kill or inactivate bacteria, mold and viruses. 

In the final step, air passes through a unit with electrically charged ions and electrons, which react with airborne particles to remove or inactivate pollutants and viruses. 

 

 

Johnson Controls Introduces Portable HEPA

Johnson Controls has debuted its ENVIRCO IsoClean CM Portable HEPA Air Cleaning System from KOCH Filter. With HEPA filtration and multiple air changes per hour, the product improves indoor air quality and minimizes the circulation of airborne pathogens such as COVID-19.

The air-cleaning system uses a MERV-8 antimicrobial prefilter, which captures large pollutants, and a high-capacity HEPA filter. When unfiltered air enters the unit, it passes through the prefilter, followed by the HEPA filter, which is 99.9 percent effective. Users can adjust the frequency of air changes based on room size. The unit can supply rooms with clean air from 400 to 1,700 cubic feet per minute.

IsoClean CM’s portability allows it to be moved to different rooms, including areas with limited space. The air cleaner uses a 115-volt plug and generates minimal noise during operation. It produces a noise level of 48 decibels at minimum airflow and 69 decibels at maximum airflow. The IsoClean CM system is available with several upgrade options, including a UL UV-C light, a carbon prefilter, a directional discharge kit, a room-pressure monitor and an annunciator.

 

Actress Uses Clear Umbrella with Fan and HEPA

Rachel Brosnahan was seen on the New York City set of her award-winning series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel using her specially made umbrella that has a HEPA filter attached to lower her chances of her getting COVID-19. It is an alternative to a mask which causes problems with makeup and hair.  However, it is not a solution for transmitting COVID to others.  Longer term it would be a good air pollution protection device.