A replacement for the surgical mask
Engineers from the University of Michigan may have found the next big thing in healthcare. Recently published in Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, civil and environmental engineer professor Hereck Clack and members of his team have designed a non-thermal plasma device that has the potential to replace a century old device: the surgical mask.

The University of Michigan engineers have measured the virus-killing speed and effectiveness of nonthermal plasmas — the ionized, or charged, particles that form around electrical discharges such as sparks. In their research they have found that the device was able to inactivate or remove from the airstream 99.9% of a virus, with the vast majority due to inactivation.

It should be noted that airborne spread of disease is the most difficult to guard against. To this very day we have very little to protect us when we breathe. Just imagine a world, where we could walk around and not worry about spreading illness to one another by breathing on them.

To gauge the effectiveness of the device researchers, pumped a model virus into flowing air as in entered the reactor. In the void spaces of the reactor borosilicate glass beads are packed into a cylindrical shape. The viruses in the air flow through the spaces between the beads, and that’s where they are inactivated.

Clack and his team determined that more than 99% of the air sterilizing effect was due to inactivating the virus that was present, with the remainder of the effect due to filtering the virus from the air stream.

Although the research is just in early development it is seen by some in the science community as a breakthrough.

According to Krista Wigginton, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. “There are limited technologies for air disinfection, so this is an important finding.”

The research team over at the University of Michigan have recently begun testing their device on ventilation air systems in livestock farms. The team hopes that the installation of their device can stop the spread airborne pathogens that can wipe out cattle relatively quickly.

For more information please visit ScienceDaily.

Questions: How do you prevent the spread of disease in your workplace? Would you be interested in more technology like this coming out?

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['Matthew Plante']
['Health', 'Science', 'Design', 'Virus', 'Future Technology']