IF you took the time to look at your spam e-mail in the past few months, you might have noticed that “Non Contact Touch Free Thermometer is critical to your health.” One local online shopping group was selling a face mask for P5,200 per piece. It is now out of stock, which tells us something.
While there are comments that the coronavirus will be with us for some time—maybe forever according to one expert—there is no question that we are in a new age of concern for our health. There is also no question that there are a lot of scams out there to take advantage of our fear. Caveat emptor and let common sense and a little research save you money.
Nonetheless, there will be new technologies deployed in the public arena to help keep the population safe.
The Financial Times published an interesting analysis last month on this topic, which deserves closer examination. “Employers are rushing to make workplaces safe with rudimentary tools such as hand sanitizers, face masks, and the use of stairs rather than lifts. But engineers are developing more radical technologies to keep the virus out of offices. “Pandemics like this can provide fertile ground for creative minds to think about how to do things differently,” said Shaun Fitzgerald, visiting professor at the University of Cambridge.
You may have noticed that local companies from the Philippine Stock Exchange to the MRT-3 have been forced to shut down to disinfect their buildings and facilities. There are differing conclusions as to whether the virus can exist in a harmful and infectious state on surfaces. However, we are conditioned to be wary of surface contact in public places. Every kid using the comfort room at a mall has probably been reminded, “Don’t touch the toilet seat.”
Companies are expanding on the use of antimicrobial agents on surfaces to kill viruses. A UK company, NitroPep, has developed a coating—not a chemical—that physically destroys the outer membrane of the virus and kills it. It can be applied to surfaces like the handrail on stairs or a doorknob and punctures the virus, like those spikes do to your car tires if you try to leave a parking lot without paying.
You have to admit, that is sort of cool.
Another company is rethinking the use of ultraviolet light that kills bacteria and viruses, like those used in water purification. A big stationary UV unit or even a mobile robot could be sent around an office building at night—just like a normal cleaning crew—zapping the virus in the air and on surfaces. The robot idea sounds like it came out of a Star Wars movie but could be amazingly effective.
We think of buildings as being big open structures, but there are also many small spaces like elevators. Other companies are trying to develop technologies that could detect hot spots of virus concentration not unlike a smoke detector.
As the coronavirus, as well as many other pathogens, spread through aerosol droplets, great focus is being targeted at air-conditioning and the subsequent airflow inside buildings of all sizes. The idea is to not have massive flows of air from one room or one part of the building to another.
Whatever the future holds, we are not going back to the “old normal” for a long time.
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