How To Kill Airborne Germs

Reopening and restructuring restaurants and commercial kitchens after months of pandemic concerns, regulations, and changing consumer comfort levels are adding to our clients’ stress. We are working with them to discover and implement ways to minimize risk and exposure to guests and to ensure staff safety. Air treatment is a primary concern for businesses in the food industry and everyone is always looking for a good way to kill air borne germs.

During the long months of the pandemic, we have learned a great deal about how the virus is transmitted and ways to mitigate the spread of COVID 19. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported in October 2020, that COVID 19 spreads primarily through respiratory droplet transmission within a short range, less than six feet. The CDC has found no evidence of efficient spread to people who are far away from infected individuals or to people who enter an enclosed space hours after an infectious person was there.

Running a COVID-safe business

Along with clean hands and surfaces, masks, and social distancing according to local regulations, restaurants and commercial kitchens need to assure clients and customers that the air is pure and safe for them to breathe. Consumers’ need for information on a business’s sanitization practices have greatly increased. Knowing what businesses are doing to keep the environment sanitized and safe is becoming more of a necessity for keeping a business open and thriving.

Travel + Leisure magazine reports that 100,000 restaurants had closed by September 2020 because of the pandemic. This has put 3 million employees out of work so far. Consumers know how deeply restaurants are hurting. A consumer survey released in August shows that 56 percent of American adults said they knew of a restaurant that closed permanently because of the virus. Eighty-eight percent believe that restaurants are an important part of their community.  Given the great interest in the survival of the restaurant industry, particularly a community’s local eateries and bars, the industry has a golden opportunity to offer safe, indoor dining.

Customers need to be reassured in the face of CDC findings that adults with confirmed COVID-19 were twice as likely as control-participants to have eaten at a restaurant within 14 days of becoming ill with COVID.  Strict adherence to safety precautions, such as frequent cleaning, disinfecting surfaces, reducing contact at every possible point, and wearing masks will make customers more likely to patronage a business. This focus on virus reduction includes air treatment, which can reduce vulnerability to the virus and further increase consumer confidence.  Reports of restaurant exposures have been linked to air circulation. Direction, ventilation, and airflow intensity could affect virus transmission, even if social distancing measures and mask usage are observed according to current guidelines.

Clean air, particularly in enclosed spaces, can be achieved and maintained with an excellent HVAC system. The ComAir 20T Air Treatment System is the most advanced commercial-grade HVAC sterilization system available. It has a germicidal killing power of 300 microwatts and 0 to 100% variable ozone output. This system eliminates viruses and bacteria as well as odors from smoke and food preparation.

The ComAir 20T is installed in your centralized HVAC system and provides double-layered protection with two specially designed lamps. The 300 microwatts emitted by these lights are more than sufficient to kill germs, including COVID 19. When the pandemic has been conquered, the system will continue to protect your customers and staff from airborne viruses such as seasonal flu and the common cold. The new standards in cleanliness and safety will become the expected norm, not just a temporary remediation for COVID 19.

For more information and to see how the ComAir 20T can enhance the safety of your business, please contact us. We are based just outside of Washington, D.C. Although our team works largely in the Mid-Atlantic region, we serve clients in all 50 states. We look forward to serving you.