Last night, CBS’s 60 Minutes aired an episode titled “Indoor air systems crucial in curbing the spread of viruses, say aerosol researchers.” This is precisely what the AURA Ion Bar aims to address. Our team of researchers reached the same conclusion, which inspired the creation of Ion Bar.
“The original sin of the pandemic was the failure to recognize airborne transmission.”
-Professor Joe Allen from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Despite people’s best efforts to prevent the spread of Covid-19 early on, it continued to spread rapidly, which caught the attention of Linsey Marr, a professor at Virginia Tech University, and her fellow researchers. They were troubled by the fact that despite taking all necessary precautions, the virus persisted in spreading. While the medical community directed its attention towards droplets, surfaces, and handwashing, these researchers held a strong belief that Covid was largely transmitted through the air. However, they recognized the need for proof. As a result, they took it upon themselves to do their own analysis.
Marr recalls thinking, “This is even worse than I thought. This has to be airborne. There’s really no other explanation for it.”
Dr. Jon LaPook, in conversation with Professor Joe Allen, asked the question everyone was thinking. “If we’d had these indoor air quality targets before the pandemic, how do you think the pandemic would have unfolded differently?”
Allen responded saying, “We still would have had spread. This isn’t an ‘end-the-pandemic’ thing. We would have had a lot less of it, and we would have a lot less of these superspreading events. Think about the early days of the pandemic, with ‘flatten the curve’—‘stay home.’ Why wasn’t ‘Improve indoor air quality’ part of ‘flatten the curve’ “?
Addressing these concerns was the very reason the AURA Ion Bar was created.
Regarding the episode, Greg Houlgate, EVP of Commercialization at AURA Technologies said, “The coverage by 60 minutes on the importance of indoor air quality is exactly why our team of skilled engineers, designers, and businesspeople have been working with key infrastructure groups across the globe to bring the AURA Ion Bar technology to life. We believe everyone has a right to live, work, shop and engage in healthy living indoors.”
The AURA Ion Bar, recently featured in Newsweek, offers a remarkable solution to block the airborne transmission of many viruses, including Covid. The AURA team has done extensive testing through Bioanalysis that proved Ion Bar has the ability to reduce the transfer of airborne Covid by 99.98%. It’s impressive how well it works in stopping the spread while also being carefully designed as a safe product that produces no measurable ozone.
How Does Ion Bar Work to Preserve Indoor Air Quality?
Ion Bar is designed to create a protective sheet of air, enriched with a high concentration of negative air ions (NAIs) to create an invisible barrier. This barrier blocks contaminants before they enter your space, but also removes contaminants from your breathing zone.
The flow separates air masses and pushes contaminants out of your breathing zone, while the NAIs are simultaneously inactivating the contaminants and causing them to form clumps and fall out of the air.
Alex Blate, PhD, AURA’s Chief Innovator, remarks that “AURA Ion Bar is a fundamental paradigm shift in thinking about air quality: real-time prevention versus long-term treatment. It reveals a fundamental gap in almost all air quality systems – a gap that Ion Bar uniquely and comprehensively closes.”
For a more detailed explanation, check out our article here.
Ion Bar was tested by Innovative Bioanalysis against Covid-19 specifically. The testing, available in detail here, showed that Ion Bar was a safe an effective way to reduce the transfer of Covid aerosols by 99.98%. It was also shown to neutralize Covid-19 on surfaces by 99.998% after 30 minutes of exposure. This means that with Ion Bar installed, your risk of contracting Covid in public (restrooms, grocery stores, etc.) or in your home is significantly reduced.
Considering everything we’ve experienced during the arrival and unfolding of Covid-19, it’s inspiring to know that innovation continues to arise that will lead us towards a safer and healthier future. The introduction of the AURA Ion Bar hopes to bring the world one step closer to achieving this goal.
Learn more about the AURA Ion Bar here.