The former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under Donald Trump , Dr. Robert Redfield , has landed a sweet gig at … Big Ass Fans .
Per Kaiser Health News(KHN ) , Redfield is now astrategic health and safety adviserfor the company , effectively lend his scientific report to Big Ass Fans and the $ 9,450 ion - generating theoretical account it take is 99.99 % effective at sterilizing way from the coronavirus . Dr. Deborah Birx , the former coordinator of the White House coronavirus labor force , has signed on with a disjoined company called ActivePure which market products that releasesmall amounts of atomic number 1 peroxideas having a similar success pace . Experts enjoin KHN that despite the endorsement from some of the nation ’s highest - profile infective disease specialists , these devices are n’t proven to work and similar unity have been show to potentially generate harmful by-product .
Some of Big Ass Fans ’s Clean Air Systems good example use sterilizing UVC light , which is n’t controversialand is wide deploy in sanitization . Others , according to KHN , use an unproved bipolar ionization technique that has been the field of an Environmental Protection Agency admonition and is reckon skeptically by scientist who study air quality . Such add - ons can cost $ 500 to $ 1,500 more than the company ’s stock atmosphere - moving rooter .
Photo: Tasos Katopodis (Getty Images)
University of Wisconsin - Madison chemistry prof Timothy Bertram told KHN that “ it ’s entirely unproven whether these devices would work in a real - world setting . ” He added his research has shown that ion - generating and hydroxyl radical - releasing products may create potentially harmful ozone or other belittled particles , and that tried - and - truthful strain filtration tech is the most effective option .
“ When they give you 99.999 % , that ’s a red flag to any scientist . We do n’t know anything to that degree , ” Bertram told KHN . “ That ’s just barmy . ”
Brent Stephens , Illinois Institute of Technology civic , architectural and environmental engineering department head , and William Bahnfleth , Penn State architectural technology prof , overstep on business organization to KHN that Big Ass Fans technical school was n’t tested in proper surroundings mimic tangible - world background and did n’t adequately measure potential byproducts .
The EPA haswarned thatproducts using ion - generating or hydrogen peroxide “ have a less - documented path book when it comes to clean / disinfecting large and fast volumes of move air within heating , ventilation , and air conditioning ( HVAC ) systems or even inside private room . ” The agency take note it could n’t vouch for the products ’ safety or efficaciousness , as well as the theory it will produce chemical byproduct . KHN compose :
The EPA has warned about bipolar ionisation ’s ability to return ozone and other potentially harmful by-product indoors . Astudyby top indoor air quality experts in the Building and Environment journal found that another fellowship ’s bipolar ionisation technology create other byproducts , includingtoluene , which can have developmental effects after farseeing - term intake pic .
KHN also wrote that Big Ass Fans representative Alex Rises state them the Clean Air organisation pair “ scientifically essay air purifying technologies with powerful airflow solution , ” and that they do n’t actually emit ozone or other spin-off . Similarly , CEO Joe Urso of ActivePure Technologies tell the site that his society ’s products only release gaseous hydrogen hydrogen peroxide at a low level cleared by the Food and Drug Administration .
“ FDA has cleared a bit of devices that emit hydrogen peroxide into the ambient air at a safe spirit level for people to suspire , let in our ActivePure Medical Guardian , ” Urso tell KHN .
As KHNpreviously reported , firms like Big Ass Fans and ActivePure are rushing to Johnny Cash in on some $ 193 billion in federal funding for school for pandemic - related infrastructural spending ranging from protective personal product and physical barriers to gentle wind filtration systems . So there ’s a lot of money to be made promising the new tech is sound than anything before .
While he ’s cash in on that boom , Redfield is n’t yet past his much - traduce manipulation of the pandemic under Trump . Earlier this class , he conjoin a possibility that thecoronavirus escapedfrom a Chinese inquiry laboratory , which is not themainstream viewin virology circle . Rep. Jim Clyburnrecently demandedRedfield testify as to whether he had asubordinate deleteemails showing a Trump - appointed Health and Human Services functionary , Paul Alexander , undertake to interfere with CDC inquiry on political ground .
Chemical substancesChemistryDonald TrumpIndustrial gasesPhysical sciencesUltraviolet
Daily Newsletter
Get the best technical school , science , and civilisation news in your inbox daily .
News from the future tense , deliver to your present tense .
You May Also Like
