According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the levels of indoor air pollutants can be as much as five times higher indoors than outdoors – and lockdowns have exacerbated that even further.  The World Health Organization (WHO), report that around 3.8 million people a year die from exposure to household air pollution.

We believe that the next smart home and office "must have" will be an intelligent system that not only purifies and disinfects the air, but most importantly, provides continuous monitoring of real-time air quality in the home and workspace - working completely independent of existing air conditioning and HVAC systems. Not just a dedicated system for improving air quality and removing viruses, bacteria and irritants from the air, but continuously monitoring the air for dangerous conditions.  An intelligent system that will most critically, take rapid, automatic, unattended decisions and also provide timely feedback.  This may be something as simple as sending an e-mail alert to open windows in a Boardroom because the CO2 levels are too high (something that an air filter system cannot adequately address - even with a Carbon filter).

Aura Air provides a free App that allows home users to enter their family’s allergies and medical conditions, so that the system can respond and advise accordingly. For instance, if it is heavily polluted that evening, or the pollen count is high, it will suggest that maybe that run is not such a great idea and that it’s possibly actually healthier to stay indoors and watch a movie!

This capability is possible because Aura Air integrates with the third party Tomorrow.io App which provides up to date, local outdoor air quality data using your post code entry when you first sign into the App.

Aura Air filed an International Patent in October 2019.  The patent "utilises the progress in the IOT and Al fields for an advanced prediction capability … to provide highly reliable monitoring and control of air pollution and hazardous substances."  The current Aura Air firmware release allows totally unattended operation of the filter system.  The system automatically detects and responds to poor air quality and hazardous substances.  It also has an API for interfacing with existing HVAC systems as well as IFTTT integration to allow further AI customisation.

In a workplace environment, the optional B2B Dashboard App, stores the vast amount of air quality data that Aura Air has gathered, across potential hundreds of units, in the Cloud for up to 12 months.  You can can extract and review air quality data back in time on your computer, exactly like a CCTV recorder.  This historical data is a very useful tool, should your business need to provide supporting evidence - if you are unfortunately involved in an air quality or COVID-19 litigation case.  This data can also be used for risk assessment analysis.

Every room deploying Aura Air can also be provided with a QR code, which can posted on the wall, providing a room-specific URL, to allow staff to quickly view the air quality in that particular room on their SmartPhone or Tablet.

Finally (and we hope, becoming less important as we move out of this terrible pandemic), we would like to mention that Aura Air was the first air filtration/disinfection system in the world that successfully completed Clinical trials back in July 2020 on successfully destroying the Coronavirus.

In February this year, Aura Air was one of 10 companies selected by the Google Startup Growth Lab - companies that Google believes will fast track to become one billion-dollar companies. 

In December last year, Aura Air signed a $30 million deal with Japanese distributor J-TEC.  One of their target markets is Karaoke.  The Karaoke Association says that there are 100,000 karaoke rooms all over Japan. Currently, most of them are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic…

With staff & students returning to schools next month, the emphasis on employers providing “safe” working spaces will be paramount given are awareness of the presence of more contagious strains of the COVID-19 coronavirus in the UK.  With many “COVID-related” EL (Employer’s Liability) and PL (Public Liability) claims expected this year, employers need to reconsider what air quality measures are “prudent”, what constitutes “diligent”, “demonstrating foresight” and what represents a “reasonable level of professionalism” when seeking to operate a safe working environment.

Health & Safety regulations need to be re-assessed
With COVID-19, the Health & Safety at Work 1974 Act Sections 2 & 3 and The Management of Health and Safety at Work 1999 Regulation 3, need to be urgently re-visited and new consideration given to what can reasonably and practicably be expected of those responsible for the safety of others. 
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Reasonably Practical
Firstly, what is “reasonably practical”? The last few months have firmly established that the virus is transmitted by airborne droplets that can remain in the air for more than 30 minutes, when there is an absence of adequate ventilation or suitable air purification systems. Coming into 2021, new air disinfection products have been announced that are easy to install, at low cost and most importantly have undergone clinical trials, proving their efficacy against the COVID 19 virus. Is there any reason why schools and colleges should not be deploying these systems out of a professional and legal duty of care?

Checking the effectiveness of air quality systems
Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 Section 2(6) requires a means for both the employer and employee to check the effectiveness of such measures. Very few air filter or disinfection systems have an integrated ability to monitor and display air quality readings. Parameters such a PM2.5 & PM10 measure particulate levels in the air that correspond closely to the aerosol droplet sizes known to carry the coronavirus. VOC measures fumes and other volatile gas levels. CO2 and CO are well known for their effects. But what is perhaps less widely appreciated is that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus thrives at high and low humidity levels. 

The Dashboard
The new Dashboard App, now available in the UK from Aura Smart Air http://www.aurasmartair.co.uk, allows seven key indoor air quality parameters (PM2.5, PM10, VOC, CO, CO2, Humidity & Temperature) to be monitored in real-time and recorded in the cloud, to provide a full audit trail of the performance of every one of their Air Filter systems installed in a school or college. Furthermore customised ‘alerts’ can be created to send e-mail messages to staff and management to warn them, not just of high PM2.5 & PM10 levels, but also other situations which filter systems typically cannot rectify, such as high CO2 levels, where the only effective solution is to open windows or doors.

Summary
There is now no excuse for a school to not provide air filtration/disinfection/monitoring systems to protect both their staff and students. Post pandemic there will no doubt be an enhanced awareness of the influence of air quality on student performance and health. On a commercial note, Insurance companies, in the near future, may offer reduced rates for those organisations pro-actively improving air quality inside their buildings and ALSO providing a full audit trail of critical events and 12 month traceability. They may even in the future make such measures a condition precedent to insurance protection.