ABC News Highlights N.C. School’s Indoor Air Disinfection Efforts
As a year of unprecedented indoor air quality awareness during the COVID-19 pandemic comes to an end, the HVAC industry’s ultraviolet light disinfection sector expects another boost after millions of consumers viewed ABC’s Good Morning America May 20.
The nationally broadcasted ABC News Good Morning America’s “What You Need to Know” featured Charlotte, North Carolina-based Primrose School of South Charlotte’s pandemic IAQ efforts. The three-year-old, 11,600-square-foot facility servicing more than 140 students installed APCO-X combination UVC/carbon media systems in its school’s HVAC systems. The APCO-X UVC system has been laboratory-proven to be 91-99.99% effective (within a one to three-second exposure time at a of six-inch distance) for inactivating SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease.
The segment unfolded with Primrose South Charlotte parent Marlo Wilson-Alston’s concerns that preschoolers are too young to wear masks properly and cognitively social distance themselves during a pandemic. Consequently, Primrose School of South Charlotte’s co-owners, Yaa and Bill McConnell, researched UVC disinfection and hired their HVAC service contractor, Guardian Air Heating & Air Conditioning, to install an APCO-X UVC lamp system in each of the 10 three ton Lennox split system HVAC units that supply 11 classrooms.
Guardian’s operations manager, Justin Gerow, had prior experience installing UVC lamps in healthcare and other critical commercial HVAC applications, plus his HVAC distributor, Control Stop, helped size the project. Besides viruses, UVC can neutralize mold, allergens and other surface & airborne microorganisms while also easing parental viral concerns. The IAQ upgrade is promoted on the school’s website, parental email correspondence and during prospective family school tours.
ABC News’ Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Jennifer Ashton, M.D., confirmed the scientific validity behind UVC’s efficacy. She also touted newly developed UVC research and products a “silver lining” behind the pandemic and a good idea (for IAQ) regardless of COVID-19. “There’s intense research and development, a lot of it going on behind the scenes at schools and workplaces, in doing better at upgrading their filtration systems and killing as many microbes as possible,” said Ashton.
The relieved parent Wilson-Alston helps culminate the segment with the comment: “Knowing that my little boy is in an environment where he is safe, he’s healthy and where he doesn’t have to worry about what’s happening around him; it makes me incredibly comfortable.” The segment can be viewed at www.goodmorningamerica.com or www.abcnews.go.com.
