Step in the wayback machine with us for just a moment as we journey to the year 2018. Can you remember what life was like pre-COVID? Do you recall how you could pack yourself into a tight elevator or sit down in a crowded restaurant without sparing a single thought to the air you were breathing?
Regardless of your position on masks, the pandemic, or the yawning political divide it has caused*, the simple fact of the matter is you’re a lot more cognizant of the air you’re breathing now than you were just a few years ago.
But in some parts of the world, particularly in those areas that were hardest hit by SARS in the early aughts, this mindfulness of air quality has been a way of life for nearly 20 years. Fortunately, so has the exact device designed to deliver that peace of mind.
“This was developed in South Korea in 2003 in response to the SARS virus,” said Taylor Whitehead, standing beside the near-silent EnviroClean Air machine at the restaurant, Rockfish Seafood & Steaks. “But it’s been updated so it covers COVID along with other viruses, mold, pollen and dust.”
“There are a lot of different units out there that move stuff around,” added Taylor’s dad and Rockfish owner Rocky Whitehead. “But this unit basically kills everything in one pass.”
The unit, which is easy to miss against one wall of the Coligny restaurant, is one of five different models of EnviroClean Air machines that the Whiteheads have begun distributing. Standing just about five feet tall, the VK103 model pushes out a continuous stream of completely purified air. It cleans just next to 1,000 square feet in about 15 minutes; standing next to it on a sultry summer day, you can feel the soothing effects of pollen-free air right away.
Two more units can be found in the restaurant. One of them, roughly the dimensions of a window a/c unit but half the depth, can clean just north of 600 square feet. The tabletop Hextio model at the bar provides a personal-sized bubble of clean air in a portable unit. Working in tandem, they scrub every breath of air in Rockfish. Other restaurants in the region are following suit, including Southern Coney.
“We’re a seafood restaurant. And when you walk through a seafood restaurant, you smell fish,” Rocky said. “You won’t smell it here.”
Of course, in these post-COVID times, the Whiteheads didn’t just install these units for the halibut (rimshot). Inside there is some serious virus-busting technology.
“There are 18 different patents on this chamber,” Rocky said. Inside the chamber, air is pulled through a series of different filters before being held momentarily in a chamber where it is bombarded with UV light. “The UV light is good, but it will just pass right through air unless you hold it there. With one pass, you get air that’s 99.999 percent pure.”
And for a world grappling with air quality in a post-COVID world, that makes a huge difference. “It’s all about indoor air. The science is showing all the handwashing we did just wasn’t that important,” Rocky said. “All the science shows you have to clean the air—not just for COVID, but for health period.”
As someone who built his career in long-term care pharmacies, Rocky Whitehead was already aware of how widespread these machines had become outside of the U.S. Here, where SARS had never been as big of an issue as elsewhere, we simply didn’t think about our air quality until now. But the rest of the world was already taking precautions; you’ll find EnviroClean Air products in hospitals, schools, retirement homes and other public settings across Asia and Europe.
“These things have been here since SARS … but it’s just getting to the U.S. There are a few distributors, and we’re one of them,” Rocky said.
For a population sick of social distancing, itchy masks, and awkward elbow and/or fist bumps, adding one machine that could conceivably eradicate all the COVID in the room might just make all the difference.
“[COVID] isn’t going anywhere. We’ve known that for a long time based off the science,” Rocky said. “It’s just going to morph. I view it like the flu where every year you get a flu shot because every year’s vaccine is based on the latest variant.”
As we approach that new normal, the Whiteheads hope their revolutionary new air cleaners can pave the way.
Find out more at envirocleanair.com.
