Innovation Partners for Aerobiology & Biomedical Research

The Filtech Conference in Wiesbaden, Germany was held last week from Tuesday 13^th to Thursday 15^th October. Dr. Tim Yeomans from Allergy Standards Limited was among the attendees of this biennial international conference. With over 160 exhibitors and many more delegates, this conference is a must for those involved in the filtering and particle industry. Exhibitors ranged from primary manufacturers of filter media, to those manufacturing finished product filters and producers of cutting edge particle monitors.

Also in attendance were service providers in the areas of filter technology. One of those attendees was Inter Basic Resources Inc, one of ASL’s partner testing laboratories. IBR have testing facilities in both Grass Lake, Michigan and Milton Keynes, England. They provide state of the art testing facilities for detection and analysis of particulate contamination as well as verification of filtration performance in air, water, oil and fuel. ASL have a long and successful partnership with IBR and are able to provide world-class allergen performance testing for a variety of filtration based consumer products.

As well as a wide range of world class exhibitors, there were also a variety of scientific presentations to choose from. Professor Laurence Le Coq from Ecole des Mines de Nantes in France gave a fascinating presentation on ‘Fungal colonisation of fibrous air filter media, influence on filter’s permeability and fungal particles release’. Her group have studied fungal growth on a variety of filter and given indications on which filter media fungi grow better. Polypropylene filters fared best, probably because they don’t absorb water as much as other types of filters, resulting in a lower relative humidity. Cellulosic and carbon filters fared worst, providing ample nutritional requirements, as well as sufficient relative humidity, for selected fungi to grow. This work illustrates just how important it is that filters should be assessed not only for their filtering capacity on inert particles, but also subjected to test conditions that mimic real life exposures, in order to properly assess their potential positive (or negative) impact on the user. Further presentations of interest included those related to pore size measurement and efficacy of HEPA filter. 

ASL’s attendance at the Filtech Conference, as well as other international conferences, is a demonstration of their commitment to remain at the cutting edge of technology as well as maintaining their expertise in current technologies.