Innovation Partners for Aerobiology & Biomedical Research

airmid healthgroup (AHG) Air Filtration & Biomedical research representatives will be attending the International Filtration Conference in Philadelphia, USA during the 14th – 15th November.

November 13-15, 2012

The 2012 Annual Meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology starts today and will run from November 8-13 in Anaheim, California. The meeting will offer an exciting array of educational sessions for physicians and allied health professionals, as well as some fantastic social events.

You can download the full program guide here: http://www.acaai.org/annual_meeting/Documents/ACAAIProgramGuide2012c.pdf

Dr Bruce Mitchell from airmid healthgroup will be presenting data during Session C; Aerobiology on Sunday 11th November at 2:30 pm. The data relates to surface and airborne allergen associated with carpets.

There is a bewildering array of ISO and ASTM antimicrobial surface validation studies and a whole host of biocidal activity testing available. It can be very complex for companies to navigate their way through this and the results they get may not always translate into market valuable data. Control of indoor pathogens on surfaces and in the air is a highly topical issue, so we have asked John Fallon PhD, Head of Microbiology at airmid healthgroup, to talk us through some of the testing they do at the laboratory and the relevance of this testing. This blog is transcribed from an interview with John on three of the most commonly used ISO antimicrobial surface validation tests.

John, what exactly is an antimicrobial surface?

The New York Times recently published an article in its health section on the problem of ultrafine particles following a recent study published out of Australia. The study has raised serious concerns as to the safety of many of today’s most popular vacuum cleaners but is it confined to vacuum cleaners?

    by Dr Bruce Mitchell, CEO Airmid Healthgroup and Consultant Immunologist

That the emission of ultrafine particles from certain Vacuum Cleaners which incorporate HEPA based filtration can result in consumers being exposed to bacterial fragments, and other noxious particulate materials is of concern and some surprise.

However, recognising that the composition of household dust includes bacteria, viruses, mold and toxins, and with a knowledge of their associated particle sizes, perhaps it should not be surprising.