EnviroAir

EnviroAir's recent outings as an exhibitor at both the Salt Lake and Las Vegas Gift Shows produced some very promising business opportunities. As an exhibitor in national trade shows, EnviroAir is making significant strides in growing both its national client base and brand identity. Be sure to visit our booth at the upcoming New York Extracts Health & Wellness show on October 8th through the 11th in the Jacob Javits Center--we'll be in booth number 1825.

The old adage, “Those who ignore history, are condemned to repeat it” certainly seems to apply to how people view contagious illnesses and diseases. Currently there is a lot of concern about the recent flu outbreak, SARS, asthma, allergies, and Upper Respiratory Infections . . . and discussions among public health experts regarding the statistical probability of another great “Influenza Pandemic.”

How quickly we have forgotten the influenza pandemics of 1918, 1957 and 1968. How quickly we have forgotten the history of the 1918 pandemic; with global deaths estimated at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people, an estimated 675,000 American deaths, with the greatest absolute number of deaths having occurred in the 20 to 40 age group, and the U.S. public health department’s response of distributing gauze masks (which have since been judged ineffective) to be worn in public to reduce the spread of the disease!

Mr. Moshe Ipp of the University of Toronto estimates that the next influenza pandemic would be responsible for the death of 760,000 20-40 year olds in Canada alone. It begins to boggle the mind to consider what the total global fatality numbers would be . . . but, it would make the great Black Death plagues of the 1300’s look like a preview of the real pandemic movie of the 2000’s.

Clearly talk of influenza pandemics bounces off of us like news of another act of Middle East Most of us apathetically resign ourselves to getting one or two major colds a year. We attempt to console ourselves by swigging NyQuil and wheezing out the words, “well, there was really nothing I could have done to prevent it.” In this sense we have been seduced by a common mental malady that seems to plague both government health officials and private medical practitioners alike—that being trapped in a “Diagnosis and Treatment” paradigm—as opposed to a “Prevention” model. violence.

Here’s an example of just how big that trap is. According to Paul Sperry, Washington bureau chief for WorldNetDaily, during the SARS outbreak in Asia; Bureau of Customs and Border Protection inspectors at Los Angeles International Airport were not allowed to wear protective masks—even though 90% of disembarking Asian passengers were wearing masks. In ThailandChicago’s O’Hare wore neither. airport authorities wore both surgical gloves and masks and subjected all foreign travelers, including Americans, to medical examinations upon entering airports there—while Federal inspectors at

It’s hard to believe in the land of the Free and the home of the Brave, that we are collectively paralyzed when it comes to identifying public health risks and implementing simple, low cost preventive measures—like wearing the appropriate type of mask. Perhaps it is more in line with our concept of “the rugged individualist” to spend huge sums of tax money on developing and stockpiling vaccines—which is what the U.S. Center for Disease Control advocates on their website!

Face it. The medical model in the United States is focused on diagnosis and treatment. That’s why we collectively do nothing preventive; it's psychologically less painful to wait for a doctor to tell us what illness we have, and what medicine we should take to get better. Maybe we should look to arming ourselves with preventive devices, like an effective mask, and avoid being infected in the first place!

Face it. No one is going to take care of you but you. Today we need to elevate “Respiratory Etiquette” to a level of social acceptability—and praise those who take the initiative to responsibly protect themselves, and to protect others.

Face it. We need to pull our heads out of the sand, and put them back into the history books. History will repeat itself, it always has. No one in 1918 thought they’d be part of a global epidemic, and those who perished never thought they’d be a statistic. The same thing is going to happen again . . . and right now, you’re probably not thinking that the cold you’ve been nursing for days is going to turn to a viscous form of pneumonia that will turn you into a cold, motionless statistic. And it’s just that kind of apathy that will be the driving force in the next great pandemic.

Face it. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Being prepared is much better than being a victim. The 20 to 40 age group, the group that is out circulating, traveling, and in constant motion . . . with the greatest chance of being exposed and infected . . . should carry a mask in their purse, lunchbox or briefcase . . . and use their mask if they are sick, or around anyone who appears to be sick.

Face it. The epidemiologists who are talking about the next great pandemic are just waiting to say “I told you so!” That’s why local Salt Lake entrepreneur and inventor, Paul G. Begum, founded EnviroAir and patented its line of “made in Utah” FaceIt Fashions^TM Designer Masks—which offer a fashionable way to enjoy all the health benefits of Filtered Breathing^TM. It might just be worth your while to visit www.enviroairmask.com, and to put a few ounces of prevention in your purse, lunchbox or briefcase.

In 1761, Dr. John Hill, a London physician, recorded an early observation linking tobacco (specifically snuff) and cancer. In 1928, in a New England Journal of Medicine article (#10, p. 481-487, 26 April 1928), Drs. Herbert L. Lombard and Carl B. Doering summarized a landmark 1925 cancer study and stated, “the use of tobacco has long been considered a factor in the incidence of cancer of the buccal cavity . . . Heavy smoking is more common in the cancer group than among the controls.”

Big Tobacco was apparently so financially agile that it was able to deflect mounting negative research, until about 1954 when it created the Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC), which became the Council for Tobacco Research (CTR). Purportedly the mission of the TIRC/CTR was to find out whether smoking was dangerous, and if so, to determine how to eliminate the danger from tobacco. U.S. Judge H. Lee Sarokin, who presided over two New Jersey tobacco cases in 1988 described the TIRC/CTR as “nothing but a hoax created for public relations purposes with no intention of seeking the truth or publishing it. In 1993 the Wall Street Journal described the CTR’s work as “the longest-running misinformation campaign in U.S. business history.”

Are airlines conducting a similar misinformation campaign to protect their ability to generate profits at the expense of the health of their passengers and crews?

As of 2/5/04, on the British Airways website there is a section about cabin air quality. This section states, “Independent published research shows that the concentration of biological micro-organisms in an aircraft cabin is much lower than in an ordinary city location or on other modes of public transport such as buses and trains. A report published by the World Health Organisation states ‘. . . investigations of possible transmission of [infectious disease] on aircraft found no evidence that air re-circulation facilitated transmission of [infectious disease] aboard aircraft . . .’ ” This section also states that 50% of the air aboard the aircraft is recirculated, and is “passed through high efficiency “particulate filters” to remove bacteria and viral particles. These HEPA filters are 99.99% efficient and are the same as those used in hospital operating theatres.”

From the British Airways website, one would conclude that there is absolutely no potential threat from aircraft cabin air. So why in June of 2003 would the Association of Flight Attendants (an AFL-CIO union), which represents nearly 50,000 flight attendants at over 26 airlines, demand protection from Toxic Cabin Air? Further, why would the FAA in November of 2003 help drive Senate passage of the FAA Reauthorization Bill which created a study of “aircraft air quality problems?”

Two large manufacturers of aircraft cabin air filters are Pall Corporation and Donaldson. Both companies manufacturer filters (HEPA) that can remove submicron particles with an efficiency as high as 99.97% at 0.3 microns. However, according to the Association of Flight Attendants in an article they entitled, What you should know about the air you breathe at work, “ . . . not all aircraft are equipped with these HEPA filters because filters are not required. Also, filters are only effective if they are regularly inspected and changed. There are no such regulations in place . . . keep in mind that even HEPA filters can only trap solid particles; they don’t remove gases (like carbon monoxide and ozone, for example) from the recirculated air. ” [Note: removal of gases requires absorption technology/equipment].

Do we have another case of the Fox guarding the Henhouse? Are airlines using sponsored research or favorably biased independent research to steer people toward a “no danger” conclusion? Are airlines strategically using air quality studies that compare apples to oranges . . . and failing to make the obvious conclusions that workers aboard the aircraft are reaching?

Regarding those workers, Associate Professor Chris Winder, a toxicologist and Head of The University of New South Wales School of Safety Science stated, “One issue of particular concern is development of Aerotoxic Syndrome in pilots and flight attendants. This is a specific long-term occupational health condition, associated with exposure at altitude to contaminants from engine oil or other aircraft fluids.”

The potential laundry list of what is (and can be) actually in aircraft cabin air is mind boggling. In addition to the possibility of SARS, Bird Flu (Avian Flu), and a host of other exotic infectious air-borne transmittable diseases; run-of-the-mill bacteria and viruses are present. . . and one has to add fumes from heated engine oils and hydraulic fluid, hazardous pesticides, off-gassing from fabrics and plastics in the cabin, cleaning fluid residues, de-icing fluids, air-borne fibers shed from clothing, air-borne dead skin, and a wide range of other toxins carried in on passengers’ clothing and carry-on’s. One must also keep in mind that in this “complex cabin air environment” (including low humidity and possibly reduced oxygen levels due to reduced overall pressure in the cabin during flight) one can also come in contact with people from a wide variety of areas who may carry types of infections not normally encountered—and if they sit within some radius of you, a HEPA filter only provides a false sense of safety!

During the height of the SARS scare, the Association of Flight Attendants wrote a letter to Dr. Jon Jordan, Federal Air Surgeon of the FAA demanding that the FAA issue an emergency order outlining immediate precautions to protect flight attendants. The letter asks the FAA to “Require the airlines to provide flight attendants with non-latex gloves and masks that are determined appropriate protection . . .” and in the apparent event that the airlines do not accept such direction, that “At the very lease, require the airlines to permit flight attendants . . . to wear their own masks and gloves without any discriminatory action being taken against them.” Now why would flight attendants worry about discriminatory action being taken against them when they are protecting their own health? Perhaps the answer lies in a recent response EnviroAir LLC, a maker of health and safety masks, received from Jet Blue Airlines regarding the wearing of masks by flight attendants, in which Cathy Bifulco of Jet Blue stated, “. . . it sends the wrong message to everyone else in the cabin—that the air filtration system does not work properly in our planes.”

It is also interesting to note that during the SARS outbreak, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) drafted an interim guide on March 26, 2003 titled, Air Medical Transport for SARS Patients. This guide provided insight to the fact that some airplanes have what is called forward-to-aft cabin airflow . . . which they recommended for the transport of SARS patients, and that other airplanes have aft-to-forward airflow—which “may create a significant risk of airborne transmission to both cabin and flight deck personnel.”

If flight attendants are this concerned about airline air quality, and worried about potential “discriminatory action” from their employers if they elect to protect their own health . . . should the flying public be concerned? Should we believe the airlines? Should we stop flying until the FAA concludes another study? Or, should we listen to the people who spend the most time in the environment in question? Are airplanes really flying germ factories as Paul Hudson, executive director for the Aviation Consumer Action Project (ACAP) asserted a few years ago? Are the airlines going to get in line and tell the truth, or will they go down the same road as Big Tobacco?

EnviroAir LLC believes it offers the flying public an opportunity to proactively protect themselves with its patent-pending FaceIt Fashions Designer Mask™. Please visit www.enviroairmask.com for further details on this exciting product.

Salt Lake City, UT – September 26, 2003 – Paul G. Begum, inventor and entrepreneur, announced the signing of a contract that will place his latest patent-pending invention, the EnviroAir FaceIt Fashion^TM Designer Mask, on page 155 of the Holiday Edition of SkyMall Magazine. SkyMall Magazine is found on virtually every domestic flight, and the Holiday Edition appears on airplanes starting on October 1, 2003. According to Mr. Begum, “SkyMall represents an exciting opportunity to establish a national presence for our unique travel comfort product. It’s an ideal venue to tell our story, and let people know that they don’t have to accept the air quality that’s around them—that they can exercise their right to breathe fresh with our Filtered Breathing^TMdesigner mask.” Besides offering an effective double filtration system comprised of an anti-microbial liner and a disposable filter insert, EnviroAir’s “reusable” mask also helps the wearer to: Tune-out-Noise with built-in cushioned earplugs; Block-out-Light with a flip-up flap that covers the wearer’s eyes—and which features a DO NOT DISTURB sign to help the wearer rest undisturbed; Chill-out-and Relax with a Cool Gel compress that slips into a pocket on the flip-up flap—which is great for cooling down, soothing headaches and puffy eyes; enjoy the relaxing scent of Eucalyptus oil which is easily applied to the disposable filter.