Resp-Aer-Meter

IMAGINE if you could identify a person or persons with a high potential for emitting particulates from their lungs. These particles as sub-micron aerosols are LIKELY to contain COVID-19 virus particles. And they would have a long half-life in the environment, potentially spreading as respirable aerosols with an effective duration to remain airborne that is greater than hours with a spread greater than 2 meters.

This compelling possibility is based on a substantial body of literature from investigators in Germany, Europe, Scandinavia, and the USA. Does this literature suggest that such persons have a high probability of distributing the COVID-19 virus? Can they be "Super-spreaders"? The answer is, "YES."

CH Technologies (USA), Inc. is delighted to offer the technology developed by Palas GmbH "Resp Aer-Meter", a rapid, easy to use and importantly, cost-effective screening method to identify persons showing elevated concentrations of expiratory particles.

To analyze the risk of infection, the test person inhales and exhales into the measuring device for approx. 30 s. The exhaled air is sucked in by the Resp-Aer-Meter. Before the measurement, the aspirated particles are conditioned in the aerosol conditioning area in order to differentiate between pure droplets (e.g. spit or water droplets) and potentially infectious particles (bacteria, viruses = solid).

To measure the particle size and concentration, the Resp-Aer-Meter works with the white light LED sensor of the Fidas® system, which has proven itself in environmental measurements. Even the smallest particles from 145 nm are recorded individually and their size and number are detected online.

People with low (normal) particle emissions in their exhaled air pose only a low risk of infection for their environment. The so-called superspreaders may exhale up to 100 times more particles due to the virus attack and are therefore a high risk of infection for their environment.

In addition, many of the exhaled particles are smaller than usual in normal air. In the case of Covid-19 it is about especially small viruses (approx. 150 to 400 nm) of superemitters. Accordingly, they can be distributed more easily in the area.