As COVID-19 vaccination programs expand, airlines expect an increase in previously suppressed demand for air travel. Although individuals wish to see family and take vacations, they are also more wary about disease risk.
While airlines require governments to re-open travel corridors, the public must feel confident to utilize them.
Encouraging this confidence means making aircraft and airport buildings far more sanitary than before the coronavirus outbreak. Travelers will require more than just a rapid wipe-down of cabin seats as they are overwhelmed with information about mutant viral strains and overcrowded hospitals.
New hygiene procedures must be safe and convenient and barely affect aircraft turnaround times. Since 9/11, greater security measures have made air travel more laborious, and people are not enthusiastic about more delays.
An Innovative Approach
Since the pandemic began, airlines have tested numerous ways of sanitizing aircraft cabins but with serious disadvantages, particularly questionable effectiveness, unnecessary application times, and harsh or harmful residues.
Physical cleaning is not especially effective, quick, or gentle toward cabin surfaces. As it involves touch, it risks cross-contamination, circulating the pathogens it is intended to destroy.
No-touch solutions like UV sterilization and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) vapor exist but are slow to apply and separate unevenly. They also pose threats such as cracking plastics and distributing toxic off-gases.
Image Credit: SteraMist Disinfection and Decontamination Technology
TOMI’s SteraMist is a no-touch solution that can rapidly disinfect aircraft cabins and cockpits without releasing harmful or acidic excess. Unlike H2O2 vapor, bleach, and electrostatic sprayers, it can be used alongside aircraft electronics.
SteraMist’s dispersion system ionizes a 7.8 % H2O2 solution, enabling it to distribute like gas and access each portion of an interior. It also effectively destroys any remaining airborne viruses in the aircraft cabin’s confined space. Two dispersion units can decontaminate a single-aisle aircraft in approximately 45 minutes, including ventilation time.
The system is also pivotal for high-transit, prone-to-infection airport spaces like restrooms, baggage handling, lounges, and gates. It is also crucial for business jets and cargo aircraft, especially those flying through countries with high rates of COVID-19 or other viruses, including Avian flu, Ebola, and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
SteraMist is also an effective mold and mildew treatment, eliminating fungal spores and bacteria. It can also prevent the foul cabin odors that cause passenger complaints by neutralizing volatile airborne organic compounds.
An Effective Strategy
SteraMist has been broadly utilized in numerous high-contamination conditions, including COVID-19 wards, air ambulances, and repatriation flights.
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency initially developed the system to oppose weaponized anthrax spore attacks, an even more disturbing hazard than coronavirus. Its result is a handheld unit that delivers H2O2 solution at high pressure through a cold plasma arc.
The solution is a mist of ionized H2O2 (iHP) containing hydroxyl radicals, one of the most powerful oxidizing agents. Upon contact, it disturbs pathogens’ cellular structure, leaving an organic trace of only water and O2 with no residue.
Image Credit: SteraMist Disinfection and Decontamination Technology
SteraMist units are compact and accessible, and they do not excessively distract ground staff from other duties. Learning to use them can take just one hour. TOMI also offers personalized training and technical assistance.
Rebuilding Trust
The public has gained a deeper understanding of coronavirus—especially its airborne transmission risk—as it has spread and evolved. The conventional manual cleaning approach of cloth and spray has become increasingly ineffective in busy public areas.
Any no-touch solution, meanwhile, will be evaluated for its effectiveness and safety in thoroughly disinfecting a space.
Image Credit: SteraMist Disinfection and Decontamination Technology
People’s conventional views toward infection are also changing. Even if coronavirus were eradicated, passengers would likely be more cautious about minor infections—like the common cold—than before the pandemic. Mask-wearing continued in many Asian countries even after the SARS-1 threat had decreased.
Airlines must implement new hygiene measures as a precaution while also preparing for later pandemic threat from a possible “Disease X.”
Since the start of the century, such dangers have appeared regularly, including COVID-19, Ebola, MERS, SARS, Swine Flu, and Zika.
Not all became full-blown pandemics, but governments will likely require or enforce heftier countermeasures to prevent any return to the previous lockdowns going forward.
Airlines realize this development, encouraging interest worldwide in TOMI’s innovative solution.
Image Credit: SteraMist Disinfection and Decontamination Technology
“When looking for a suitable disinfection system for airplanes and helicopters, we discovered iHP [SteraMist], which is also compatible with the rules of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency,” says Jonas Scheld, founder of Scheld Aviation.
“With no negative effects on aircraft structures and electronics, as well as a very short exposure time, it is the perfect solution for aviation. Scheld now has multiple SteraMist Surface Units and deploys throughout Germany's European aviation market,” he adds.
The US Environmental Protection Agency approved SteraMist to oppose the extensive array of existing and arising pathogens. Its hospital-grade disinfection with no harmful residue will help restore confidence in air travel safety.
Its rapid, easy, and eco-friendly application makes SteraMist the ideal solution for aircraft and airport operatives.
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by SteraMist Disinfection and Decontamination Technology.
For more information on this source, please visit SteraMist Disinfection and Decontamination Technology.