New biotechnology product aims to be the world’s fastest automatic sanitary solution.
GermPass, a division of MicroLumix, debuted first-of-its-kind biotechnology at the Harvard Club of New York on February 22. The GermPass system, which has been independently validated to kill the SARS-Cov-2 (COVID-19) virus in one second, is the result of a eureka moment in January 2020, when the concept of an automated UVC light-enabled germ decontamination chamber for public touch points was invented. In mid-February, the efficacy of the working concept model was validated when it killed 1.5 million germs in five seconds, and GermPass was born.
“Twenty million people die every year due to preventable infectious disease,” said Chris Hickey, CEO of MicroLumix. “This is the pandemic no one talks about, and something GermPass has the power to change. What we have accomplished has never been done before, by anyone, with anything, at any time.”
The event at the Harvard Club featured Dr. Ashraf Affan, CEO of Angel Kids Pediatric Centers and Dr. Charles Gerba, a world-renowned infectious disease expert. Both doctors highlighted the results of GermPass field testing, which brought them to believe why advanced technology has the potential to prevent millions of illnesses and deaths each year. Affan also discussed why this convinced him to have his eight pediatric facilities become the first GermPass-enabled facilities in the world.
“I started this company because a healthy 33-year-old friend of mine died from a staph infection likely caused by a public door handle,” said Debra Vanderhoff, founder and chief operating officer of Microlumix. “Life is full of risk, but no one should be in jeopardy from touching public surfaces like door handles, elevators, ATMs and other common touch points. I am proud to say that GermPass can help prevent millions of illnesses and deaths every year.”
In October of 2020, Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) conducted testing on the GermPass UVC LED light source against SARS-CoV-2. The results demonstrated that a 6.25 mJ/cm2 of the GermPass light source provides a 3-log reduction (99.9%) of the virus. Using the data from the NEIDL study, Crystal IS recreated the GermPass demo box in an Optimax Studio simulator and determined that the average minimum intensity was 6.25 mJ/cm2. This led Crystal IS to conclude that the GermPass demo box kills the COVID-19 virus in one second, accounting for the half-life of the UVC LEDs.
“It’s not that no one has tried to solve this problem,” said Jim Dotsikas, president of MicroLumix. “It’s that prior to GermPass, there were no viable options for protecting high-touch, high-contact public surfaces for areas like doors, restrooms and elevators. Manual cleaning, natural antimicrobials and chemicals aren’t capable of doing what GermPass does automatically.”
Founded in a garage in September 2019 in Jacksonville, Florida, and later incorporated on January 1, 2020, MicroLumix’s mission is to prevent the spread of infectious disease caused by constantly contaminated public touch points such as door handles, restrooms, and elevators. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 54,000 people die every day due to preventable infectious diseases, and 80% of the most common infectious diseases are spread by the hands.
By Jewish Link Staff
