Drakes Supermarkets, with outlets in South Australia and Queensland, has commenced installing a full-circle air purification system.
The first installation of the Airofresh air-purification units, distributed nationally by ServiceFM, occurred at the family-owned supermarket’s Newton store in Adelaide this week.
Drakes Supermarkets CEO Roger Drake said his company always sought ways to ensure the safety of its customers and workers.
“Every business needs to meet new expectations regarding the health and safety of its customers and staff, and that’s why we’re partnering with ServiceFM to install Airofresh within our stores,” Drake said.
Testing undertaken by Flinders University found the carbon neutral Airofresh unit was able to remove virus particles, ensuring workplaces, health and aged care services, schools and other public and commercial buildings could be better protected from pathogens including MS2, a surrogate test for SARS Cov-2, along with fungi, mould, bacteria and gasses.
National facilities management organisation ServiceFM is the national distributor of Airofresh units, aiming to work with retail and supermarket outlets, schools, childcare, health, airports and other facilities across Australia.
ServiceFM CEO James Pollock said while the focus had been on keeping people COVID-19-free and ensuring workplaces were healthy sites, attention is now moving to measures to support the health and hygiene learnings of the past 18 months.
Airofresh requires maintenance only every two years and its filterless system doesn’t require PPE when serviced nor the disposal of dirty, contaminated HEPA filters.
“The filterless system means contaminants aren’t stored and the full-circle air purification ensures the entire environment is continually safe for workers, clients and staff,” Pollock said.
Airofresh Managing Director Jon Taylor said the air purification units were designed to clean an environment by generating single-oxygen hydrons and hydroxyl ions, which eliminate airborne viruses, bacteria and atmospheric contaminants.
Taylor said the Airofresh system was able to eliminate airborne and surface contaminants, reduce disease and cross contamination, manage infection control, clean toxic gasses, and remove unpleasant odours. The system could also work in parallel with reverse-cycle air conditioners.
With COVID-19 and concerns about the quick-spreading Omicron variant as we head into the summer holiday break, Pollock said the past two years had shown the need to remove contaminants from ambient air was more important than ever.
“Along with Drakes, we’ve been working with schools in several states, with food producers, office building owners, health and aged care service providers and airports, and they understand the need to provide the highest possible air quality to keep their premises and their people safe,” he said.
“There has never been a greater need for pure, safe air in the spaces we live, work and play. This Australian-made technology has come along at just the right time.”
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