"East Tennessee Business Recognized For Anti-Terror Technology"
WBIR-TV, Knoxville (NBC)
October 10, 2002, 4:30:32 PM
Reporter: Teresa Woodard
Businesses across the country are on the bandwagon, trying to come up with tools to keep Americans safe after 9-11, but an East Tennessee company started the trend a long time ago.
One machine sounds a little like a special effect from a movie. Another looks a lot like a Star Wars Light Saber. But these Hollywood-sounding technologies are real life, with real potential.
"And that's what the military has always been looking for is kind of a magic wand. That's what they call it, a magic wand," says Vice President of Research and Development for Atmospheric Glow Technologies Daniel Sherman. "They want to be able to wave something around and have all the chemical and biological agents neutralized."
What the military wants, Blount County-based, Atmospheric Glow Technologies developed. The so called "magic wand" is made of plasma, metal, and glass. The company says the plasma in the wand can kill 99.9% of all chemical and biological agents, including anthrax.
"I think we can really provide a deterrent for those events," says President and CEO Dr. Kim Kelly-Wintenberg. "I think it's inevitable for it to happen again."
The wand is the clean up tool, what you use once you know anthrax is around. An Enhanced Plasma Sterilization Filtration System is what you use for prevention. It's an air filtration system with the same atmospheric plasma inside. When installed in a building's duct system, it traps the contaminated air. It could have kept spores from spreading throughout the entire Hart Senate Office building in Washington, DC last year when senators opened anthrax-laced letters.
"Initially when the envelope was opened and the powder spread, it would have contaminated the room but it would not have spread throughout the ventilation system," Wintenberg explains.
The concept began in the 1980s. Prototypes started in 2000. But a new demand surfaced September 11th, 2001.
R&D magazine just named the plasma air filter one of the top 100 technologies in the world. The company says its technology could also be used in schools to filter out mold-infested air.