NIH Study Demonstrates Asthma Reduction with Ultraviolet Air Disinfection

By Consulting Specifying Engineer Staff September 5, 2006

Can light turn off the allergens that make you sick? A study of asthmatic children reveals that an ultraviolet air disinfection system in home ventilation ducts can dramatically reduce asthma attacks and allergic reactions to indoor pollutants.

The first study of its kind, published in the May issue of the Journal of Asthma, found that participants significantly improved their breathing capacity, reduced medication use two-fold, increased the number of days without symptoms four-fold, and experienced reduced symptom severity when an asthma attack did occur.

Ten million people in the U.S. suffer from allergic asthma, and poor indoor air quality contributes to the problem. The study, funded by an NIH Small Business Innovative Research grant, offers hope for an inexpensive and safe way to control allergic asthma. This grant allowed for a small-scale trial to see if a larger study was warranted.

Nineteen mold-sensitive asthmatic children, 5 to 17 years of age and living in homes with central ventilation systems, were enrolled in the 28-week trial. The conclusion found that central UV irradiation is highly effective and recommended a larger controlled longitudinal study to validate the health effects.

Dr. Jonathan Bernstein, a specialist in environmental asthma at the University of Cincinnati, conducted the study. The technology tested in the study, the CREON2000 Photonic system, has several patented innovations and was invented by Dr. Mark Glazman to help alleviate his wife’s allergies and asthma.

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