A new technology could be a game changer in the medical world.
Dr. Dee Taylor is the corporate director of research for Interior Health and has been working with partners to learn about and test C-POLAR.
“C-POLAR is a technology that has a particular charge on it that attracts viruses and bacteria similar to… a fly strip that you’d see hanging in a garage. It attracts the flies, the flies go on it and stick to it. So, it helps mitigate the spread of viruses and bacteria that may cause illness for people.”
Dr. Taylor said she got a call during the pandemic from Dr. Alan Rabinowitz with St. Paul’s Hospital and the University of B.C. who had been talking with the scientists behind C-POLAR.
Together, the physicians called upon their partners at UBC Okanagan, who had been working on airborne disease transmission research already. With an initial grant from the Kelowna General Hospital Foundation, work is underway to test the technology in hospital settings.
“For the Interior region and for British Columbia, we have… developed a particular way of using this in artwork. So, C-POLAR is something that can be used in different kinds of materials… and Kelowna has come up with the concept of actually having artwork that has the C-POLAR material in the canvas that attracts these viruses and bacteria and mitigates the actual bacteria and viral load in that particular region.”
Although the work is in preliminary stages, Dr. Taylor says their art device can clear airborne particles from anywhere between 25 and 70 per cent.
“If you think of hospital settings, you want something additional to reduce the bacterial and viral loads in those spaces where people are sick.”
C-POLAR, or cationic polarization, is a non-toxic, non-metallic, plant-based food additive polymer. It is all natural and has been approved by the World Health Organization.
The technology is said to eradicate 99.9 per cent of all viruses, bacteria, molds, fungi, and pollens that come into contact with it.
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