ReSPR’s revolutionary Natural Cataylic Converter (NCC) technology was invented by Dr Christophe Suchy.

NCC technology inactivates pathogens and VOC particles including all particles sizes using a natural oxidation process. Compared to other air purification products which use chemicals or HEPA filters which only capture particles of 0.3 microns or larger.

Photo Catalytic Conversion (PCO) technology was originally developed to control ethylene, a gas that comes from the maturation of plants, during space missions by NASA. The small size of the gas (0.3 micrometers) could not be controlled by any filter except this technology.

Dr Suchy improved the technology through more than 20 years of experience in the field of air and surface purification and disinfection and has developed it into ReSPRs own proprietary NCC technology. He has won many awards for his work including an Innovation of Excellence award from NASA in 2019, for his work on advancing earlier generation technology into this latest generation NCC technology.

ReSPRs products are the only products globally that use this proprietary NCC technology that purifies the air and all surfaces.

NCC technology is UL-2998 validated meaning that it has been independently tested and validated to produce zero ozone emissions.

This innovative technology simply takes ambient air including water (H2O) and oxygen (O2) and turns it into Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2), using a naturally occurring oxidation process. H2O2 is circulated via the air 24/7 to kill a broad spectrum of pathogens both in the air and on surfaces that the H2O2 settles on.

It is completely innocuous to humans but highly effective against pathogens including antimicrobial resistant pathogens and those that cause hospital acquired infections. When H2O2 has completed its job, it breaks down into O2 (oxygen) and H2O (water), leaving no residue.

Hydrogen peroxide has almost the same molecular structure as water (H2O). The only difference is that hydrogen peroxide contains an additional atom of oxygen (O), making its chemical structure H2O2.

Hydrogen peroxide is formed in the atmosphere after oxygen combines with sunlight to become ozone. As the ozone interacts with water in the form of clouds, hydrogen peroxide is formed.

Naturally occurring in rainwater, it cleanses the landscape and oxygenates the soil, lakes, and seas. With this extra atom of oxygen, hydrogen peroxide works as nature’s perfect cleanser through the process of oxidation. Hydrogen peroxide is also used to safely treat drinking water.

H2O2 is well known for is disinfecting properties and has been used by the medical and food sectors for over 170 years.

It is able to deliver to users a full spectrum of disinfection activity. It is an entirely natural chemical but it is highly effective at inactivating VOC’s, pathogens, antimicrobial resistant pathogens, and those responsible for hospital acquired infections.

It is a fast, efficient, affordable and effective solution to eliminate harmful contamination and risk.

It is odourless.

Not dangerous to users when used according to manufacture instructions.

Eco-friendly, (free of aldehydes and peracide), and biodegradable because H2O2 decomposes into water (H2O) and oxygen (O2) after use.

It is used for a variety of purposes at different concentrations in the following sectors:

• Medicinal (1-5%),

• Domestic (3-6%) i.e. surface disinfectant, toothpaste and contact lense cleaner,

• Cosmetic (up to 10%)

• Commercial and industrial (above 35%)

NCC devices never use any greater than 0.03 parts per million (ppm). This equates to 0.0000003 of a percent (an extremely low concentration compared to other uses). At these extremely low concentrations it is still highly effective at inactivating pathogens and VOC’s including antimicrobial resistant pathogens.

The universally accepted Work Health and Safety level of exposure is 1.0ppm.

NCC devices have a Class 1 medical certificate (extremely safe).

NCC devices are also UL-2998 validated meaning the technology has been independently tested and validated to produce zero ozone emissions.

Air purification manufactures can have their products independently validated under UL-2998 to provide consultants and consumers with confidence that the air cleaning technology is safe and produces no ozone emissions.

World leading organisations like ASHRAE, the EPA and the CDC all recommend only using air cleaning technology that have been validated under UL-2998. See the UL Solutions website for more information.

If an air cleaning technology has been UL-2998 validated, you will be able to find it on the UL Spot.

If it is not validated on the UL Spot, caution is required, as the technology is likely to be an ozone emitting device.

H2O2 acts immediately as a disinfectant and rapidly breaks back down into O2 (oxygen) and H2 (water). Therefore there is no residual effect.

Alternative surfaced based cleaning methods that must occur each day and can result in residues and product build up on surfaces.

There is no risk of corrosion of the electronic equipment in the room at the concentration used by NCC technology.

University studies have assessed exposure to gaseous H2O2 on a variety of types of surfaces , and no corrosion or bleaching has been observed, in contrast to other, more aggressive disinfection agents, such as chlorine.

Yes. However other forms of cleaning methods involve manual disinfection of surfaces using other harmful chemicals, but this does not address contamination in the air which can recontaminate surfaces immediately.

Devices that use HEPA filters to purify the air, only purify air that passes through the device. These devices do not disinfect surfaces and they are not able to remove harmful VOCs.

Other devices introduce toxic chemicals to their process.

Proprietary NCC technology is the only technology that replicates a naturally occurring oxidisation process that is 100% safe for humans and continuously inactivates 99.99% of VOCs, pathogens (including SARS-COV-2 and antimicrobial resistant pathogens) from the air and on all surfaces indoors.

This has been proven according to numerous independent reports.

Pathogens are any micro-organisms that may affect our health. These include:

Viruses (including SARS-CoV-2)

Bacteria

Fungi

Spores

VOC’s are compounds that have a high vapor pressure and low water solubility. Many VOCs are human-made chemicals and are common ground-water contaminants.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids. VOCs include a variety of chemicals, some of which may have short- and long-term adverse health effects. Concentrations of many VOCs are consistently higher indoors (up to ten times higher) than outdoors. VOCs are emitted by a wide array of products numbering in the thousands.

Examples include: paints and lacquers, paint strippers, cleaning products and supplies, pesticides, building materials and furnishings, caulking compounds, particle board, plywood floor and wall coverings including carpet, fabrics, upholstery, gas stoves, ceiling tiles, office equipment such as computer screens, copiers and printers, photo copiers, correction fluids and carbonless copy paper, graphics and craft materials including glues and adhesives, permanent markers, and photographic solutions cosmetics, nail polish remover, grocery bags, paper towels, facial tissues, chlorinated tap water, bio-effluents, tobacco smoke, fuel.

All of these products can release organic compounds while you are using them, and, to some degree, when they are stored.

EPA's Total Exposure Assessment Methodology (TEAM) studies found levels of about a dozen common organic pollutants to be 2 to 5 times higher inside homes than outside, regardless of whether the homes were located in rural or highly industrial areas. Additional TEAM studies indicate that while people are using products containing organic chemicals, they can expose themselves and others to very high pollutant levels, and elevated concentrations can persist in the air long after the activity is completed.

Some VOCs include:

Acetone, Acrolein, Alcohols, Ammonia, Benzene, Bromodichloromethane, Bromomethane, Butadiene, Butanone, Carbon Disulfide, Carbon Tetrachloride, Chlorobenzene, Chloroethane, Chloroform, Chloromethane, Dichloroethene, Dibromoethane, Dichloropropane, Dichlorobenzenes, Dichloropropenes, Ethylbenzene, Ethylene Dibromide, Formaldehyde, Gasoline Automotive, Hexanone, Hexachlorobutadiene, Hexachloroethane, Hydrazines, Methyl Mercaptan, n-Hexane, Nitrobenzene, Stoddard Solvent, Styrene, Tetrachloroethylene (PERC), Toluene, Trichloroethylene (TCE), Trichloroethane, Trichloropropane, Vinyl Chloride, Xylenes etc

HAI’s are recognised both nationally and internationally as a serious problem. In common with other parts of the world, they are an important concern in New Zealand public hospitals. The Ministry’s document - An Integrated Approach to Infectious Disease: Priorities for Action 2002-2006 identified HAI’s (and in particular those caused by organisms that are resistant to commonly used antibiotics) as one of the six highest priority categories of infectious disease.

Unless contained, infections can spread throughout a hospital and into the community – as occurred in 2001 when the organism Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) spread from public hospitals to aged care facilities in the North Island.

Hospital staff and people visiting the hospital can also acquire an infection in the hospital, particularly if they are directly exposed to an organism and are susceptible to the disease.

Most HAI’s are treated with antibiotics. Widespread prescribing of antibiotics can give rise to organisms that are resistant to one or more types of antibiotic. Antibiotic resistance reduces the options available to treat infections, thereby further increasing the importance of preventing infection in the first place.

An infection occurs when organisms capable of causing diseases have the means to invade a susceptible host. Sources of these organisms in hospitals include:

• infected patients and staff;

• people who are carrying organisms but are not infected themselves;

• moist, unclean areas in the hospital environment;

• dry objects and surfaces if they have been recently contaminated by being in contact with a colonised or infected person;

• endoscopes or other medical devices (if not properly processed for re-use); and

• the environment in or near the hospital – e.g. infections caused by exposure to fungal spores from materials around building sites.

Overseas studies, and a New Zealand study drawing on multi-year data from one DHB area, suggest that about 10% of patients admitted to hospital will acquire an infection as a result of their hospital stay. Some HAI’s will not be recorded by hospitals when the infection appears after the patient has been discharged. For this reason, the true rate may be higher.

The cost of dealing with Hospital Acquired Infections:

Hospitals bear most of the direct financial costs of dealing with HAI’s.

A study dated 2003 based on data collected from the hospitals in the area of the Auckland District Health Board estimated that it would cost about $137 million a year to treat HAI’s in medical and surgical patients in the country’s public hospitals.

The total true cost is likely to be higher, as this figure does not include the costs of managing infections acquired by patients in maternity, neonatal intensive care, and paediatric services. This does not include extra community costs such as:

• the need for family or friends to care for the patient;

• community-based nursing services;

• GP visits; and

• time off work.

Source - https://oag.parliament.nz/2003/hospital-infections/part1.htm#:~:text=Estimates%20suggest%20that%20about%20one,an%20infection%20while%20in%20hospital

Antimicrobials – including antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals and antiparasitics – are medicines used to prevent and treat infections in humans, animals and plants.

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.

As a result of drug resistance, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat.

The emergence and spread of drug-resistant pathogens that have acquired new resistance mechanisms, leading to antimicrobial resistance, continues to threaten our ability to treat common infections. Especially alarming is the rapid global spread of multi- and pan-resistant bacteria (also known as “superbugs”) that cause infections that are not treatable with existing antimicrobial medicines such as antibiotics.

The clinical pipeline of new antimicrobials is dry. In 2019 WHO identified 32 antibiotics in clinical development that address the WHO list of priority pathogens, of which only six were classified as innovative. Furthermore, a lack of access to quality antimicrobials remains a major issue. Antibiotic shortages are affecting countries of all levels of development and especially in health- care systems.

Antibiotics are becoming increasingly ineffective as drug-resistance spreads globally leading to more difficult to treat infections and death. New antibacterials are urgently needed – for example, to treat carbapenem-resistant gram-negative bacterial infections as identified in the WHO priority pathogen list. However, if people do not change the way antibiotics are used now, these new antibiotics will suffer the same fate as the current ones and become ineffective.

The cost of AMR to national economies and their health systems is significant as it affects productivity of patients or their caretakers through prolonged hospital stays and the need for more expensive and intensive care.

Without effective tools for the prevention and adequate treatment of drug-resistant infections and improved access to existing and new quality-assured antimicrobials, the number of people for whom treatment is failing or who die of infections will increase. Medical procedures, such as surgery, including caesarean sections or hip replacements, cancer chemotherapy, and organ transplantation, will become more risky.

AMR occurs naturally over time, usually through genetic changes. Antimicrobial resistant organisms are found in people, animals, food, plants and the environment (in water, soil and air). They can spread from person to person or between people and animals, including from food of animal origin. The main drivers of antimicrobial resistance include the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials; lack of access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) for both humans and animals; poor infection and disease prevention and control in health-care facilities and farms; poor access to quality, affordable medicines, vaccines and diagnostics; lack of awareness and knowledge; and lack of enforcement of legislation.

Source https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antimicrobial-resistance

Despite stringent cleaning protocols hospitals take to contain the spread of pathogens including antimicrobial resistant pathogens and HAI’s, transmission management is extremely difficult due to the high volume of patents and visitors entering hospitals on a daily / hourly basis.

NCC technology has been proven to significantly reduce the transmission of antimicrobial resistant pathogens including those that cause hospital acquired infections by continuously disinfecting the air and all surfaces 24/7.

NCC technology is an additional tool to help hospitals significantly reduce:

1. the chain of transmission,

2. the significant costs hospitals incur on a daily basis to contain transmission, and

3. the significant costs to treat patients.

H2O2 acts as an oxidising agent, and its disinfection action is through the generation of highly reactive oxygen species including hydroxyl radical (OH).

When hydroxyl radicals come into contact with a pathogen cell, they act by removing electrons which will ultimately destroy the cell wall and kills the pathogen. At higher concentrations cell damage can progress to the inside of the cell, destroying the nucleus also.

As H2O2 acts on multiple cell targets, cells are unable to develop resistance strategies. Therefore, no alternation or use of other disinfectants is required.

Ramirez, Matheu, et al (2020) noted that routine manual cleaning and disinfection of the health care ennvironment is often suboptimal. Residual contamination poses and infection risk, particularly for inmmunocompromised patients. They found that dry hydrogen peroxide significantly reduces microbial surface contamination and improves the quality of environmental cleaning. Click here to view the reference.

Rutala, Kanamori, et al (2019) Hospital room environmental surfaces are frequently contaminated and serve as a source for healthcare-associated multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE), MDRAcinetobacter species, and Clostridioides difficile. Contact with these contaminated surfaces may result in hand or glove contamination of healthcare personnel that can be transferred to patients. In addition, the surface environment in patient’s rooms may be persistently contaminated despite routine room cleaning and disinfection and recontaminated via healthcare personnel and patients. For these reasons, there is a need to develop methods of continuous disinfection (eg, self-disinfecting surfaces). Low-dose hydrogen peroxide (HP) gas (eg, 0.1 ppm) is considered a potential method for continuous room decontamination. Click here to view the reference.

Totaro, Casini, et al (2020) claim that the emergence of multiresistant bacterial strains as agents of healthcare-related infection in hospitals has prompted a review of the control techniques, with an added emphasis on preventive measures, namely good clinical practices, antimicrobial stewardship, and appropriate environmental cleaning. The latter item is about the choice of an appropriate disinfectant as a critical role due to the difficulties often encountered in obtaining a complete eradication of environmental contaminations and reservoirs of pathogens. They found that hydrogen peroxide vapor (HPV), while used in the past as one of the first disinfectants, was then forsaken with the introduction of chlorine-based compounds. Notwithstanding, they propose HPV today as a highly innovative method for systematic application in the most updated hospital disinfection protocols. Click here to view the reference.