Disinfect Airplanes Quickly

About

Executive Summary The Germfalcon is a patented robot emitting germicidal UVC light to rapidly and thoroughly eliminate disease causing microbes in commercial aircraft between flights. This technology has been proven to decrease hospital acquired infections. Broad implementation of this device has potential to prevent/mitigate upcoming pandemics, improve world health and save countless lives. US Patent #s: 8,907,304 9,144,618 8,999,238 9,149,549 Title: Germfalcon-One Step Solution for Disinfection of Airplanes Mailing Address: 434 S. San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048 (www.germfalcon.com) Company: Dimer, LLC. (a Certified Women's Business Enterprise (WBENC)) dba GermFalcon Category of Focus/Scope of the Problem Medical Breakthrough: New approaches that will revolutionize human health and healthcare. Commercial flight has revolutionized human health, and not for the better. For millennia, humans and germs were contained by natural barriers of time, distance, mountains, oceans and deserts. In mere decades, the miracle of human flight eliminated those barriers allowing “stowaway” microbial pathogens to tag along for the ride and remain on board. Aircraft have become a modern “vector” like viruses aboard mosquitos, placing human populations at risk. The International Air Transport Association (IATA)(1) reported 3.7 billion passengers in 2016 with greater than 6% annual growth and a doubling of passenger miles in the coming 20 years. There are greater numbers and density of passengers within aircraft. Microbes have increasing resistance and virulence creating a perfect storm for devastating pandemics. The Germfalcon fundamentally changes this paradigm. Our mission is “To Transform the Flight from the Germiest to the Cleanest part of the Travel Experience”. Ultraviolet “C” (UVC) Light Properties, Current Use & Practices Germicidal UVC, at wavelength about 254 nm, has been well known for decades. UVC attacks microbial DNA causing irreversible bonds (“dimers”) that instantly arrest cell physiology and reproduction. Required UVC lethal exposures are published(2) and unlike antibiotics, UVC kills viruses and there are no resistant organisms. UVC is increasingly used in the healthcare environment under trade names of Xenex, Clorox, Tru-D, etc. in a rapidly expanding market. Peer reviewed studies have shown UVC use to decrease hospital acquired infections(3) (HAI), with obvious health benefit and cost savings. These results can be extrapolated to any environment where commonly touched surfaces transmit disease, including commercial aviation. UVC works only line-of-sight and is highly sensitive to angle of incidence and distance to target. This understanding permitted optimization of Germfalcon design for aircraft interiors. Germfalcon Technology Readiness Level (TRL) & Features U.S. and foreign patent offices have recognized the novelty and utility of the Germfalcon design, with multiple patents issued and additional patents pending. The Germfalcon is at an early TRL 7. The Germfalcon has been successfully demonstrated on a variety of commercial aircraft configurations and ground based mockups. All required certifications have been met. The Germfalcon operates inside a commercial aircraft in 3 modes/configurations to optimize UVC exposures for the seating area, the lavatories and the galleys with 22 lamps. A high CFM fan blows the dust carrying germs from the floor to circulate within the UVC kill zone assuring comprehensive cabin sanitization. The Germfalcon is fast. A 99% kill rate requires only 3 minutes and a 99.99% kill rate only 12 minutes for an entire single aisle aircraft, such as a B737 or an A320. A quick recharge/swappable battery ensures the Germfalcon is always ready to sanitize an arriving flight. Up to 6 airplanes can be sanitized on a single charge with recharge times of about 2 hours. UVC emitting lamps have a functional life of 8,000 hours and are easily replaced. The Germfalcon is in its 5th prototype and is mass production ready with full engineering documentation, a robust supply chain and costing variables understood and controlled. A fully illustrated operator’s manual as well as a required user’s course and has been developed. The unit is as simple to operate as a vacuum cleaner and is compatible with configurations from commuter aircraft to the largest aircraft. Scientific Data Linking Commercial Flight to Disease Cruise ships have become associated with Norovirus (vomiting/diarrhea) outbreaks. With a 12-48 hour incubation interval, cruise passengers remain on board, but airline passengers are dispersed around the world with no airline incentive for follow up. Most cruise passengers begin and end their cruise with a flight. In 2009, a passenger with Norovirus vomited on a commercial aircraft. Despite special cleaning protocols, 43% of the flight attendants on that aircraft over the ensuing 5 days developed norovirus(4). There is an obvious disincentive to having surveyed the hundreds of exposed passengers. Harvard University showed a positive correlation between passenger volume and influenza severity over a 15 year interval and concluded the important influence of international air travel on the timing of influenza introduction, as well as an influence of domestic air travel on the rate of inter-regional influenza spread in the US(5). The Centers for Disease Control and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported flight attendants’ illness rates as quadruple age-matched office workers and double that of school teachers(6). Auburn University showed that human pathogens E. Coli and Methicillin Resistant Staph Aureus (MRSA) survive on airplane surfaces for up to one week(7). Travel Math website cultured commercial aircraft and found tray tables had more than 8 fold the contamination level than the flush control valve in the lavatory(8). Passenger Survey Results - A recent scientific survey of 1,156 passengers explored aircraft sanitization opinions. - 80% of passengers believed they became sick from germs on an airplane - > 9/10 was the passenger importance score of aircraft sanitization - 93% of passengers would choose a sanitized over non-sanitized flight - 81% of passengers are willing to spend $2 or more for a sanitized seat - 96% of passengers feel airlines should be required to sanitize aircraft daily. “They Don’t?”: The Case for Routine Aircraft Sanitization Following the 2014 Ebola outbreak, the Government Accountability Office issued a comprehensive report(10) in December 2015 confirming the absence of a plan and the recommendation “to develop a national aviation-preparedness plan for communicable diseases”. The Germfalcon is perfectly positioned to be the primary technology of this plan. Lufthansa Technic has established guidelines for aircraft disinfection following a “case of a suspected or confirmed passenger suffering a highly infectious disease”. These guidelines are inefficient, costly and have failed to universally meet objectives(11). Routine sanitization is far more practical and effective than reacting to infectious incidents. When the man in seat 8B vomits, is it just turbulence, or norovirus or Ebola? Is the cough of the woman in 12C just from smoking, or is it tuberculosis. Does the kid with the skin rash in 22A have an allergy to the blanket or rubella? Flight attendants, rarely aware of these passengers, cannot distinguish which are and are which are not contagious-and it matters. The airlines have never had a way to routinely disinfect aircraft-until the Germfalcon. Business Model Outline The “customer” is the airline. Airlines that employ their own cleaners will be the actual purchaser. Airlines that contract with local cleaning companies will direct their contractor to purchase Germfalcons. Manufacturing will be US based. The projected sales price to airlines is $50,000 plus a $5,000 annual maintenance contract with guarantees of repair/replacement within 24 hours. Amortized over a 10 year usable lifespan and sanitizing just 3 single aisle aircraft per day, the cost is less than 8 cents per seat. We have agreements in place with a leasing company if preferred by the airline with similar costs per seat. We anticipate one Germfalcon per airport gate and in some cases, one Germfalcon for 2 gates. IATA reports >265,000 gates at >17,500 airports worldwide. With a market penetration of only 10%, sales are estimated at $1billion. Our next milestone is Germfalcon adoption by an airline that cares about their passengers. Virgin America was planning to be that airline, with use protocols in place, prior to their acquisition by Alaska this year. Alaska is still considering this project and there has been substantial interest from Asian and Middle East carriers. We believe that once the concept is proven, it will become standard and indeed, a passenger expectation. New capital influx will allow this to occur. Beyond aviation, the versatile design of the Germfalcon makes it easily adaptable to theatres, sporting arenas, healthcare facilities, schools and prisons. Our patents cover these venues. The Business Case-What’s in it for the Airline? First and foremost, sanitizing the airplane interior to protect passenger and crew health is the right thing to do, as was voluntary on board defibrillators. In recent years, airlines have experienced suboptimal customer satisfaction ratings and a sanitization program could help. 80% of passengers are willing to pay $2.00 or more for a sanitized flight. At less than 8 cents per seat, the Germfalcon will pay for itself within 150 flights. Even if no additional fees are charged, an early adopter airline will gain an advantage over competitors as 93% of passengers will choose a sanitized over a non-sanitized flight. If an airline sells a single $200 ticket they would not have otherwise, the return on investment is 10 fold for that flight. Disease outbreaks are extremely expensive for airlines. In the case of the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic, for example, the IATA estimated the overall cost at $33 billion of global gross domestic product in 2003. North American airline revenue losses alone were estimated at $1 billion, while Asia Pacific airlines lost an estimated $6 billion(12). MERS, Ebola, Zika and H1N1 had similar impact. Preventing or mitigating disease spread will save money. The change of perception to airplanes being clean will keep people flying. Primary Team Member Biographies & Qualifications Arthur Kreitenberg is a cofounder and Chief Technical Officer at Dimer, LLC. He is a Board Certified Orthopaedic Surgeon and Professor at the UC Irvine School of Medicine, with multiple peer reviewed articles published. He is a lifetime member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, serving on the Life Sciences Technical Committee. He is an Associate Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association. He holds 10 US Patents, including the NASA/SBIR funded Space Cycle countermeasure to prolonged human microgravity. He was a finalist in two NASA Astronaut Selections. Javier Valdivieso is the Principal at ADM Works, a California based high tech equipment manufacturer. ADM Works has performed multiple projects for Boeing and the US Military. They have produced several medical devices as well as fine art and functional cinema props. Melissa C. Carr is the majority shareholder and serves as general counsel and Director at Dimer, LLC. She has extensive experience in the aerospace field as well as employment and civil rights. Elliot “Mo” Kreitenberg serves as President and is the face of Dimer, LLC and Germfalcon. He turned down Wall Street offers after business school to pursue his entrepreneur talents and co-founded Dimer, LLC. Mo has “pitched” and raised substantial investment for the Germfalcon. Mission - To transform the airplane from the dirtiest to the cleanest part of travelling. “If your kid is sick 3 days after the flight, you just don’t care how fast the in-flight wifi was.” “The GermFalcon is revolutionary.” –Airbus “This is clearly something special.” –Boeing References http://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/Pages/2017-02-02-01.aspx: Chevrefils, G et al, UV Dose Required to AchieveUV Dose Required to Achieve Incremental Log Inactivation of Bacteria, Protozoa and Viruses, IUVA News, Vol. 8 No. 1, 2006. Pegues, D., Han, J., Impact of Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation for No-Touch Terminal Room Disinfection on Clostridium difficile Infection Incidence Among Hematology-Oncology Patients, Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2016;1–6. Thomley, C., Emslie, N., Recurring Norovirus Transmission on an Airplane, Clinical Infectious Diseases 2011;53(6):515–520. Brownstein JS, Wolfe CJ, Mandl KD (2006) Empirical evidence for the effect of airline travel on inter-regional influenza spread in the United States. PLoS Med 3(10): e401. DOI: 0.1371/journal.pmed.0030401. Whelan, E., Lawson, C., Prevalence of respiratory symptoms among female flight attendants and teachers, Occup Environ Med 2003;62:929–934. Valgenov, G. , Chen, A., Assessment of Survival and Transmission of Selected Pathogens on Aircraft Surfaces, American Society for Microbiology, May 2014. https://www.travelmath.com/feature/airline-hygiene-exposed/ https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-trouble-with-keeping-commercial-flights-clean-1410993651 Comprehensive Federal Plan Needed for U.S. Aviation System’s Preparedness, GAO-16-127, a report to the Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Aviation, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, House of Representatives . Klaus, J., Gnirs, P., Disinfection of aircraft. Appropriate disinfectants and standard operating procedures for highly infectious diseases. Bundesgesundheitsbl 2016 · 59:1544–1548 IATA, Economic Briefing: Avian Flu (May 2006).