Whether heated air filters can kill COVID-19 and make indoor environments safe

An employee wearing a protective face mask displays a Donaldson air filter in an Air France Boeing 787 aircraft during a presentation of new security and health measures at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy-en-France during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in France, May 6, 2020.

An employee wearing a protective face mask displays a Donaldson air filter in an Air France Boeing 787 aircraft during a presentation of new security and health measures at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy-en-France during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in France, May 6, 2020. Photo credit: Benoit Tessier/Reuters

Facts about the novel coronavirus have been hard to pin down. But scientists at the University of Houston took two things they knew to be true and ran with them. Fact one: COVID-19 droplets can linger in the air. Fact two: Those droplets don’t like high heat.

The Texas scientists then created heated air filters that can instantly catch and kill the virus. It’s a potentially crucial development to get people back indoors — in offices, schools, and convention centers. 

University of Houston press release: Researchers Create Air Filter Designed to Trap and Kill the Coronavirus

Credits

Guest:

  • Richard Jackson, MD - professor emeritus in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health

Host:

Madeleine Brand

Producers:

Sarah Sweeney, Michell Eloy, Rosalie Atkinson, Brian Hardzinski, Caleigh Wells, Angie Perrin