“I’m proud we sourced these units locally, supporting local industry, and that they are already in action protecting our patients and responders, and I’m equally proud that we’re using the opportunity to produce nationally relevant medical research right here in Burke County,” Hawkins adds.

Margaret Pierce, county finance director, said the county purchased 16 units from CU Healthy Products. The county spent a total of $14,400 for the products, with a price per unit of $890, which included installation, she said.

The county received $109,575 in April from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services because of its ambulance billing of Medicare that is to be used for COVID-19-related expenditures, Pierce said. The money has to be spent by the end of December, she said.

The money is from the Coronavirus Relief Fund but it is a separate pot of money from the $1.7 million the county also received under the CARES Act, Pierce said.

So how is the technology supposed to work?

The owner of Cu Healthy Products, Jason Seidel, said a photocatalytic oxidation essentially creates vaporized hydrogen peroxide.

“The UV light replicates nature’s purifying process. It converts water vapor into oxidizers, such as peroxide and hydroxyls,” Seidel said in the county release. “These agents inactivate microbes by destroying their cell wall or by changing their molecular structure.”

These “friendly oxidizers” are based on oxygen and hydrogen, and revert back to harmless carbon dioxide and water after they oxidize. No chemicals are involved and no chemical residue remains, according to the release from the county.