Vinny Lobdell: [00:03:31] Thank you for having me.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:03:50] Yeah. So it’s it’s been kind of a lifelong passion. We’ve been involved in the business. I was really kind of born into it. My father was involved in clean air and technology back in the early 80s when no one really cared about it or we really only people that had severe allergies or asthma had a very serious illness, looked at clean air and he developed a little filter to go on a wood stove. And that’s basically how we started. And then in the late 90s, we joined forces and really started looking at how clean air impacts human health and how the built environment and how we live in the built environment impacts our health. And so we developed the HealthWay brand, which is our first which is the parent brand of Intel up here. And we really looked at air quality from every standpoint, whether it’s a commercial building, whether it’s a hospital, whether it’s a home, and really looked at how different pollutants impact human health. And so we really spent all of our time and all of our resources on developing products and solutions that really make a true impact inside of homes, buildings, offices, etc.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:04:52] And now, which really exciting about the spaces as it’s grown tremendously, it’s it’s such a key component of wellness. We looked at how we can give people the ability to actually monitor it and see it firsthand. And I think it’s just an exciting time because we. Oh, no, that you know. Unfortunately, we know that air quality is a number one health concern facing humans. Air pollution is the number one health concern facing humans, according to the World Health Organization. And for us, we feel like we’re really focused on delivering true solutions to meet that challenge. So it’s been a passion of mine ever since I was a young man. And now as I’ve gotten older, we just really continue to focus all of our effort and time on really delivering true solutions. So right over 50 countries to kind of evaluate it and be involved with it.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:06:04] Yeah, that’s that’s a great point. I think the biggest challenge there. A lot of the times we can’t see what’s in our air. And so the biggest challenge you have is cleaning the water. People are doing that. They can taste the difference. They can taste chlorine. They can taste the water samples that most people really good air quality or better quality, temperature and humidity. They either feel it’s too warm or too hot or too humid. So the biggest challenge of air quality nowadays is these ultra-fine particles. We found that ultra-fine particles and its education, as you mentioned, these ultra fine particles are making people sick. So cardiovascular disease, stroke, heart attack, dementia, fertility are all being linked to particular pollution. And so if you look at it from a standpoint of really what’s in our air, you have VLCC these gases and odors, which people can notice in some cases because they smell. And then you have these particles in the smallest particles, greater bloodstream. And these are the things that make humans sick. And then we have the bio aerosols. So if people always ask oh boy. Everyone gets sick on an airplane, it’s really not the air pollution in a plane. It’s approximately we sit next to someone and someone’s sick and they sneeze and then that’s transmitted.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:07:08] I agree that, you know, the air quality side of things and air pollution in general, there’s a lot more media coverage on it now. But I think you’ll see over the next few years, just because of the linkage to all the diseases, that air quality is just such a major component to our health and wellness. And looking at it from a tactical standpoint and seeing the different levels of pollution, your home with air sensors is really coming to the forefront. So I think you’ll start to see that with all the new homes that are being built as well.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:08:35] Yes. All indoor air is made up of our door air. Right. And what happens is, is the EPA basically states that the indoor air quality is three to five times up to 100 times worse than the outdoor air. And so when you said that you would open a window, you basically you’re letting in all that. You say fresh air. It’s actually polluted air. And so in a lot of the new buildings that you’re seeing built all over the world, they don’t allow for any windows to be opened because they want to control the variables as much as possible. So what you have is an issue where you want to get some outside air and you’re bringing that polluted air. But the inside air, what happens is we’ve we made our homes, we made our built environments so efficient nowadays. Why? Because energy costs that we’ve basically encapsulated in created a time bomb of pollutants in the home. So our activity, how we walk and carpets and all the things we do basically get everything moving around in the space. And if we don’t have the right ventilation, if we’re not cleaning with the right green cleaning products, if we’re not if we’re using candles, all these things add to the pollution. And so really looking at our behaviors and our built environment is a critical component of health and wellness inside the space. So it’s not just cleaning the earth. How do we live inside that space? And how are we ventilating our homes? And what products are we using to add or subtract from the pollution problem?

Vinny Lobdell: [00:09:58] Well, we always say that you should certainly be using like a green environmentally friendly cleaning product because a lot of the pollutants inside the home you’re creating from sprays and chemicals that we use to clean. And that’s a major No-No. And we always say you should not use candles. We always like to use them, but you should not use candles. Looking at the humidity in your home, one of the big issues, mycotoxins molds that make people sick is if you have a high humidity environment, you can check in your bathroom. You can see the light mold growing in certain spaces if the humidity is too high. You have to get rid of that stuff. We also recommend, you know, hard surfaces instead of carpeting. That’s what we were kind of firm believers in. Hard surfaces are certainly a plus over carpeting and, you know, the softer surfaces which can store and harbor certain things.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:10:47] And then certainly if you have a highly efficient home looking at a ERV and energy recovery ventilator or heat recovery ventilator, which would bring in fresh air from the outside, like you were talking about New York City. And at some level filtering it. So you’re getting exchange, you’re bringing in a lot of fresh air. And so they just recirculate it. And we always recommend as well does the EPA is cleaning the air with a high quality air cleaning system. That’s really crucial that you are scrubbing the air 24 hours a day, seven days a week to create the cleanest, healthiest home similar to drinking water. Right. I mean, we don’t just filter. We don’t just drink the water. We filter all the water we drink. And it’s the same with the air. We should be filtering the air at all times.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:12:00] Well, the AQI is really simple index for reporting daily air quality. So there’s sensors all over the world. And a lot of times you’ll see my telephone poles. People don’t realize it, but they’re actually measuring the air quality. And the AQI runs from 0 to 500 and it has different ranges. So zero to 50 is good air quality, 51 to one hundredth moderate air quality. And it continues to go up. So you in 300 and one to 500 is hazardous air quality, but it really focuses on the health effects you may experience then a few hours or days after breathing that polluted air. So cities have this and it basically gives you a readout of how certain pollutants and what certain pollutants are in the air. So it’s ground level ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide. And so they’re looking at how to change that and basically how they can add to that. But right now, that’s what it’s measuring and it’s giving you a numerical number that’s telling me where the levels of pollution are at a given time and that changes dramatically. Right. So in in L.A., you’ll see a major swing during rush hour traffic of the AQI. And what’s really interesting about the AQI is we can now tie this to indoor air and show what outside air is and what the air quality is inside your home and then show how much healthier you can make your space.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:13:25] Yeah. The EPA states that the air quality inside a home is two to five times higher than it is outside. We’ve created a really cool tool on our website where you can check your air quality. And what we’ve done is you just type in your zip code and that gives you the AQI and at times it actually multiplies it by four because paste it’s three to five times higher and it gives you general guess on what your air quality would be inside your home at this time.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:14:28] Oh, it affects our skin. We’re working with consulting with a company right now who’s very prominent skin care company, who’s looking at offering a line of air cleaning products because they’re now saying that these ultra fine particles are impacting their skin health. And so, you know, the skin is the largest, I think one of the largest organs. So it’s it’s these are the things that people don’t understand because they don’t see it. But now that the AQI has brought air quality to certainly made it much more prevalent, the same is happening with indoor air quality monitors so we can see at all times. But it impacts so many things other than just, you know, our lungs. It’s our brain. It’s our it’s our breathing. It’s sleep. It’s all these things,

Vinny Lobdell: [00:15:33] Well, something’s always better than nothing. The biggest challenge you have when evaluating a customers or a customer’s need is really understanding that all air quality problems are not the same. So what we try to do and how we educate on air quality is first understanding what the concerns are, what the issue someone’s having. So HEPA filter stands for high efficiency particle arrestor and what it tells you right inside that definition, what it’s doing, it’s arresting particles, which is one pollution category at a high efficiency. OK, so there’s three. Before we know what effective air cleaning is or what an effective air cleaner is, we really have to understand what’s in the air. Really simple. Three pollutant categories, particles of the first. They range from very, very small ultra-fine particles all the way to large particles. Second or VLCC are the about organic compounds of gases and odors that are prevalent that come from the off gassing of formaldehyde, from cheap furniture to paints the toxins. And the third is be aware of self molds, viruses, bacterium, fungi. So you have specifically about HEPA.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:16:28] HEPA’s capturing a high level of particles, a high efficiency of particles that challenge you have is that we call the big box HEPAs, the retail HEPAs that you’ll buy that are lower cost ones and they’re using the term happen. But in reality, they’re not achieving a HEPA efficiency. HEPA efficiency’s capturing particles at ninety nine point nine nine percent efficient at 0.3 micron to give you get that not to be too technical. So if I am, just please let me know. Now I like the technical. OK, so point three microns, 900 times smaller than the tip of the human hair. Give you an analogy. So it’s capturing those particles. But the challenge you have with happen and we do build HEPA products, we build HEPA for a lot other companies. The biggest challenge you have with HEPA is that although it’s very efficient, it’s has a limited impact, cleaning impact in this space, because for you to have an effective equity, you really need to exchange air rate. So it’s capturing a lot the first time through, but it’s not necessarily exchanging a lot of air. So it has a limited air cleaning impact. The second drawback with HEPA is it’s like a wall. You throw a million particles that it captures a lot of them. But it’s very hard for me to push air through that filter without making a lot of noise. So we know that a lot of consumers are concerned with noise of an air purifier. And so noise is a drawback of HEPA. You have to really push a lot of air through that filter to make an impact. And so we found that to do that, you have to have a very strong blower and motor which creates noise.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:17:42] The third drawback of our HEPA and any HEPA that’s made out there is that they collect a lot, but they’re not destroying anything. So mold by respecting fungi. If that filters that change timely, it’s called the breathe through phenomena that actually mold their spectrum. Fungi can breathe through that filter and can be dumped out through the space again. So that’s why you’ll see in hospitals when people go and change to HEPA filters, they wear masks and all that, because I’m not sure if there’s living organisms in it. And then the fourth drawback is limited filter effectiveness or lifetime filter effectiveness. So that filter is going to perform really good day one. And as it becomes more and more clogged, it reduces the cleaning impact. So the cleaning impacts, it greatly reduced over the life of that filter. And so we found that there are more there are better ways of handling air cleaning now than the standard mechanical filter like HEPA. If that gives you kind of an overview of the HEPA filter.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:18:54] Well, there are some good technologies out there. You probably heard some of these. We have an electrostatic precipitation concept, which basically is plates that as particles are positively and negatively charged. And so as particles go through this, it collects those particles. The biggest challenge we have an electrostatic precipitation is when those plates get dirty, there’s no charge and it loses its efficiency. So there’s a lot of maintenance to that. Where would HEPA you replace a filter? And that filter can be very costly if you’re running a machine 24 hours a day, seven days a week, electrostatic precipitation is less costly, but it’s more burdensome to maintain it, to clean those plates at all times. So it’s it’s a bit more of a challenge now when you’re looking at how to address air quality from a holistic standpoint, not just particulate. Then you’ll get other granular, you’ll add carbon or you’ll add zia light. You’ll have potassium that’s put into a filter, the handles, the high level gases and odors. And there’s now, you know, photo catalytic oxidation technology, which is you’ve seen them out there in some branded products that are currently being pushed quite heavily on the market. And photo catalytic oxidation is basically oxidative particles and gases and orders and bacteria. The biggest challenge we found with that and we’ve done a lot of work with photo catalytic is that the contact time and you have to collect things collecting things. And it has to excite the photo catalytic for it to really work in the challenge with most residential smaller portable air cleaners. It’s just not effective.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:20:14] Finally a technology A lot of people talk about ultraviolet radiation UV. And we built a lot of UV systems over the years for AIDS isolation, tuberculosis rooms. And I use a real common analogy where you’ll be as effective if the virus, mold, bacteria and fungi gets enough contact time and set in front of that UV bulb. The challenge you have is it’s just not effective residentially. So when we would do UV systems, we would put in AIDS isolation. It’s circular systems would run a UV bulb down, a duct duct of a home or a hospital. We’d have to monitor the airflow by the ball. We have to monitor the degradation of the ball. We have to monitor the shielding of particles. It’s too costly to do residentially. And there now are better ways to do that as well. So that gives you some other technologies. And we’ve developed their own technology after 35 years of innovation that we’ve put in the market at patented and pushed into the market that’s utilized instead of our brands that can touch on when you’re.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:21:22] So first and this is our company philosophy. We believe in all technologies. It’s the utilization of technologies that’s important. So if we look at a residential air cleaner, the goal was how do we create a system that removes the most from the air at the quietest level, has a significant long lifetime filter performance to help ease the maintenance costs for consumers and addresses all three pollutant categories. Most air clears the market today are set up to address one. Our goal was to address all three. So what we did on a research grant with the U.S. government, we developed DFS technology, disinfecting filtration system technology. And I’ll give you a side by side comparison with HEPA so you understand it. The four drawbacks I happen we discussed we compensate for the four drawbacks have happened. We have a 90 percent medical grade, 100 percent sealed, individually certified tested filter that’s handcrafted made right here in upstate New York. Then what we do is we’re actually we have an 18 Kv, the kilowatts low amperage system that’s tied in with that main filter. So we’re charging 100 percent of all particulates as it comes through that filter, clumping or making them larger to capture, easier to capture. And we’re collecting greater than ninety nine point nine nine percent at point 00/7, 40 times more efficient than any help in the world with much less pressure restriction. So we can move much more air through the filter at a much higher efficiency than any aircraft in the world guarantee. We show it side by side with any air cleaner. So essentially what we’re doing is clumping the particles making them bigger through the DFS zone and making it easier for that filter to capture with much less restriction, much lower restriction. So we can push a lot more aero quieter than any machine. That’s two of the benefits.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:23:01] The other benefit you have is within that 18 KV. We’ve collected everything inside that media filter. We’re then treating it with that 18 cavy, creating a form of micro bio spaces. So mold’s virus, bacteria just like you and I. They need nutrients to survive. We’ve created as high in that 18 cavy a zone where nothing can grow inside that filter so you don’t have to worry about breathe through. The other benefit is sensitive tech filter. As such, it’s much less dense. We get much greater lifetime filter performance. So the day you put a medical grade happen or the day you put a an upper filter in which is more efficient than the HEPA, you’re gonna get less and less effective air cleaning over the life of that filter with the DFS. We get much greater lifetime filter performance because the filter isn’t. We’re not relying simply just on the filter for that efficiency. We’re utilizing technology. So to sum it up again, much higher airflow at a lower decibel level noise, much more significant air cleaning efficiency, much greater lifetime filter performance. And then we’ve created an microbiomes this from the filter so nothing can grow. We’ve coupled that with a proprietary blend of gas and odor granules. So we also are getting a high level gas in order remediation and removal from that system. So we’ve addressed all three particle groups at the highest efficiency and we’ve done it in a way where we’re respecting the consumer by giving them the longest filter life in the industry as well.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:24:43] That’s what a lot of people are doing. So there’s a huge air quality wave out there. Everyone’s talking about air quality now and why it’s so important. And so what a lot of companies are doing is as they realize that most people buy appliances on the way they look. Unfortunately, the way it works is the smaller the air purifier, likely, the less effective it’ll be because the science behind air cleaning is you need to move a lot of air, which creates noise to properly treat a space. And so it’s all about what are you buying that machine for? And if you’re buying it to truly make an impact on your health, then you have to look at the volume of air. It’s moving. The efficiency it’s moving in. Generally, those are larger machines.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:25:37] Excellent question. So I think I briefly touched on earlier not all air qualities, all air quality problems are the same and there’s certainly come in all different shapes and sizes. And so what we tell people is not one air conditioner work right in every application. So we basically you’ll find that portable air cleaners are only going to treat the air that can get to them. So they’re really meant for bedrooms, spaces for less than 10000 square feet. Really for to get effective cleaning, you need to change the air in a space three times an hour or greater. So if you buy a machine and you put a small machine in a, you know, three or four hundred square foot space and you put it on low speed, it’s virtually doing nothing. People are being fooled. You shouldn’t even buy a machine unless you got to run it to operate it in a way that’s going to be effective.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:26:19] So in a New York City apartment, portable air cleaners are perfect. You put a machine in a bedroom or in a space, you run it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Air cleaning is not an event. That continual process. You should filter air 24 hours a day, seven days a week and run that machine at the desirable noise preference for the consumer and you’ll get a good reduction in particles that’s called recirculating where basically recirculating air and filtering it through the system. Then for larger spaces, the way the market’s moving is certainly integrated systems which integrate directly into your HPC system or they integrate into a building management system. It’s a commercial building and that’s why you’ll see with our range of solutions, we have products for each individual application because ultimately what we’re trying to do is solve a problem for a consumer. We’re not trying to just sell a product and have it sit next to their bed and have it not do anything. We’re really into creating real solutions. And so for home, we would recommend if they heat and cool with a furnace or an AC system to install a system at point of entry, which is filtering all the air throughout the home. Now, people that are highly sensitive in most cases we do this often they’ll install a whole house system which is filtering all the air that’s coming into the space. And also put a portable unit in the area. They spend the most time for high level circulation, basically. We can create a class and clean room inside someone’s home and make it particle free.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:27:48] Yeah. You know, with our sister brand is called pure wellness. And Pure Wellness is if you stayed behind a Hilton, a Marriott globally, we’ve got about 5000 rooms at this point and it’s growing rapidly. We do the pure wellness room process and these are machines are utilized in all these rooms at the highest level to create that experience. So whether you’re staying in Tokyo or Taiwan or Toronto or New York City, you can rely on a consistent wellness experience. Well, on the road, which is a major challenge, and we work with hospitals and commercial office buildings all over the world as well. And basically we work for the engineering team to see what the issue is. We design a system specifically for that issue. And then we commission that system so our machines can be found at some of the most mission critical locations around the world. And we’ve basically taken that technology and adapted it to our residential portable in inline air cleaning systems to provide that same level of air cleaning that those people have now for the home.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:29:17] Yeah, that’s your if you go to pureroom.com, you can find out all the locations globally that actually have Pure Rooms. And what you’ll find is it’s not simply just cleaning the air if we want to create the healthiest environment possible. We have to look at our habits and how we interact with our built environments. And that’s what’s really crucial. And we’re developing software now that will give people a real idea of how they can see their built environments and see how their activities impact their built environments. Results from ultimately the goal will be that data will be mined so we can give people a real understanding of when they’re interacting with their built environment, what their activities are doing and how it impacts your health. And based on that, our machines, our hardware will then talk to this at a hotel, in an office building or at your home area and give you a real clear idea of how you can make a better impact in your space.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:30:05] I’ll give you a real quick example on that with the AQI, which you brought up. We can actually know at all times what the outside air quality is with our sensing. We put the sensing in the home. It’ll actually tell you, Maria, bedroom number three has a high level of the VOCs and it’ll send a push notification. Your phone, you can see that. And based on that, if you decide to do something about it, I’ll tell you. Great. And they’ll say, hey, but the air quality in New York today, the AQI is good. Open a window, bring in some fresh outside air, or if there’s Mold in, your bathroom or if there’s a high humidity in your bathroom. If the humidity in your bathroom is high turn on your ventilation fan. So our goal is to give people the right amount of information and knowledge to empower them to make good decisions in how they live in their spaces.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:30:58] Well, I think what people really have to understand when it comes to air quality is not all not all problems are the same. And so for us, it’s and I think for any responsible company is really having the consumer understand what they’re trying to accomplish in their cleaning system and all of us. This isn’t something where just New York City and L.A., 70 percent of Americans live in highly polluted environments.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:31:20] So this is Salt Lake City, Utah. This is Denver, Colorado, where you think mountains and skiing. It’s a it’s a major, major issue. And I think that what people have to realize is that they should really understand what it is they’re trying to accomplish before they purchase something and get the right information. And everything’s about customer experience. Right. We want to give people the best for their money. And I think you’ll find that with a little bit of education and the right customer service, they can find the solution.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:32:05] Don’t take things personally. I think the key to life, if it’s just a spiritual or if it’s is this, don’t take things personally. I think we get too tied to that. And I think that I’ve tried to live my life in a way that, you know, if you’re out there doing anything in life, you’re going to have a lot of critics. And just to not take things personally and focus on your goal and just keep working towards it. And I think that’s the same with our health habits. And I mean anything. It’s just don’t take things personally. Focus on what you’re trying to accomplish and be the best version of yourself. And if you can do that, I think the sky’s the limit.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:32:54] Yeah, I mean, we’re really growing globally. And so intellipure.com, I always tell people to check it out. Put your zip code search in there and you can actually get an idea of what your quality is today. And then pure room.com. If you’re traveling and you want to experience the best night’s sleep on the road, that’s a great way to be able to do that. So it works. They learn about that program. And I know that Max and several of his friends have stayed in rooms and really had a great experience as well.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:33:22] Sure. Well, thanks so much.