PRESS RELEASE 16/02/2020 (Philip Peters)

COVID-19 AND AIRPORT SECURITY TRAYS - A SOLUTION

“A study by BioMed Central Infectious Diseases, conducted by experts from the University of Nottingham and the Finnish Institute of Health reveals that airport passenger security trays accumulate more pathogenic microorganisms than public toilets”.

During this in-depth study in 2016, which was conducted over a three-week period, multiple areas within Helsinki-Vantaa airport were swabbed for analysis. Samples were taken from where the greatest footfall and hand touching from passengers occurred, such as escalators, elevator buttons, toilets, seating spaces and the security areas.

On completion of the study the highest contamination existed on the surfaces of plastic security trays. Four of the eight samples taken from these tested positive. Among the findings on the trays, key respiratory viruses were identified these were: rhinovirus (40%, from surfaces); coronavirus (30%, from surfaces); adenovirus (20% surfaces); Influenza A (1/10, 10%, surface sample).

In summary, the trays that are utilised to place personal items at security controls are one of the main sources of contagion and cross contamination at an airport.

It was from these findings that UCE Machines (a Spanish based organisation) decided to work towards developing a machine which would effectively clean, disinfect and treat the trays, and most importantly, give each long-lasting protection.

Four years on and the company has created CleanBox, a globally patented machine designed to effectively eliminate pathogenic microorganisms found on passenger security trays, whilst also being efficient by minimising the use of water and electricity, ensuring that each machine is environmentally friendly and cost effective.

In addition, it can also be applied to the disinfection and ongoing protection of the small shopping baskets used at duty free, airline staff canteen trays and for different sizes of security trays. The main machine is the same for all of these adaptations, it is only the various tray holder assemblies that are simply swapped, making it efficient and cost effective for airports with its multiple uses.

The accelerated spread of COVID-19 has put the entire world on alert and hygienic and sanitary precautions in public areas have multiplied efforts. The current Corona Virus pandemic has generated a very clear focus: organisations committed to the protection of public health through their CSR, customer and employee policies, one being hygiene protocols which not so many years ago were not a key consideration.

In developing this complete package of protection, UCE machines have worked in close partnership with a company that has made the specific antibacterial and disinfectant products for CleanBox the multinational Betelgeux. It is this partnership of UCE’s patented machine combined with specifically designed cleaning/protection products that has enabled UCE to gain certification of delivering and guaranteeing 99.99% bacterial protection on airport security trays for up to 72 hours, and all completed in just a 40 second cleaning cycle. It is the only machine globally that can achieve these results.

By utilising our colour coded tray rotation system any airport can give their customers 24 hours, 365 days a year confidence that the trays they use at the airport are fully protected against the likes of COVID-19 and other infectious bacteria. Each tray also carries a ‘99.99% safe’ approval label.

After a very successful five-month trial at a busy Spanish airport CleanBox is now ready to be launched to all airports, with machines currently in production .

For further information please contact Philip Peters email: [email protected] or call: +44 (0)7966 570 421

END