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125L OZONE STERILIZER
What is this?
a) An intelligent, highly advanced refrigerator.
b) A new sterilizer for hospitals.
c) A very "in" vertical dishwasher.
Pasteur would be proud!
It was Louis Pasteur who discovered that micro-organisms
can be destroyed with intense heat-a discovery that led
to the invention of the autoclave, a device used to sterilize
surgical instruments. Unfortunately, the latest
polymer instruments cannot stand up to the heat produced
by an autoclave, and cold sterilization methods are costly.
Quebec researchers, inspired by water purification
techniques, came up with a solution: sterilization using
ozone.
A tempest in a sterilizer
It's lightning time for surgical instruments! On one side
of the sterilizer, water is injected to prepare the micro-organisms
for "death by ozone". On the other side, oxygen is injected,
and subjected to a powerful electric discharge. Just like
a bolt of lighting, this produces ozone, a gas
with oxidizing properties. Ozone makes the instruments
perfectly sterile. And then, because it is highly unstable,
it quickly turns back to oxygen in the converter.
Prions beware!
But the young TSO3 company isn't satisfied with wiping
out the most common micro-organisms. In co-operation
with the National Research Council Canada, it is currently
testing its ozone process on the infamous prions,
the proteins responsible for Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease,
the human version of Mad Cow Disease. If the research
proves successful, this will be the first technique able
to inactivate them.
Thanks!
The 125L ozone sterilizer is on loan from TSO3 inc.
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