Twenty percent of kids today have asthma. Many more have breathing problems. And then there are people on chemotherapy with weakened immune systems. And let’s add in those with respiratory problems. And what about kidney transplant patients? And those on dialysis. And those diabetics on daily doses of insulin. Add to that our aging population and virus strains like the Asian Flu, West Nile Virus and SARS.
Is there anybody left?
Larry McLean’s point in telling me all this is that air affects a lot of people.
Today we live in air tight homes. Our schools have windows that hardly open. Our office buildings have air circulation systems that suck in fresh air from units on the roofs of buildings, but whose windows never open. We have doors that automatically swing shut. We live in spaces that have little or no air exchange.
We have gas fireplaces, gas appliances, the odd woodstove, and air conditioning.
While our buildings and homes are heated more efficiently, our air is less fresh than ever before. And it’s hard to get to the air outside that¹s fresher than the air inside.
All of this is what brought Larry McLean and Bill Morrow together. Larry’s a civil engineer with 24 years in the process control industry. Bill is a PhD in physical sciences who builds optical instrumentation for the space industry.
When these two heads came together over air, L2B Environmental was born. This busy little company on Ferndale Dr. is quietly changing the way we breathe. Larry & Bill have developed an air purification system for homes and commercial buildings that is redefining air purification. “We wanted to set the benchmark high,” says Larry. They hold patents on several of their developments and they got started on weekends, funded by their day jobs, as they tried, rebuilt, invented, restructured their ideas until they developed a prototype that L2B could take into production.
A development grant from Enbridge made them serious and they took a long hard look at years old purification of water through using ultra violet light. “We wanted to purify air by developing a system that wasn’t lamp output intensive. ” They used the synergy of ultra violet (UV) light and combined it with a protective coating material. The coating technology allows L2B to hardness the energy of the speed of light, and optimize the reflective capapbility of a UV dosage. Stop yawning! This kills viruses, bacteria, mould and chemicals.
“We’re surrounded by products that off-gas at room temperatures,” says Larry. “… permanent press drapes, blinds, flooring, upholstery, paint… and it causes our immune systems to work 24/7. Sometimes we reach the limit.” Mould spores are different than a cold virus and that’s different than pathogens and chemicals. It goes on and on. Larry and Bill launched their all-air UV based air purification system and they sell through direct energy, distrubitors, HVAC contractors and individually.
All-air operates on a synergy of technology needs and filtered UV light. It purifies. When filters trap and hold contaminants, then the filter is dangerous, Larry points out as we talk about the system that’s in my own home. “Our system kills all of those contaminants, every single one.”
For homeowners, L2B has a unit that goes right on the furnace. For commercial buildings the air purifiers have a different configuration. Larry told me that L2B works closely with Habitat for Humanity, installing one of their purifiers in Habitat homes. L2B also installed a unit in the house built-over-the-weekend to raise funds for RVH. The people who bought the house said the purification system was a buying feature for them.
The L2B purifier can go into any age house with any age furnace. It can work in homes with electric heat.
Bill and Larry have been recognized, rewarded, honoured and applauded for their invention, and they continue to create products that enhance the lives of people.
Larry and I continually “bump” into each other as we’re setting up our respective trade show booths. Each time we shake hands and have a polite conversation about what he does and what I do. But no longer. I wanted to go and see for myself.
At the soul of every organization is its germinating seed. I wonder what causes Larry to devote 90% of his working time to L2B, and the rest to Bill’s other company, Resonance. What’s the seed for Larry?
“When I was a kid I had asthma. I could not breathe much of the time. My aunt died of asthma when she was 22 years old. My son had his first asthma attack when he was 5.”
Larry had all the best reasons in the world to put his energy into pure air. The rest of us just get to benefit!
Thanks, Larry. Thanks, Bill.