Johannesburg | Monday
A South African engineer has invented a hair dryer-type decontaminating device to be used in combatting chemical and biological attacks, a domestic newspaper reported on Sunday.
The Johannesburg-based Sunday Times said the device is a hand-held turbine jet that uses hot air instead of water to blow clean contaminated surfaces.
It weighs about 25 kilograms and the air temperature can be set at between 200 and 350 degrees C (392 and 660 degrees F).
Inventor Koot Kotze told the newspaper the device was designed primarily to clean vehicles contaminated with germs or chemicals and its main advantage was that the streams of hot air did the job much faster than water.
“Normally, using water and washing down the vehicle, it would take about an hour or so before the occupants can be freed.
“Using the hot air, which either evaporates, decomposes or neutralises the contaminant, this can be done in minutes so the occupants can be freed and washed down.”
He said his device was ideal for dry areas like the Middle East because it did not use water and interest in it has grown since anthrax cases have been discovered in the United States.
“Marketing began earlier this year, but there is now a lot of interest in it. Interest has grown exponentially after what has been happening in recent weeks.”
The decontaminator is being marketed by the South African defence company Armscor who said they have not named it yet and “have just been calling it ‘the hair dryer’.” – AFP
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