Mount Pleasant company offering air quality consultations

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A Mount Pleasant air purifier company is offering free consultations to businesses as the Lowcountry reopens amid the coronavirus pandemic.

AirBox Air Purifiers has developed a “Safe Air Plan” based on recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to help mitigate the spread of disease.

Tim Self, founder of AirBox, said development of the plan began before businesses started shutting down, but COVID-19 has increased the public’s awareness of sanitation and indoor air quality.

“Everybody in the world all of a sudden became very conscious of airborne pathogens and the migration of airborne pathogens” Self said. “And so I think you’ll see … businesses strive to create a higher standard of indoor air quality.”

The goal, he said, is to help businesses do their best to adhere to guidance and help customers feel comfortable when they go out.

Self founded AirBox after a career working with air purification and building clean rooms for technology and construction companies around the world. He opened a lab in Mount Pleasant and hired a former Boeing engineer to help him test and build different air quality configurations over the course of a year before hiring additional people to help develop the business.

“The expectation was that indoor air quality would become a very significant component of people’s lives over the next 10 years. … Now the COVID-19 pandemic took place and I believe it accelerated everyone’s perspective of indoor air quality,” Self said.

During a consultation with a business, AirBox calculates the amount of airflow required in accordance with building codes and industry standards.

“It’s not just buy some purifiers and put them in your business, put them in your house,” Self said. “It’s, ‘Hey, here’s the scientific, engineering-based solution.’ And it should make everyone comfortable. We’ve done everything we could based on science to create a safe environment for employees, customers and other visitors.”

Self said he expects that the coronavirus pandemic will lead to stricter building codes related to indoor air quality.

“I think the general public is going to become a little bit more conscious of indoor air quality when they go places, and that’s OK,” Self said. “I mean, certainly after we all experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, why shouldn’t we be conscious of indoor air quality?”