iEvac™ Escape Hood looks geeky, saves your bacon

Many, many more people die of smoke inhalation than heat or flames, in a fire. The new iEvac Escape Hood slips over your head and seals around your neck, protecting your eyes and skin as well as giving you filtered, breathable air for long enough to escape.

What makes the iEvac hood special? Its "twin HEPA filters remove more than 99.996% of sub-micron particles such as anthrax, smallpox and radioactive particles", and it's full-over-the-head design really protects the noggin.

They come sealed in a foil pouch and are available now for $189.95

www.elmridgeprotection.com

NFPA 2009 Conference & Expo

Life Safety Innovations, live from Chicago!

I'm here at the 2009 National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Annual trade show & conference. It's a fascinating hybrid of those huge fire industry tradeshows and a government conference (maybe fascinating isn't the word...).

Anyway, the Expo is pretty cool. There's all kinds of esoteric providers of "building awareness software solutions", plus some Chinese fire extinguisher companies, plus big outfits like 3M.

Speaking of 3M, they definitely have the most mind-bending display: to show how electrically non-conductive their 3M Novec fire extinguishing fluid is, they have a laptop, switched on, running - inside a fishtank full of the stuff! It looks like the laptop is actually underwater!

Take it out and it's clean, dry and works perfectly.

Trippy...

I've discovered some extremely cool Life Safety Tech here - stand by for more pics and posts coming up tomorrow!

Here's a video from a previous tradeshow:

Safe-T-Sensors can prevent most cooking fires (but can't improve the taste)

What's the biggest cause of false fire alarms on College campuses? No, it's actually burned microwave popcorn...

Apparently a kitchen fire occurs every 8 minutes in the United States - 70% caused by unattended cooking appliances. Pioneering Technology Inc. of Mississauga Ontario is addressing this crazy stat with technology. They manufacture a series of high-tech modules that you can add to your stove, grill or microwave that will forever prevent unintentional cooking fires. Their first product was the Safe-T-Element™ - "a patented control unit installed inside the stove controls the temperature of the stove-top element, limiting the high-end temperature to 662ºF", well below the ignition temperature of most foods. Without Safe-T-Elements™, an electric stove element gets up to 1292 degrees - hot enough to melt aluminum cookware. Besides eliminating the main cause of kitchen fires, Safe-T-Element also reduces energy consumption by up to 37%.

The company is focusing of the College and Senior markets for now, because that's where most of the fatalities occur. It's only a matter of time, though, before every stove comes with a no-burned-food guarantee.

Pioneering also sells a device that keeps microwaves from burning food, a remote control starter for your gas grill, and even a device that generates electricity from your always-on gas pilot lights. Very clever stuff.



Check them out at www.pioneeringtech.com

ISOCAPS™ pods are ready for the flu-pocalyse

Which flu do you think will end the world? Swine or Bird? The news reports from Mexico last month were definitely scary - so scary that tourism there is down 55%.

When the big pandemic does hit, one reason people will die is that few local hospitals have sufficient facilities to isolate infectious patients, or move them to safe quarters. Remember the people trapped in hotels during the SARS epidemic? Isocaps Corporation believes they have the answer: The BIO-X™ Biological/Chemical Mobile Patient Isolation Capsule. The idea is that an infectious patient discovered at a port of entry (or a hotel, or at home) can be safely isolated in the clear-topped capsule. Dual HEPA filters keep germ pathogens from escaping in either direction. The pod is equipped with a heating system, oxygen, medical telemetry, and even drug-delivery systems. The company suggests stockpiling pods at major airports to carry the passengers from an infected flight safely to hospital.

They make a version called RES-Q™ that's designed to get wounded hikers off mountains too. Apparently the pods are ready for manufacture and patent-protected... now the company is looking for funding and distribution to make that first big sale.

www.isocaps.com

FIRE-LINK™ updates older fire alarms by using existing wiring

Most buildings don't have modern fire alarms - now you can just plug one in.

New residential buildings and hotels have very good fire alarms. They have sensors in every room, and a speaker in each suite that tells you what to do. All this technology is required by code, to keep people alive in a fire. If you live in an older building (like I do), you're lucky if there's a big old bell in the hall. That's because rewiring old buildings to bring them up to code is too expensive (tough luck for those who live there).

Signalink Technologies, from Kelowna BC (that's in Canada), has invented a system of sensors that can retrofit a 50 suite apartment building with brand-new alarms in a day. They call it Fire-Link. The system consists of transceiver units (insuite signaling devices or ISDs) that communicate with a network monitoring controller (NMC) using existing power wiring in the building - all you have to do is plug them in.

This is a very elegant solution! As with all code-mandated fire equipment they have had to go through rigorous UL testing, but they say on their web site that the proper listings have been obtained. If you live in a building that needs a fire alarm, give them a ring!

Signalink Technologies: www.signalink.com

Stat-X™ Aerosol Generators automatically extingish fires without water

When you fight a fire with water, the water does a lot more damage than the fire in many cases. In electrical cabinets and transformers, adding water is a very bad idea.

Condensed Aerosol generators are packed with a chemical mixture similar to solid-rocket fuel - except that the exhaust actually puts out fires! The chemical fuel-oxidizer mixture reacts to produce a cloud of tiny, micron sized particles of potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3), which happens to be an excellent fire extinguisher. The KHCO3 decomposes to K+ ions, which react with burning fuel to stop the fire chemically - poof, no more fire. As long as the aerosol stays in contact with the fuel, the fire can't re-ignite.



Stat-X is the first fixed aerosol system in America to receive an Underwriters Laboratories (UL) listing - essential to sell to industry. They just made a deal to install fire suppressor generators on the 2 giant NASA "crawlers" that carry the Space Shuttle to the pad! The coolest feature of the unit above is that it has a patented "thermal" switch, so it doesn't need to be plugged in.

Check out more at: www.statx.com

Arctic Fire-Freeze™ makes your skin fire-proof

Developed for iron smelters, this amazing gel can even extinguish burning magnesium

Metal foundries are hot, hellish places. Forklifts are hauling giant crucibles filled with molten metal. Sometimes when something breaks, hot slag engulfs vehicles... and their operators. Arctic Fire-Freeze™ (AFF) is a gel-like liquid that instantly removes heat and puts out even molten metal fires. This stuff has saved several machine operators from being barbequed, so now the US Military is looking at equipping Humvees with a system that sprays the stuff all over in a split second if an IED goes off.

AFF can extinguish burning magnesium is a second. It makes bare human skin fire-proof, even at 2000 degrees!



Unbelievable! For more info & video: www.globalsafetylabs.com

LIFESAVER bottle - when you're really, really thirsty

LIFESAVER™ Bottle lets you drink, literally, sewage...

This simple looking water bottle is billed as "the worlds first all-in-one ultra filtration water bottle". The breakthrough is a special "filter stack" inside, that removes "bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi and all other microbiological waterborne pathogens without using chemicals like iodine or chlorine which leave a distinctive foul taste".

Once the filter is used up, the bottle stops working (the inventor, Michael Pritchard calls this tech "Failsafe"). Swap out the filter, and you're back to drinking the nasty in no time.

The guts of the LIFESAVER include "ultra-filtration" membranes and a replaceable activated carbon filter. The "nipple" you drink from is "chew-proof". Customers include disaster relief organizations, military units and thirsty hikers.

The LIFESAVER bottle has received numerous product awards since it's launch in 2007. I drank some seriously gnarly H20 from one at a military trade show in 2007, and it tasted fine - good actually. Now the company, Lifesaver Systems of Ipswitch, UK is collaborating with Mazda on a bottle that sits in the new Mazda Citi and filters rainwater!

Check it out at www.lifesaversystems.com and www.lifesaverusa.com