By Rivka Borochov
There has been a global change in understanding how to combat bacteria. Instead of killing them outright with antibacterials and antibiotics, more and more people are taking probiotics (“good” bacteria) to help their gut build immunity to “bad” bacteria and promote better health and digestion.
A new Israeli company called Better Air has taken the idea of building immunity with probiotics and applied it to indoor air filtration.
Better Air’s BioZone system is loaded with millions of safe, food-grade probiotics suspended in a gas. It disperses the probiotics into deep and dark cavities, and surfaces where bad bacteria, mold and dust mites are lurking and multiplying.
Based on the simple biology of bacteria reproduction -- only so many bacteria can occupy a given space at any time -- BioZone system leaves little room for the bad bacteria to grow, letting the good ones flourish and take over. The result is less sickness, infection, allergies –– and even less smelly armpits.
“There is a paradigm shift going on here,” says Yuli Horesh, co-founder of the company. The former ad man and initiator of the Wisconsin Plan (welfare to work) in Israel says he felt compelled to enter the business of clean-tech and this company specifically.
“I like to go where there is something that can be changed. Besides the responsibility that I have to my five children, I want to make this world a better place,” he says.
“I believe that we deserve to choose the air we breathe. Buildings are problematic and no one really knows the extent of it. I know people who have been sick because of pathogens [they breathed indoors].”