Good Grapevine
My grapes are bursting with info and flavour for you to devour!

Sharp Corporation issued a seemingly ordinary press release on 27 August 2008. But I believe the information therein will one day gain global prominence! Incorporated in its ionic air purifier, the Plasmacluster Ion Technology (more on this in a later post) has just been scientifically proven to be 99.9% effective in destroying the bird flu virus known as H5N1.

As we have been constantly reminded by the press, bird flu is the prime suspect to cause mankind’s next pandemic. Pandemic sounds terrifying. It is. That’s when a highly contagious and deadly virus goes global, in a very negative sense. The 1918 Spanish Flu that killed 50 million people worldwide is the worst pandemic in human history! World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed on 5 October 2005 that the 1918 Spanish flu was caused by H1N1, a bird flu virus.

Is your heart pounding away? Is it time to PANIC?

Not quite, not yet anyway. Statistically, as recorded by WHO as at 10 Sep 2008, “only” 245 people have died from the H5N1 virus. This is since 1996 when the virus first surfaced in China. So what’s the fuss? The greatest nightmare for scientists monitoring the bird flu virus is to see it attain human-to-human transmission capability. To the knowledge of WHO, there has been only one probable case of human-to-human transmission recorded in Thailand in September 2004. But if the dreaded virus mutation takes place, you can expect pandemonium on a global scale.

Countries are conscientiously preparing for the worse (more on this in a later post). As protectors of our families and loved ones, we should start doing some homework too.

Ok, so what’s all this got to do with Sharp’s ionic air purifier. Is it not just another ionic air purifier? Yes, because it takes care of the usual pollutants (dust, dirt, smoke, dander, pollen, cuisine odors, pet odors, allergens etc) that contaminate the air that we breathe and live in. But if we can get protection from all these and more in one ionic air purifier, especially one that is a tested defense shield against a potentially deadly virus, why not? And that is precisely what Sharp is telling us; get the whole package with their Plasmacluster Ion Technology.

The next obvious question for the value-conscious, would be “yes, that makes a whole lot of sense but at what cost”? Here again, Sharp claims that it’s at no extra cost! Sharp asserts that it is cheaper than any other ordinary ionic air purifier when measured over 5 years. Hey, that’s great value for money! How is it possible in this nothing-is-for-free world?

In promoting the Plasmacluster Ionic Air Purifier Model FP-N40CX, Sharp contends that it is definitely better value for money as there is no filter replacement costs for the first 5 years. At first sight, the typical competitor’s upfront cost of US$160 looks cheap compared to Sharp’s US$399. But add in the annual replacement filter replacement costs of US$100 and the total outlay for the competing ionic air purifier comes to US$560.

Feedback on relevant data on Sharp or its competitors will be very much appreciated. Please drop me a note if you have actual experience.

Meanwhile, I’m going to seriously investigate this Sharp Plasmacluster IonTechnology. Now is the time to research, while bird flu is still not quite at pandemic proportions.

Don’t procrastinate. Personal panic does not fade. I remember my family, along with thousands of other frantic people, scrambling around town looking for the much-touted N95 face mask when the last near-pandemic scare took place in Asia. For those of you who did not hear of it, it was the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus that hit 8,096 people around the world and resulted in 774 fatalities. As always, being prepared is half the battle won.

Watch this space as we track exciting developments in our pursuit of safe, pure and clean air with nothing more than an ionic air purifier.

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