CHERAW, South Carolina — To help protect against the spread of COVID-19 in its offices, CareSouth Carolina has announced the installation of Global Plasma Solutions’ Proprietary NPBI™ Technology in many of its locations across its five-county service area.

These “air scrubbers,” as they are referred to, have been installed at CareSouth Carolina’s Hartsville Medical Center, Corporate offices, Call center, Bishopville Medical Center, Bishopville Pediatric Dental office, the Rosa Lee Gerald Center in Society Hill, Special Programs administrative offices, Bennettsville Main Medical Center, all of its mobile units and the McColl Health & Wellness Center.

“Having these air scrubbers installed at a time when the coronavirus seems to be surging in South Carolina is a significant addition to all of the safety measures taking place at CareSouth Carolina,” CareSouth Carolina CEO Ann Lewis said. “Keeping our patients and staff safe is our major priority during this pandemic. This new equipment provides an added degree of security.”

These air scrubbers showed a 99.4 percent reduction rate on a SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) surface strain within 30 minutes during ionization testing. This is the first instance in which an air purification company has effectively neutralized SARS-CoV-2. Following initial testing of coronavirus 229E in March 2020, Global Plasma Solutions utilized its proprietary needlepoint bipolar ionization to inactivate SARS-CoV-2. The study was jointly executed with Aviation Clean Air.

In this laboratory study, Aviation Clean Air designed a test to mimic ionization conditions like that of a commercial aircraft’s fuselage. Based on viral titrations, it was determined that at 10 minutes, 84.2% of the virus was inactivated. At 15 minutes, 92.6% of the virus was inactivated, and at 30 minutes, 99.4% of the virus was inactivated.

“The testing results we achieved through our proprietary needlepoint bipolar ionization technology clearly demonstrate that Global Plasma Solutions is the gold standard in air purification,” said Global Plasma Solutions Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Charles Waddell. “For any kind of facility from commercial buildings to aircrafts, delivering the cleanest, safest indoor air environment will only become increasingly more important, and our ozone-free technology is one of the most sophisticated products on the market.”

Needlepoint bipolar ionization works to safely clean indoor air, leveraging an electronic charge to create a high concentration of positive and negative ions. These ions travel through the air continuously seeking out and attaching to particles. This sets in motion a continuous pattern of particle combination. As these particles become larger, they are eliminated from the air more rapidly.

Additionally, positive and negative ions have microbicidal effects on pathogens, ultimately reducing the infectivity of the virus. Global Plasma Solutions’ needlepoint bipolar ionization is ozone-free and the only kind in its category to pass the RCTA DO-160 standard for aircraft. Traditional bipolarionization systems produce harmful ozone as a byproduct.

CareSouth Carolina is a private, non-profit community health center delivering patient-centered health and life services in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. CareSouth Carolina operates centers in Bennettsville, Bishopville, Cheraw, Chesterfield, Dillon, Hartsville, Lake View, Latta, McColl and Society Hill.

Services provided by CareSouth Carolina include family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, women services, OB/GYN, HIV/AIDS primary care, dental, chiropractic services, pharmacy, substance-use prevention, geriatrics, social services, clinical counseling, laboratory, 4D ultrasound, X-Ray, migrant services and veterans choice provider.

Global Plasma Solutions is the leader in Indoor Air Quality, with over 30 patents and more than 150,000 installations worldwide using our needlepoint bipolar ionization (NPBI) technology to deliver clean indoor air that is safe and healthy – producing neither ozone nor other harmful by-products. All of our NPBI products are UL and CE certified and registered and use NPBI to purify the air by eliminating airborne particulates, odors and pathogens. GPS was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.