A disinfection booth that sterilises shopping trolleys and seemingly the people pushing them could soon be used in supermarkets after it was developed by a French company to help fight the spread of the coronavirus.
The footage shows a man entering a booth, pushing a shopping trolley up a metal ramp and inside the system. As he pushes aside a plastic curtain, the system activates and cleans the trolley.
The system is not promoted as cleaning the trolley user as well, however they remain inside with mask in place while the disinfecting liquid is sprayed over both.
Credit: Newsflash/Pierre Nicoletti
The system was built by a company called Alineair, which is based in Tourcoing and in Valenciennes, both towns in the northern French Nord department, near the border with Belgium.
The tunnel system measures roughly two metres (6.56 feet) by one metre (3.28 feet) and Pierre Nicoletti, the CEO of Alineair, told local media: “Customers go into it with their trolley and then the product is sprayed on it.”
The product is a balanced mixture of water and liquid nitrogen, with Nicoletti saying it is “without danger” and allows “surfaces to be disinfected at over 99 percent.”
A designer of street furniture (airport corridors, bicycle and trolley shelters, etc.) Alineair saw its business paralysed by the COVID-19 pandemic and has innovated to find opportunity in the problem posed by the coronavirus so that it can rebound.
Nicoletti told local media: “Until two months ago, no one had worked on this type of equipment. I say that without judgment but in France we are not the most hygienic and there was no demand.”
Local media report however that now the company is seeing a surge in demand, with numerous orders being placed by distributors. It just needs the green light from laboratories and from the government, but Nicoletti is optimistic.
To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below.
Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash
The Ananova page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.
