Sharp Philippines Corporation (SPC), with its goal of bringing convenience, protection, and lifestyle evolution to every Filipino household, recently launched its Stay Home, Stay Sharp campaign. It features products designed for the new normal setting — and one of its key features is Sharp’s exclusive Plasmacluster Ion (PCI) Technology. In this time of global health crisis, this is SHARP’s way of keeping our homes free from viruses and bacteria.
Plasmacluster Ion Technology
Sharp’s revolutionary Plasmacluster Ion (PCI) Technology will help Filipino households achieve a safe sanctuary. It has been proven to be effective against suspended airborne viruses and microbes that contaminate our air, leaving it cleaner and healthier. This exclusive technology is a unique air purifying solution to eliminate disease-causing bacteria and viruses from poor air quality and it has been proven safe to humans regardless of the amount of ion concentration released in the air. The Plasmacluster Ions, which are the same type of positive and negative ions present in nature, come in contact with the airborne threats in the air, undergoing chemical reactions on their surfaces to form OH radicals. These OH radicals decompose the proteins on the surface membrane of the airborne threats by taking the hydrogen. Without protein, the airborne threats are disabled and, in effect, deactivated. The hydrogen then combines with OH radicals, and together they transform to water which is released into the air.
Tested by over 30 institutions and organizations
Since 2000, Sharp has been developing and improving Plasmacluster Ion Technology in collaboration with over 30 independent third-party research institutions and organizations across the globe. Numerous independent research organizations have proven its clinical efficacy in suppressing the activity of harmful substances including influenza viruses, drug-resistant bacteria, and mite allergens, as well as in reducing bronchial inflammation levels in children with asthma. Above all, product safety, one of the biggest concerns of consumers before buying a product, has also been confirmed through research and studies.
The effectiveness of Plasmacluster Ion Technology in reducing airborne Novel Coronavirus disease (SARS-CoV-2)
In recent joint research conducted with professor Jiro Yasuda of the National Research Center for the Control and Prevention of Infectious Diseases/Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Japan, professor Asuka Nanbo, a board member of the Japanese Society for Virology of the same institution, and professor Hironori Yoshiyama of the Department of Microbiology, Shimane University Faculty of Medicine, and in cooperation with Nagasaki University, an internationally respected authority on infectious disease research, Sharp’s Plasmacluster Ion Technology was able to reduce floating novel coronavirus particles in the air, a world first. Viruses present on the surface are much easier to eliminate with simple disinfectants unlike airborne viruses.
In the said study, Plasmacluster Ion Technology, which emits positive hydrogen ions and negative oxygen ions through a plasma discharge, demonstrated that the virus infectious titer was reduced by more than 90%.
A solution containing the novel coronavirus was released into a three-liter apparatus equipped with a Plasmacluster Ion device. The device discharged 10 million ions per cubic centimeter. Results showed that the infectious titer in the retrieved solution was reduced by 91.3 percent in just 30 seconds compared with one that not exposed to Plasmacluster Ion.
Masahiro Okitsu, senior executive managing officer, Smart Appliance and Business Solution, assured that the brand will continue to provide effective solutions in lowering the risk of infection, saying: “Based on the result of this experiment, we will consider and provide effective uses of the Plasmacluster Ion Technology to mitigate the risk of coronavirus infection.”
90 million sales globally
Currently, Sharp equips their appliances with Plasmacluster Ion (PCI) Technology to make them suitable for home use in this new normal. These are the appliances for cleaner and safer air: Refrigerators, Air Conditioner, Air Purifier (with mosquito catcher, with humidifier, with dehumidifier), Ion Generator, and Mite Catcher. In fact, the brand is now working to incorporate this technology to their Electric Fan products for the local market and it will be launched soon.
As of April 2020, Sharp announced that it has reached the 90 million sales mark of products equipped with the Plasmacluster Ion Technology through its collaborations with different global businesses and industries such as hotels, hospitals, health clinics, restaurants, trains, vehicles, offices, banks, schools, training center, and supermarkets to name a few.
Sharp will continue to expand the application of Plasmacluster Ion (PCI) Technology on its current industrial field of expertise and will seek new ways to apply it to other fields especially on medical devices.