The field of the disclosure relates generally to decontamination of enclosed spaces where persons periodically gather, and more specifically, to methods and systems for dispersing decontamination products such as biological and chemical decontamination products.
Recently, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) pandemic has revealed a clear vulnerability regarding global disease transmission, and its effect on the global economy. One industry that was seriously affected is the transportation industry which includes the airline industry. Current concerns over the H1N1 virus have reaffirmed the effect of such pandemics on the global economy as well as the economics of the airline industry. For example, during the SARS pandemic, airlines lost billions of dollars of revenue due to maintenance and reduced aircraft availability.
The long decontamination processes, currently recommended by the CDC requires using manual wipe out of the surfaces, which can be easily seen as impacting aircraft operation and could contribute to a loss of revenues for airlines. For example, manual disinfecting of an aircraft vehicle is very time consuming. For a typical commercial aircraft this manual wipe down process can take days or even weeks to complete. As the process is performed by airline personnel, there are limitations to this “cloth and bucket” approach. Manual sprayers are known, but again, such a process can be inadequate and less efficient.