Covid, the killer virtues of copper in a made in Italy mask-eyewear system

A dense ‘cobweb’ woven with copper, ’embroidered’ in two layers of insulating material enclosed between two others, and hooked to a pair of glasses traversed by low-voltage electronic impulses. Stimuli that allow ‘red gold’ to express its known germicidal properties, particularly valuable in the time of Covid-19. This is how the facial protection system featured in an industrial invention patent filed with the Ministry of Economic development by a Bolognese team. A 100% made in Italy solution, explains to Adnkronos Salute Matteo Paggi, inventor of the device “designed for the medical-hospital sector – he specifies – but also for anyone who wants a technological mask with superior properties” to a classic ‘surgical’ one. In era Covid “many solutions have been created, 90% of Chinese origin, sometimes of dubious effectiveness. Together with my collaborators, Simona Baietti who worked in the healthcare sector, and Davide Rodella, engineer – says Paggi, electronic expert – we therefore we designed a new facial protection device that guarantees a high level of defense due to the technical characteristics on which it is based, and we presented it at the Bugnion Spa in Bologna. Here the engineers Barbara Casadei and Simone Milli, highly trained professionals who really care to thank, they felt that there is no such thing on the market and drafted our project “, so as to send it to the Patent and Trademark Office of the Mise. After the filing, “at this stage we are proposing the invention to well-known pharmaceutical or electro-medical companies, hoping that they can support it through their production and distribution network”. Among the special features of the mask there is “the guarantee of a minimal size on the face, because it only covers the nose and mouth – underlines Paggi – like an aerosol nozzle”. While the glasses “can be customized to support prescription lenses as well”, in case the wearer needs prescription glasses. But why red gold? “Copper – recalls the creator of the new device – is a material on which any pathogenic organism cannot survive”. A virtue “known since ancient times”, which Paggi and colleagues have “combined with low voltage electrical impulses, adjustable and generated by a structure placed inside a pair of standard glasses, but precisely customizable”. “At the center of the glasses – still describes the ‘Archimede’ of Bologna – there is a hook-and-release system of the mask, made of two layers of very dense and extremely thin copper mesh – he points out – placed between two other layers of insulating material similar to that of a surgical mask, which allows easy breathing “. Therefore, shaped so as to cover only the nose and mouth, the mask also promises “a tight fit to the face” thanks to elastic bands that start from the lower area, on the sides of the mouth, to reach the ears. And “in case of breakage or malfunction, thanks to the coupling-release mechanism placed on the nose pad of the glasses, only the mask can be removed and replaced”. “In this moment of health emergency it is particularly important for us to make this device known, because if doctors and health workers can operate safely – this is the hope of the inventors – they also have a way to treat those who get sick without risk “.