Gorton Community Center installs building air purifying technology

Gorton Community Center is now offering a building-wide extra layer of protection for its patrons.

The center, based in Lake Forest, just installed top-of-the-line air purifying technology to fight COVID-19 and other airborne pathogens. The purifier has been installed inside the heating and cooling systems throughout the historic building.

The active ionic oxidation air purifier uses ultraviolet light and catalytic reactions to create ionically charged airborne oxidizers. These highly effective oxidative air cleansers freely circulate throughout the interior air to help reduce and eliminate molds, virus, bacteria, microbes and chemical volatile organic compounds.

The ionization process also reduces allergens, smoke and static electricity, as well as controlling odors (cooking, pets, etc.) and other particles in the air without creating ozone or any harmful byproducts.

This means the air is being actively neutralized all around the building all the time, and cleaned further as it recirculates through the HVAC system.

This initiative was partially funded by the City of Lake Forest Local Business COVID-19 Support Grant Program.

"We are thankful to the city for this support, which in large part made the installation of the system possible," said Amy Wagliardo, executive director of the Gorton Center.

"We want Gorton to be a place where our community can gather once again in the safest ways possible, now and for many years to come. Gorton is thrilled to offer this building-wide extra layer of protection to all who use our building."

Testing on these systems has shown a 99-plus% inactivation rate against airborne pathogens. This will be in use going forward in addition to other initiatives, including increased cleaning, use of masks and social distancing, adherence to local crowd size guidelines and readily available sanitizer.

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