Mohammed Zulfiquar, CEO of Datatecnics in Birmingham, UK, has used innovative technology to develop an asbestos alert system for residential and commercial use. ADAAS (Asbestos Disturbance Automated Alert System) is a clear, film-like, adhesive surface covering made up of tiny asbestos censors connected in web-like fashion. ADAAS can be applied on walls or other asbestos containing materials much like wallpaper. Using a basic wire hook-up system the invisible film sounds an alarm when asbestos is detected.
Asbestos causes severe respiratory illnesses, including mesothelioma, a rare and fatal cancer. While the world’s mesothelioma cases are on the rise from an estimated twenty thousand annually to an estimated ninety thousand, Zulfiquar’s invention comes at a crucial time. Much less expensive than standard asbestos abatement, and not nearly and disruptive, ADAAS can be applied while life and work continue, for a fraction of the cost of having the toxic materials removed.
Mesothelioma is characterized by an extensive latency period. Once asbestos fibers are inhaled into the lungs, a process of tumor development begins and quietly spreads irregularly through inner organ lining. Typically patients do not demonstrate mesothelioma symptoms until two to five decades after asbestos exposure. This long latency period makes early detection next to impossible, while symptoms that mimic those of pneumonia and bronchitis further postpone proper mesothelioma diagnosis.
Once patients are diagnosed with mesothelioma, life expectancy is short, most often ranging from six months to two years. Mesothelioma treatments include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, all of which focus on extending life expectancy and raising quality of life. Some alternative, ‘radical’ treatments do exist for mesothelioma, including removal of affected organs and internal tissues.
The UK, US, Australia, Japan, and other countries are realizing the dangers of asbestos materials once used heavily by industries and manufacturing lines. Now, as asbestos containing materials begin to age and break down, what were once considered safe and reliable products are becoming a threat to public safety. Asbestos exposure can be found in countless structures, products and equipments used in homes and workplaces around the world. ADAAS was inspired by Zulfiquar’s desire to minimize negative impact of asbestos exposure—his desire to save lives.
“Asbestos is in a lot of public buildings. The Government estimated that 70% of UK schools contain it and the guidance from the Health and Safety Executive is to manage most of it, not remove it,” Zulfiquar said in a recent Electronics Weekly article.
In the same article, Zulfiquar says of his product, “You paper the wall, and have just two wires connected to a control; something like an alarm. My first prototype was just aluminium foil on sheets of paper.” Development of ADAAS was a process, the end result, a celebration. Zufiquar’s innovation has taken mesothelioma prevention to a whole new level.