Fixing the lights
Most people are well aware that the chemical element mercury is toxic. However, many people aren’t aware that mercury is still used in the manufacture of fluorescent lights, dental amalgam and other everyday products. What’s more, no government regulations exist mandating the capture and recycle of mercury and other metals from such products. Much of it ends up as landfill.
Melbourne-based metal recycling company CMA Eco Cycle, part of the publicly-listed CMA Group, is doing its best to end this madness by commercialising the Tube Terminator – a mobile disposal unit for fluorescent light tubes. Invented by Karl Lapinskas, The Tube Terminator solves the problem of mercury vapour escaping into the environment when old fluorescent light tubes are simply thrown away like common trash. The technology attracted significant attention, including that of CMA Eco Cycle, after it was named the winning invention on ABC TV’s The New Inventors on 25 July, 2007. CMA Eco Cycle purchased the Tube Terminator technology to complement its existing lighting, imaging and mercury waste recycling operations, hiring Lapinskas to continue developing and manufacturing the technology.
“We’re the only EPA licensed mercury distiller in Australasia, says CMA Eco Cycle’s General Manager Dale Robbins. “We collect and recycle lighting waste from all over Australia – we have branches in each state in Australia and an agent in New Zealand. We saw that the onsite mobility of the Tube Terminator would be a good fit for some of our more remote customers.”
CMA Eco Cycle is due to rollout the Tube Terminator in its existing markets in the third quarter of 2008. The company also has its sights set on international markets, receiving significant expressions of interest from South East Asia as well as from its primary mercury recovery equipment supplier, based in Sweden.
“We’ve been pushing a barrow uphill for a long time and we can finally see the top of the hill,” says Robbins of the company’s ongoing effort to recycle mercury and other lighting waste. “If we can get the government to issue a ban on discarding fluorescent tubes as landfill, that would go a long way to ensuring that the majority is recycled.”
GROWING OLD GRACEFULLY
Typically, the young and healthy don’t spend much time thinking about incontinence. But everyone knows that it could well be a reality for all of us one day. To date, continence care for the aged and disabled has been an extremely manual, expensive and time-consuming process. Pads have to be physically checked and, if necessary, changed several times a day. There has been no other way.
Melbourne-based company Fred Bergman Healthcare (FBH) is about to shake things up by introducing SimPAD®, a revolutionary continence-monitoring system based on the work of visionary Melbourne doctor Fred Bergman, who passed away suddenly in early 2005, aged 58.
SimPAD® system involves a sensor and transmitter inserted into a traditional adult incontinence pad. It sends data to a PC/laptop revealing what kind of event has occurred in the pad, which is then converted by an algorithm into graphical diagnostic data and an automated bladder chart. This information is communicated via Wi-Fi to a carer, who decides whether a pad change is required.
“The continence management of an aged person is the most expensive part of their care,” says Philippa Lewis, CEO, Fred Lewis Healthcare. “If you can automate that care and make it better, then you are saving tremendous amounts of money and time. SimPAD® helps to keep borderline patients out of pads, healthier, more independent and, importantly, it keeps their dignity intact.
Continence assessment forms a major part of the federally mandated three-day assessment of all patients entering an aged care facility in Australia, and this is where FBH is targeting its initial marketing efforts. Lewis points out that the SimPAD®’s accurate continence assessment, based on quantifiable data, may also make aged care facilities eligible for more Commonwealth funding, as incontinent patients receive the highest level of disability funding.
The SimPAD® has secured Therapeutic Goods Administration approval and is scheduled for commercial release in late 2008. Following a controlled Australian market launch, the company’s management plans to pursue an international licensing strategy, targeting European and American pad manufacturers.
A NEW TENANT FOR INNOVATION @ 257
(Level 1, 257 Collins Street Melbourne)
The Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF) took up residency as a tenant at Innovation @ 257 from 1 July 2008 joining service providers and industry bodies engaged in the innovation and commercialisation of ideas and technologies. Further information can be found regarding MRCF by visiting the website: www.brandoncapital.com.au/funds.
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