This material was produced by the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ)
under contract to the Ministry of Education in 2000 and 2001. It was written
to assist teachers and schools in their delivery of the technology/ hangarau
curriculum statements. The project was jointly coordinated by personnel
from the Technology Education New Zealand (TENZ)
and National Association of Māori Mathematicians, Scientists and Technologists
(NAMMSAT) networks. Monitoring and evaluation of the material was carried
out by a national project advisory group.
A recent innovation in air conditioning systems can be traced back to
problems experienced by children in a New Zealand crèche.
A research chemist with Materials Performance Technologies, a wholly owned
subsidiary of Industrial Research Limited, found that her children often
came home from crèche with colds and sore throats that would then
usually spread around the whole family. Two and a half years later, a
new range of bug killing, air conditioning filters laced with manuka oil
are about to be launched onto the Singapore market.
Although long used in Māori medicine and more recently in many over-the-counter
cosmetics and therapeutic products, the potent anti-microbial properties
of manuka oil have never been used previously in air conditioning filters
to knock out airborne fungi and bacteria.
While chemically modified air filters that aim to do a similar job are
currently available for air conditioning systems, they are usually expensive
options. More importantly, unlike manuka oil, which literally knocks them
dead, current filters merely trap fungi and bacteria. The use of manuka
oil also meets the growing international demand for effective, clean,
green, biodegradable, and affordable health care products that have no
side effects on people or their environment.
It is envisaged that home users will in the near future be able to buy
packets of filters, each with a working life of around six weeks, from
supermarkets. Commercial applications would be likely to see large filters
fitted in central points within air conditioning systems. With research
showing manuka oil as one of the few compounds effective against respiratory
disease-causing airborne penicillium the filters could play a leading
role in combating illnesses caused by the so called "sick building" syndrome,
and a diminution of the colds, flu, and sore throats that spread so easily
wherever people gather. High rise office blocks, hotels, airports, shopping
malls, schools, hospital wards, rest homes for the elderly, and yes, crèches,
are all seen as potential sites for the new product.
This report has been taken from the December 2000 issue of iNNOVATE,
the magazine of Industrial Research Ltd (IRL).
Details of current IRL activity can be found at www.irl.cri.nz
Ideas
for classroom use
Manuka oil is one of a range of essential oils produced commercially in
New Zealand. Some extraction processes can be carried out by students
if the appropriate facilities are available but a wide range of oils are
readily available to schools through commercial suppliers. This allows
the oils to be used in a range of product development activity including:
