Newton Abbot Racing take on AIRsteril units protecting staff and visitors

Horse racing is a big industry in the sporting world. Many people from all walks of life join on race day to admire the exceptional horses, the talented jockeys and trainers but also enjoy the social aspect of a good day out. The venue at Newton Abbot also provides event and conference facilities throughout the year, ranging from antiques and collectable fairs, conference venues, exhibition venues and even more personal events such as cookery classes and wedding venues.

 

Covid-19 has of course completely changed the way racing now works. For all racing events, the race itself has been restricted to ‘behind closed doors’ and there are strict rules in place for everyone involved.  It has also sadly meant that the general public are no longer able to attend the race in person.  Ensuring that the building is adequately ventilated, ensuring that the environment is Covid secure is a challenge.

 

Pat Masterson, Managing Director for Newton Abbot Racecourse, initially contracted the services of a local company who used fogging to decontaminate the jockey changing areas prior to use. The service worked well, but the racecourse had many other rooms to manage including the offices for the staff where ventilation was proving difficult through the winter due to the cold and papers flying around when windows were left open. In addition, the team were getting increasingly concerned about the moisture residue left as a result of the fogging and the impact that the chemicals will start to have on their equipment. Pat says, “It was becoming obvious that we needed a longer-term solution to protect the staff and our guests.  The Government and SAGE advice was clearly indicating that Covid-19 will be with us for many years to come and we couldn’t continue in this limiting way”.

 

The long-term solution for decontamination and air purification that Pat chose was provided by CorrMed, a company based in the South West who specialise in safety and infection control products. CorrMed undertook a site survey and in consultation with Pat and the technical team, a number of options of the AIRsteril air purification system were recommended.

 

AIRsteril provides a chemical free approach to purifying the environment, killing virus and bacteria in the air and surfaces in as little as 1 hour. Unlike the moisture and chemical fogging systems that were being used, AIRsteril systems use advanced UV technologies to produce a plasma quatro which moves through the air and across the surfaces.  AIRsteril is safe and effective, and can be left to run in the office all day and night, protecting the air continually.

 

The racecourse now manage many of the rooms within the venue using mobile AIRsteril units, where they are left to run over night to decontaminate the betting halls both before and after jockeys come in, as this is their new socially distanced jockey changing rooms. The same mobile AIRsteril units are then deployed in the Covid-19 testing rooms, also located at the racecourse, thus providing a very flexible and targeted air purification across the venue.  To protect the office staff, permanent AIRsteril air purification units have been installed in the open plan offices, providing a greater peace of mind that ventilation is being managed and risks of cross infection are being reduced.

 

Pat says “Newton Abbot Racecourse were extremely pleased with the service both during negotiations and afterwards ensuring the product we were sold were the right product for us.

Katie and her team gave me the confidence that we were buying the right products, which we could use in confidence for any event that takes place at the racecourse with these excellent AIRsteril decontamination and air purification.

It is hoped that in the future we will buy some more once we get back to some normality in the months to come.”