- Small particles are a whole-body issue, not just a lung issue. As Larry puts it, the smallest particles “go through your lung, your lung blood barrier into your bloodstream,” so indoor air becomes a systemic exposure rather than a purely respiratory one. He also notes the sources are climbing: combustion and engine exhaust, wildfire smoke, and new molds and mildews showing up in cities as the climate shifts.
- Your HVAC filter was designed to protect the blower motor, not you. Larry’s line stays with you: “The better the filter on your HVAC, the worse your HVAC operates.” A denser filter chokes airflow, and even a true HEPA filter loses ground as it loads, with real-world performance the company says can drop below 50 percent unless it is changed roughly every three months.
- How a room air cleaner captures particles matters as much as whether it does. Rather than forcing air through fabric, Agentis uses an electrostatic approach: a screen, ionizing wires that charge the particles, and collecting plates that draw them in. According to the company’s stated specs, that design holds its rated performance for a full year on a cartridge that runs about $100, stays quiet at 53 dB on high, and covers up to 1,500 square feet.
Full Transcript
Air Pollution and Health Risks 0:00
The tools have been improving for measuring small particles in the air. So as those tools, have, been, improving, there's been more and more research being done about how many small, particles there are and what happens to them when we breathe them in. And the results of those studies that have. Been coming out over the last five to 10 years are there is a lot more small. Particles in, the, air than people thought. What they've realized is they go through your lung, your, lung blood barrier into your bloodstream and they cause all sorts of long-term health impacts.
As the tools for measuring small particles have improved, we've realized that there's a problem and there has been a problems. We just didn't really know about it. What if aging isn't about slowing down, but leveling up? I'm Dr. Isaac Jones. This is the Longevity Leaders Podcast. Welcome everybody to the Longevity Leaders podcast. My name is Dr. Rudy Mueller, one of the co-hosts, and I'm here with Larry Rothenberg, president of Agentes Air. Welcome, Larry. We really look forward to having this conversation with you.
Thank you! Yeah, so like, I think when we talk about and think about air quality, it's probably something that most people don't really pay attention to and don' really care for. But when you look at pollution and its effects on longevity and maybe some of hallmarks of aging, there's a great impact there. You know, if it weren't for my phone alerting me every time that we're in polluted air when I'm traveling, right? I don't know how much I'd be thinking about it besides indoor air. So I am curious, like what got you involved in Agentsis Air?
Was there a backstory there that like brought you into the company? So I've been involved in a lot of different technology companies.
Introducing the Longevity Leaders Podcast 1:35
And I had a friend who was part of the University of Washington research group that came up with this technology. Once they developed it, they wanted to spin it off into a company. He knew that I have a long issues in my family. It was a passion of mine. So they brought me into the group to help spin out the company and that's how I got involved. And I was interested because it's a technology that solves some of the basic problems that most people have with air purifiers, which is around the maintenance and the performance over time.
So yeah, so that's how I got involved. Nice, nice. And so what, what type of issues or problems is a Gentus Air solving for today?
Why Larry Rothenberg Joined Agentsis Air 2:25
So there's two things going on. One is that the tools have been improving for measuring small particles in the air. So as those tools are improving, there has been more and more research being done about how many small particle there are. And what happens to them when we breathe them in? And the results of those studies that have been coming out over the last five to 10 years are alarming. And so basically there's a lot more small particles in the air than people thought. They're coming from things like combustion, high-performance engines in cars produce a lots more smaller particles, wildfires produce lot of particles.
And then they've been tracing these smaller particles and what they realized is they go through your lung blood barrier into your bloodstream and they cause all sorts of long-term health impacts. So, as the tools for measuring small particles have improved, we've realized that there's a problem and there has been a problems.
Why Air Quality Matters for Longevity 3:25
We just didn't really know about it. The other issue is that, there have been some new threats. around new kinds of molds and mildews that are in the air that a lot more harmful and climate change has been moving those up into a a big cities. And the other is wildfires. So it turns out that wildfire smoke is extremely dangerous. It has a lots of small particles in it and more and of the country is being subject to wild fire smoke at unpredictable times and so And finally, one side effect of COVID was that the people in the HVAC industry started taking air quality more seriously.
And as they did, what they realized was, that most people were relying on their HFAC filter. Sure. The problem is that that just doesn't work. So first of all, your HFC filter doesn' filter small part of it. The second is the better the filter on your HVAC, the worse your hVac operates. So the industry, ASHRAE in particular, which is governing body of the HFAC industry has been increasingly formally recommending the use of room air purifiers. So yeah, that's really interesting. I mean, yeah. So those are kind of some of the trends that have been happening.
Yeah. There's a couple of things, like from central air perspective, I've got a filter on my AC, but then if you were to get to the ability to filter small particles or smart particulates, then the airflow wouldn't be good enough to be able to run your AC. Exactly. If you're a medical doctor, nurse practitioner, chiropractor, or other health expert that's stuck in a broken system, there's a better way.
HEPA Limitations and the Agentsis Air Approach 5:15
The Freedom Webinar shows you a proven five-step system to build a seven-figure virtual health practice or how to modernize your current brick and mortar practice without the burnout. Learn to create high ticket programs, automated income, residual revenue, and attract clients ready to work with you. Book your million dollar strategy session today by clicking the link in the description. And the filter on your HVAC system is designed to protect the HFACS system. It's designed. To keep particles from, well, from destroying the motor.
Right. it's not really designed and most people's H VACs system, the blower is not designed, to push air through a dense filter. So even if you wanted to have. a very high filtration rated filter. Most people couldn't do it even if they wanted. It would prevent the HVAC system from working. The other thing that I thought was interesting is mold and fires. I mean, the fires are burning all of our plastics, all the metals, and all these chemicals, right? So it's off-gassing all that, then it is going through the air and then we are breathing it in and having all sorts of issues from a health perspective, whether that be immediately, acutely, or long-term.
The other issue with wildfires is that by and large, most people don't have the ability to get away. So if you're living in your home, working in office, and there's a wildfire 500 miles away and the prevailing winds are bringing it into your area, most people don't really have the tools to pack up and leave for a month while that dissipates. So you're kind of trapped inside your home or work. And so, and, you know, the EPA and ASHRAE are both increasingly recommending the use of room air purifiers in that circumstance.
Okay. So, from my understanding, like with the agentis air, it's a HEPA filter. Like give me a little bit of information around agentus air. What makes this? filtration system. Right. So we are an alternative to HEPA. A Hepa filter basically is fabric and you push the air through the fabric. The problem with a HEpA filter is that as the filter collects particulates, the less and less air can get pushed through it because the back pressure grows, it gets constricted. The challenge with a HEPA filter is that to keep it operating at its, the capacity you want it to.
So probably the advertised capacity. That advertised, capacity, right. Which is the new, like no Hepa filter advertises how the unit performs three months in after you've been collecting dust.
How the Electrostatic Filtration System Works 8:25
so to Keep it at that rated capacity You should probably be changing that filter every three. Now, the fact is very few people do that. So in the real world, most people's HEPA filters are not performing as advertised and oftentimes are performing below 50%. Our technology is different. And instead of pushing air through a filter, you're running your, You charge the particles and then the air runs between two plates. and it's pulled out of the air into melamine foam. So it stays at its full rated performance for a year, and you change the filter out, the collection cartridge out once a years.
And so it is really a higher capacity, higher performance filter. The other byproduct of this lower constriction rate is that it's extremely quiet. So most people with a HEPA filter are reluctant to run it on high in a room where you are. Now, of course, that's the time when you need it the most, when your actually in the room. Our unit is only 53 dB. Even on high, and it's a very smooth background noise. So, so it has consistent performance over time. You change the filter once a year instead of every three months.
It's only a hundred dollars for a new filter. And it is extremely quiet and, it, has a, very high capacity. so, up to 1500 square feet. Per unit? Yeah, per unit. Wow, that's really good. Yeah. yeah. commercial spaces and residential larger residential spaces so you know in a typical home on the main floor you might have a kitchen living area. That space is a perfect type of space for our unit.
Use Cases, Affiliate Program, and Closing 10:25
Do you have smaller units or like bedrooms and stuff? At this time we don't, but we will be bringing out smaller unit over time. Yeah. I'm really interested in the, so it's not going through a filter. That's right. You're saying it going between two foam and what's, how is it separating out these? So, the first phase of the filter, Well, first there's a screen which gets out the big particles. It's like hair and stuff like that. Yeah. Okay. Then it runs past wires, which emit ions and ions stick to the particles, so now the articles are charged and then it there is a repelling plate, Which is metal and a collecting plate which is foam and it gets pulled into the foam.
That's pretty interesting. It is. The people at the University of Washington who developed this technology, they were really electrostatic technology. This is kind of an offshoot of that technology that's been around for a long time. And it's always been known to be very energy efficient and very effective. But the problem was traditionally with an electrostat filter, you had to clean your plates off all the time, But this research group developed these foam cartridges. So instead of cleaning it once a month, you change it out once year.
It's kind of an evolution on top of that technology. That's awesome. Is there anything else that you'd like to share to practitioners? around the unit, around purchasing a unit if they're interested in getting involved. I don't know if you have an affiliate program. Yeah, we do. Yep. So we have, yeah, an Affiliate program, so basically this is the market that we're in. We're the wellness kind of high performance market. We do, we do some work in the commercial space. So we sell to spas, you know, commercial entities that are very sensitive about air quality.
We sell it to a doctor's and dentist's office. we sold to some commercial real estate where you have like communal rooms, like, break rooms or conference rooms. But the bulk of our business is really. consumers who are concerned about wealth, about wellness, and want a product that's going to be, you know, a high level, consistent performance. And yeah, so we do, we have a affiliate program and we always provide, uh, You know. Liberal discounts to people in the industry, practitioners who want to try a unit.
So we had a very aggressive discount program for, what we consider kind of like a Try it, try it out. Yeah. I mean, that's honestly, it's how we get most of our business. People try. They love it. It works really well. Then they appreciate how quiet it is. And then they start referring. That's the thing right there. You're standing next to a small car engine, you're head up against it like it isn't wild, man. and it disturbs everything. Like you try to sleep at night. It's too loud to do that. So I'm glad to hear that I definitely going to have to the try it out program.
Yeah, absolutely. We'd be happy to help you do. Cool. And then a website or anything that you want? Yeah. so it's brio air purifier.com. Brio Air Purifier, B-R-I-O. Okay. airpurifier dot com. Awesome. Yep. Well, thank you very much Larry. I appreciate your time. Oh, you're welcome. Thanks for listening to the Longevity Leaders podcast. A Lungevity leaders community is on mission to transform a hundred million lives by 2040. If you enjoyed the show, please share this with somebody that you know, especially another doctor or physician, but also click that follow button.
Until next time, stay strong and live long.
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