 Actress Lee Young-ae takes a look at LG Electronics’ new air conditioner at Grand Hyatt Seoul, Thursday. Lee models for the company. / Newsis |
LG Electronics, the world's leading air conditioner maker, said on Thursday that it will start selling air conditioners that prevent avian influenza with a special filter coated with a substance extracted from a fermented kimchi. The new air conditioners target Southeast Asian countries affected by bird flu and will be marketed this year.The new products, nicknamed ``Anti-A.I. Aircon,'' have a filter covered with an anti-bacterial substance extracted from kimchi, South Korea's spicy fermented cabbage dish, the company said in a press conference.
``A special filter is coated with a substance called leuconostoc citreum, which is derived from kimchi. After tests, the filter was found to block viruses that causes bird flu,'' said Seo Seok-jang, chief of the company's air conditioner research lab, during the conference held at Grand Hyatt Hotel in central Seoul.
There have been a few reports that indicate kimchi and other fermented dishes could be effective in treating avian influenza on birds, as a Seoul National University team reported last year. However, there hasn't been no evidence of its effect on humans so far and there is no commercially available vaccine to protect humans against the bird flu yet.
Seo said that the company first designed the product two years ago, and is working to get patents for it. LG said the effect of the new air conditioner was certified by China Agricultural Scientific Academy, and a British research firm Estro Screen Virology is about to issue a certificate within this month. The two agencies were not available for comment.
During the news conference, LG also said it successfully maintained the top position in the household air conditioner market for sixth consecutive year by selling 10.5 million units in 2005. The global market was estimated to be 60.4 million and China's Haier followed LG at around 8 million units, the company said citing a report by Japan's Fuji Economics Research Institute.
LG said it will start operations at its new factory to be built in Poland from late this year, to increase the global production capacity from current 14.4 million to 16 million by 2007. Currently, it can produce 7.4 million units in overseas factories and 5.5 million in South Korea.
``Chinese makers have an edge in price, but most of their manufacturing facilities are located within China which means that they cannot handle rapid demand changes from different regions in the world,'' Lee Young-ha, CEO of LG's household appliance department said. ``As we increase the production capacities in our bases overseas, we will be able to meet the such rapid changes in demand, unlike the Chinese competitors.''
I think that LG's Anti-Bird Flu Aircons comes out timely, as now the influenza-horrific shadows never faded since the Bird Flu broke out in Southeas Asia ~ two year ago! Anyway such aircons will have provided one more protective manner to hinder flu virus to spread fast.
Technorati tags: Bird Flu,LG, Aircons
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