# Bacteria | C-POLAR Source: https://cpolar.tech/contaminants/bacteria/ Explore bacteria and the NanoFlashing™ approach to capturing and destroying them. This is the text of that page, in a form a machine can read. Nothing here is paraphrased, shortened or added to. Last reviewed: 2026-09-13 --- ## Bacteria spread infection by air, and they're negatively charged Most bacteria are harmless, but some spread illness through the air. In hospitals, airborne bacteria like Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas help drive an estimated 687,000 infections a year, about one in 31 patients on any given day. Bacterial pneumonia is roughly 15% of them, and a growing share resist the antibiotics we rely on. Every bacterial cell carries a negative charge. 0.5 to 2 µm A Human Hair: 70 µm - Source: [687,000 infections a year](https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer/health-care-associated-infections) - Source: [pneumonia is roughly 15%](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8296088/) - Source: [resist the antibiotics](https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antimicrobial-resistance) - Source: [carries a negative charge](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11118650/) --- ## Airborne bacterial infections are surging across America Reported cases, Legionnaires', whooping cough, TB, and meningococcal, have surged in the last few years, to about 52,000 in 2024. Pneumonia, the biggest, hospitalizes roughly 1.5 million Americans a year. Reported cases per 100,000 Lower Higher CDC, National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (updated weekly) 2025 47,800 cases 2023 2024 2025 --- ### What bacteria do to you Bacteria ride the air into your lungs, but the infection rarely stays there. It reaches the heart, brain, and kidneys, and the harm can outlast the illness by years. A University of Louisville study found that among older adults hospitalized for pneumonia, 38% were dead within a year, the year after is deadlier than the hospital stay itself. The UK government's O'Neill review projected that antibiotic-resistant infections could kill 10 million people a year by 2050, more than cancer kills today. Researchers counted about 1.6 million American adults hospitalized with pneumonia a year. - Source: [38% were dead within a year](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31916246/) - Source: [kill 10 million people a year by 2050](https://amr-review.org/sites/default/files/160518_Final%20paper_with%20cover.pdf) - Source: [about 1.6 million American adults hospitalized with pneumonia](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29020164/) ### What bacteria do to your brain Brain Meningococcal disease can kill within hours — the CDC reports it kills up to 1 in 7 even when treated, and leaves as many as 1 in 5 survivors deaf or with amputated limbs. A University of Michigan study in JAMA found that surviving severe sepsis tripled the odds of lasting memory and thinking loss — declines that persisted for up to 8 years. Sepsis survivors also carry a measurably higher risk of dementia in the years that follow. - Source: [kills up to 1 in 7 even when treated](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK620871/) - Source: [tripled the odds of lasting memory and thinking loss](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3345288/) - Source: [higher risk of dementia](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8959917/) ### What bacteria do to your lungs Lungs The CDC's EPIC study, in the New England Journal of Medicine, found pneumonia hospitalizes about 1 in 400 adults a year, and sends 1 in 5 of them to intensive care. Pneumonia is a leading trigger of acute respiratory distress syndrome — when the lungs flood with fluid — and a 50-country study found ARDS kills about 4 in 10 in intensive care. Legionnaires' disease was born in the air: a Philadelphia hotel's air-conditioning spread it through a 1976 convention, sickening 182 people and killing 29. - Source: [about 1 in 400 adults](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26172429/) - Source: [kills about 4 in 10 in intensive care](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26903337/) - Source: [sickening 182 people and killing 29](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/335244/) ### What bacteria do to your blood Blood When infection breaks into the blood it triggers sepsis — the CDC counts 1.7 million American adults with it each year, and at least 350,000 die. A Harvard study in JAMA of nearly 3 million patients found sepsis was present in 1 in every 3 hospital deaths. - Source: [1.7 million American adults](https://www.cdc.gov/sepsis/about/index.html) - Source: [1 in every 3 hospital deaths](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5710396/) ### What bacteria do to your heart Heart A University of Ottawa study found the risk of a heart attack or stroke jumps about fourfold in the 30 days after a pneumonia — and stays raised for years. Strep throat's long shadow — rheumatic heart disease, which scars the heart's valves — killed about 319,000 people worldwide in a single year. When bacteria settle on a heart valve, infective endocarditis eats it away — up to 30% of patients die, and half need surgery. - Source: [heart attack or stroke jumps about fourfold](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25602997/) - Source: [killed about 319,000 people](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28834488/) - Source: [up to 30% of patients die](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6964163/) ### What bacteria do to your kidneys Kidneys As sepsis takes hold it can shut down the kidneys — the CDC lists acute kidney injury among its most common and dangerous complications, and many patients end up on dialysis. - Source: [acute kidney injury](https://www.cdc.gov/sepsis/about/index.html) --- ## A conventional filter loads with living bacteria 26,000 living bacteria in 1 mg of a used filter. A conventional filter catches bacteria, but it does not kill them. In the warm, damp media, the bacteria stay alive. The University of Minnesota recovered 39 species of live bacteria from the HVAC filters of two U.S. buildings, mostly the hardy, spore-forming kind. A study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials found car cabin filters carried Mycobacterium, the genus that includes tuberculosis, with more than 400 species and up to 26,000 living colonies in a single milligram. The filter meant to remove bacteria becomes a reservoir of them, held alive in the airstream it feeds. In hospitals, about 60% of ventilation samples carried multidrug-resistant bacteria, the ones antibiotics no longer reliably kill. - Source: [recovered 39 species of live bacteria](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18385868/) - Source: [Mycobacterium, the genus that includes tuberculosis](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38691999/) - Source: [about 60% of ventilation samples carried multidrug-resistant bacteria](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8307074/) --- ## 100 million live bacteria Heavy dust load 100× the standard test dose NanoFlashing™ Control NanoFlashing™ captures the bacteria, and destroys it. Independent testing shows NanoFlashing™ destroys up to 99.99% of a broad spectrum of bacteria through a physical mechanism. Bacteria tested Staphylococcus aureus Klebsiella pneumoniae Escherichia coli Pseudomonas aeruginosa Enterococcus faecalis Tested by Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Medical School Textile Testing Institute - Brno, Czech Republic Hong Kong Metropolitan University The Open University of Hong Kong