Handy new hack for hay fever sufferers

Margaret Hawkins Health columnist edit@farmersjournal.ie

INTRO

Hay fever – allergic rhinitis - affects up to 20% of people worldwide and finding a drug free solution isn’t always easy.

This week we feature an entrepreneurial Kerry farmer’s son who has come up with a nasal filter designed to help those with allergies - and hear how he got the idea after TB trauma hit his family farm.

Margaret Hawkins reports.

Martin O’Connell, an electrical engineer from a dairy farming family in Brosna, County Kerry, admits that he probably wouldn’t have come up with the idea for his Allergy Nasal Filter if his brother’s dairy herd hadn’t contracted TB in 2013.

He wouldn’t be CEO of his own company now – Nasal Medical - or have won the AIB Start Up Academy Award in 2016 or most recently have signed a contract with global pharmaceutical giant Mylan which will probably see his company’s products on sale all over the world in the future.

“It’s a tough time for any farmer to hear that your animals have to be got rid of,” he says. “All of a sudden a breed that has been on the farm for decades has to be destroyed.

What happened set me thinking about what materials could be used in nasal filters that would stop cattle picking up TB bacteria.”

Martin, in his work, had come across an electrostatically charged filter material in the course of his training and work and this material sprang to mind after the TB losses at home.

“While a filter for cattle ultimately didn’t prove practical,” he says, “and we still have a business idea that needs to be developed related to early diagnosis of TB in cattle we went from thinking about preventing the spread of TB in cattle to how nasal filters using this material could help humans after acknowledging the pollution problem in Asia - and to developing a business idea around that.”

The ‘we’ in this instance is himself and the company co-founder, Keith Yeager, the mechanical engineer who had medical device development experience that he teamed up with in the United States.

The nasal filter they’ve developed uses material that can prevent the PM2.5 microns in pollens and spores accessing the nasal passages and getting into the lungs and bloodstream, triggering an allergic response in some people. The allergens could be pollen, mould spores or pet dander.

ALL ABOUT USER FRIENDLINESS

The company got a feasibility grant from Enterprise Ireland in 2015 which allowed them to develop prototypes.

“It takes a long time to get a product right. We developed hundreds of prototypes designed around the anatomy of the nose. Very few people would want to wear masks to stop pollen getting in so we aimed at making the filter one that you inserted in your nostrils so that it was invisible, discreet and comfortable. Comfort is an important aspect or people won’t wear it.

We really went to town on that aspect because there is nothing similar on the market that conforms to the shape of the nose. The breathability of the filter was important too. It was all about user friendliness.”

HAD TO MAKE THE BIG LEAP

Martin who is married to musician and DCU lecturer, Marie-Louise, and now dad to two girls under three, had to make the decision to commit totally to the new business in 2015.

“We were back in Ireland and I was working on it every evening but the time came when I had to make the big leap. We got the prototypes made as soon as we got the feasibility grant and I knew I had to go at it full time then.”

Winning the AIB Start Up Academy competition in 2016 was a huge advantage.

“We did an 8-week programme with the Academy and got €250,000 prize. That really opened doors for us and we are now collaborating with a lot of hospitals and research centres. We are currently working with UCD, DCU, DIT and Athlone IT developing more products.”

SNORING AID TOO

The company has already launched one product – the Discreet Snoring Aid in mid-2016.

“While we were developing the nasal filter for allergies a doctor we were working with spotted that the device, without the filter on it, would act as a stent for people’s noses so it would help people with deviated septums or those who suffer from any kind of congestion to breathe better.”

Developing this anti-snore product allowed the company to find a manufacturer for that and subsequent products and meet regulatory requirements like the CE mark.

The Allergy Nasal Filter has just joined the Discreet Snoring Aid on pharmacy shelves and will be soon joined by the Travel Nasal Filter for people travelling by air who don’t want to pick up viruses and the Sport Enhancement Aid, a strip that, Martin says, opens up the airways, allowing athletes to take in more oxygen.

An app called SnoreWatch will also soon be launched that can be used in conjunction with the snoring app to monitor one’s sleep.

“It can help identify sleeping patterns associated with sleep apnoea and snoring. You place the phone beside your bed at night and it records data of your snoring and sleep apnoea. These results can also be forwarded to your doctor. Also, if you are using our snoring aid, you can monitor the before and after results and potentially see the decrease in your snoring.”

All in all, the products are aimed at five target markets, he says – pollution, allergies, sleeping disorders, congestion and sport enhancement.

For snorers a vibrating device (that goes on your wrist or ankle) will soon be available.

“It will vibrate if you snore or have a sleep apnoea episode and the intensity of the vibration will increase until you turn over or stop snoring,” Martin says.

GOING GLOBAL IS THE DREAM

At present Nasal Medical employs four people including Martin and Keith and they outsource IT and regulatory tasks but the recent contract with Mylan will mean that a lot of the sales and marketing tasks will be taken over as a push to get the products into European and world markets begins.

But what is the dream?

“Going global is the plan,” he says. “That’s our focus - to get as many countries on board as possible and make the products accessible to the masses.”

Martin acknowledges the substantial help of Enterprise Ireland in their achievements to date.

“We’d be lost without Enterprise Ireland. They gave us several grants and are constantly helping us. An Irish-owned company called Steripak manufactures the Nasal Medical products in Malaysia. Enterprise Ireland put us in contact with them. I don’t know where we’d be if that hadn’t happened. I don’t think we’d be in existence without them and Enterprise Ireland - or that all this would ever have happened only for the TB trauma at home.”

The Guinness Enterprise Centre has also been very supportive.

One of a family of five siblings who are all engineers Martin who is also an All-Ireland Button Accordion Champion says that he would love to get back into farming at some stage.

“You miss the days of going out to do the silage or the hay, even going to the bog, believe it or not!”

And the early diagnosis of TB product hasn’t been totally forgotten either.

BREAK OUT BOX

HAYFEVER – FACTS AND ADVICE

World Allergy Week took place at the end of April.

An estimated 20% of Irish people suffer from hay fever in Ireland.

While there is no cure for hay fever, sufferers can manage their symptoms in several ways, for example, by:

? Wearing wraparound sunglasses

? Bathing or showering after being outdoors

? Closing windows in early morning and late at night

? Not hanging your clothes out to dry

? Using a HEPA filter

? Using a Nasal Medical Allergy Filter

Dr Paul Carson, founder of Allergy Ireland, and based at the Slievemore clinic in Dublin has conducted clinical trials of the allergy filter invented by Martin’s company.

“We have found that this filter is a simple but effective way of preventing allergens entering the nasal system, therefore reducing the symptoms associated with hay fever,” he says.

Dr Carson himself has developed a Hay Fever Relief App that can be used in conjunction with the filter developed by Martin O’Connell.

“It will give live pollen updates for your area, either in Ireland or the UK, alerting people to when the pollen count is high and when to use their Nasal Allergy Filter.”

The filter can be used by those who can’t take medication for their allergies e.g. pregnant women.

Martin O’Connell previously won the Intertrade Ireland Seedcorn Regional final and more recently won a place on an intensive ‘Bridge to Mass Challenge’ boot-camp in Boston for entrepreneurs, winning from a group of 60 Irish start-up companies.

The company has just been shortlisted for the National Startup Awards in conjunction with Bank of Ireland and Enterprise Ireland.

SYMPTOMS OF HAY FEVER (allergic rhinitis)

• Blocked or runny nose

• Itchy, red, watery or puffy eyes

• Congestion

• Sneezing

• Sinus pressure

• Diminished sense of taste and smell

• Lethargy

• Increased risk of asthma attack for those with this condition

BREAK OUT BOX

FAIR DEAL – FAIR WARNING

If you have understated your income or assets when completing the financial application for the ‘Fair Deal’ Nursing Home Scheme e.g. not declaring a UK pension, disclosing some savings or property this may all come out in the wash – in your will, in fact.

ICL Health has it on good authority that very soon after a person dies who has been in a nursing home and availed of the Fair Deal scheme dies a letter arrives to next-of-kin within five weeks of the funeral asking for a copy of the person’s will.

If nothing was understated, no problem.

If asset items turn up in the will that haven’t appeared on your financial application form the nursing home financial liability will be reassessed.

PHOTO INFO

Main image suggestions – hay fever – istock.com

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Suggested caption: An estimated 20% of Irish people suffer from hay fever in Ireland.

Also sending:

Image of Martin O’Connell (on farm if possible)

Image of nasal filter