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Air Today, Gone Tomorrow?

Hal Koch is one devoted dad. And his son Kyle is one lucky kid. Having suffered with asthma and coming from a family with respiratory problems including emphysema, Hal wanted to protect his son from developing breathing problems.

When Kyle was brought home from the hospital, the nurses said that he was not to go outside for the first month. Concerned about air quality, Hal surfed the Internet and learned that our air is not as clean as we think. Every year, over 10 million school days are missed and billions of dollars are spent on medical costs because of air pollution in this country. Hal learned that if a child’s immune system is impaired early, it sets the stage for problems down the road.

And it is on the road that Hal focused on air issues. He wanted to protect his son’s developing lungs. “People were having heart attacks from driving behind cars blowing exhaust in their faces. Every mode of transportation these days has an in-cabin air filtration system. The type of transportation that needs air filtration the most is the baby stroller.”

Born and raised in Queens, New York, Hal saw parents using covers on their strollers even on nice days, worried about fumes from buses. Keep in mind that most kids sitting in strollers are breathing right at tailpipe level, so they are getting doused with diesel exhaust. Even away from the city, Hal saw many parents taking their kids to the school bus while a younger sibling waited in a stroller. These siblings would wave goodbye, then get a blast of bus exhaust blown right in their faces. Yuck.

So, along with customizing Kyle’s stroller with, get this, mag wheels, headlights, taillights, undercarriage lights, rearview mirrors, DVD player, speedometer/odometer, temperature gauge, a cell phone holder and charger (because no parent should be caught without a cell phone), and a solar panel to keep everything charged—Hal invented the Air Guardian to filter the air Kyle breathed. “My son is now four years old and hasn’t wheezed a day in his life!” I’m sure Hal breathes a sigh of relief over that.

Hal’s first prototype came together in a day, with the help of his then two-year-old son, who put the O-rings on the tubing. Hal went to Home Depot, grabbed selected items off the shelves, and put them together. He named the first unit the Air Octopus because the ventilation tubes looked like an octopus’s arms. Deciding this design was too big and bulky, Hal bought more things from Home Depot and made a few more prototypes. The result is the Air Guardian, which is about the size of three cassette tapes. It attaches to the inside of an enclosed stroller, car seat, or bike trailer. The fans in the Air Guardian draw contaminated air through filters that, according to Hal, scrub the air clean up to 99.7 percent. The clean air is then blown toward the baby’s face, like a breath of fresh air.

Hal says everybody in the whole world supports his invention. Hal took the Air Guardian to the Yankee Invention Expo and it proved to be the star of the show. A month later, he was on ; text-decoration: none;”>The Tonight Show with Jay Leno for his “Pitch to America.” Kyle arrived at the show in his souped-up stroller. The audience got to vote—is the Air Guardian a likely “sell” or “no sell.” They voted it “a sell.” Hal’s next big move was a spot on ABC’s American Inventor show. He’s gotten some impressive airtime.

Hal was motivated to take the Air Guardian to market after he lost his job as a limousine driver two years ago, but he has always landed on his feet. Now he’s customizing strollers.

“The Air Guardian is not on the market yet, but it is patent pending. People come up to me wanting to be an investor on this project. But I have perfect credit and I’m not looking for just the money. I need someone who can help me with research and development, someone who has the knowledge to bring it to market.”

Hal has worked out most of the details; he even has a product motto: The Air Guardian: Bettering the Quality of Life for Our Little Ones.

With any luck, the right guardian angel will partner with Hal and together they’ll protect the next generation’s lungs. But right now, it’s still up in the air.