THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 29, 1994 TAG: 9409290430
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
Your parents warned you to never put your head in a plastic bag. Stephen Bilenky warns that your life could be in danger unless plastic covers your noggin.
The trouble comes in finding customers willing to wrap their faces in something that looks more like a turkey roaster sack than a life preserver.
``The Wonderbra sold out in 20 minutes. And for what?'' Bilenky wondered. ``This might save your life. And I can't get to first base with it. I've not sold the first one yet.''
The president of Dictograph Security Systems of Tidewater Inc. is hawking what he claims is the country's first low-cost ``smoke hood,'' a device designed to screen toxins and other fatal gases for the few minutes required to escape fires in homes, hotels and planes.
The hood, with a suggested retail price of $69.95, comes in two parts: an amber plastic head-covering that's attached to a lime-colored, soda-can-size filter. Canadian firm Brookdale International Systems Inc. makes the device, which it has christened the EVAC-U8.
Dictograph, a company that specializes in security and alarm systems, is the sole East Coast EVAC-U8 distributor.
Aside from its unusual appearance (undeployed, the hood is stuffed into a plastic cap on top of a canlike filter), Bilenky said there are two reasons the hood has been a tough sell.
``Number one, it always happens to the other guy,'' he said. ``Second, people don't want to think about problems.''
Nationally, there are perhaps a half-dozen smoke hoods on the market, ranging in price from around $100 to under $200. Lower-cost versions are available throughmail-order catalogs. Still to be cracked are retail outlets like hardware stores, home-supply warehouses and specialty shops, places Bilenky hopes eventually will stock the EVAC-U8.
Although Bilenky is quick to say he wants to make money on the Canadian hood, he believes that Dictograph's margins on the device will be low. He said he's motivated by more than profit.
``I look for stuff out there that will save lives and not just ring the cash register,'' Bilenky said. ``This (product) will save somebody's life. It gives you one more tool to get through the smoke safely.''
It's a tool you're better off without, counters the National Fire Prevention Association, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Boston. Wrestling open a smoke hood during a fire could slow your escape.
``For years, companies have been making filter masks and smoke-hood devices,'' said Julie Reynolds, association spokesperson. ``We do not recommend that individuals attempt to utilize these masks. Don't do anything that would take time away from escape.''
The association also is concerned about the false sense of security the smoke hoods might provide. Reynolds points out that all commercially available hoods don't screen every smoke toxin, don't provide an independent source of oxygen and don't cool superheated, lung-searing air.
Tom O'Mara, chairman of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, finds such arguments shortsighted. O'Mara refuses to endorse any one brand of smoke hood, but says hoods could give those trapped by fire in hotels and planes a fighting chance.
Study how the hood works, O'Mara advises, and you might gain a valuable few minutes of breathable air that literally might make the difference between life and death.
``Should you buy one of these? Yes,'' O'Mara said. ``Is your life worth 70 bucks? Sure. If you intend to travel a lot, stick a smoke hood in your briefcase. For me, it's like a diabetic carrying food: If you get a blood-sugar attack, you have something to chew on.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
JOHN EARLE/STAFF
WHERE THERE'S FIRE, THERE'S SMOKE
SOURCE: Brookdale International Systems Inc.
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB