Invisible nostril filters for allergy sufferers
Bio International of Japan makes tiny nose filtration pads, held in place by an inconspicuous transparent pince-narine. At $15, they're cheap and yet somehow grossly overpriced. Do they work? Medgaget suspects not. As a test, could someone who suffers from allergies stiff coffee filters into their nostrils, dash through a field of hay, and get back to us?
Product Page [Biopit via Medgadget]
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This will only work if one is wearing goggles and a mouth filter as well; Allergens have a tendency to glom onto the wet surfaces of one's eyes, and drain through the tear ducts into the sinuses.
My guess: not only is this useless against allergens (for the reasons Bardfinn laid out).. but this thing gets real gross, real fast.
Reminds me immediately of Stephen King's Running Man (written under the Richard Bachman pseudonym). All the wealthy people had nose filters to keep the cancerous pollution out. Yes, they were a bit more intricate than this.
Maybe they don't work for allergies but they might work well for bad odors.
Worth mentioning that the market for allergy relief in Japan is in the billions of Yen. No hay fever relief nostrum can be too small, no pollen guard snake oil is too expensive. This article http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080213i1.html outlines the situation reasonably well but they dont build the connection between the fact that although the government caused the problem, the revenue generated by the "cures" outweighs the incentive to remove the cause. This topic is covered more extensively in Alex Kerr's "Dogs and Demons".