Montreal smoking lounge’s disinfection door turning heads

Montreal's Arabica Lounge sports an "intelligent disinfection door" that's the first of its kind in Canada, according to the owner.

Adel Yassine's newest acquisition is making heads turn in the restaurant business.

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For about one month now, Yassine's Arabica Lounge on Mackay St. has been equipped with an "intelligent disinfection door" that customers must pass through to gain access to the premises. It's the first of its kind in Canada, according to the owner.

Yassine sees the Chinese-made gate — a two-metre structure that measures body temperature and purports to kill bacteria with a disinfectant mist, ozone and ultraviolet light — as an essential tool to bring customers back and allow businesses like his to make up for some of the losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

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"It's reassuring, it calms people down," he said in a telephone interview. "I think it will also help to reduce costs. Instead of putting two people at the door, you can install this system and take care of the disinfection automatically."

While there's no evidence to suggest that the system actually wards off COVID-19, Yassine's decision to invest in a doorway does illustrate the lengths some business owners will go to woo customers back following the coronavirus-induced shutdown.

Disinfecting doors don't appear on Health Canada's list of authorized medical devices for uses related to COVID-19.

Health Canada, which regulates the sale, advertising and imports of medical devices, hasn't issued any authorization for ultraviolet disinfecting or sanitizing "doors" as medical devices or as pest control products, spokesman Éric Morrissette told the Montreal Gazette Tuesday via email.

Spraying individuals with disinfectants — such as in a tunnel, cabinet, or chamber — is not recommended under any circumstances, according to the latest interim guidance from the World Health Organization. "This could be physically and psychologically harmful and would not reduce an infected person's ability to spread the virus through droplets or contact," Morrissette said.

According to the U.S.-based International Ultraviolet Association, "there are no protocols to advise or to permit the safe use of ultraviolet light directly on the human body at the wavelengths and exposures proven to efficiently kill viruses" such as the coronavirus. Ultraviolet "irradiation of the skin, eyes or any body part should be avoided wherever possible," the IUVA said in April.

Benoît Barbeau, an engineering professor at École Polytechnique who works on surface disinfection, said he's sceptical that the door can really be efficient against COVID-19.

"It would be marvellous if it could work, but it won't work on what people carry in their lungs or their nose," he said in an interview. "We’d all like an easy solution to a complex problem."

Asked about health considerations, Yassine highlighted the gate's European Union certification and said he got Canada customs clearance to import the product. He also said he would contact Health Canada and the Quebec health ministry in the coming days to request further information.

Yassine, who owns several restaurants in the Montreal area and runs an import-export company, says he found out about the door through one of his Chinese suppliers. He ordered a unit when the manufacturer, Beijing Sunshine Technology Co., obtained its international certification, and the gate arrived in Montreal in late July.

Disinfection doors don't come cheap. Yassine says he paid about US$3,150, including shipping, for his model.

Montreal-area businesses have taken note. Yassine says he has fielded multiple inquiries about the product from friends and acquaintances in the restaurant business. As a result, he said, his company has placed a second order for 60 additional doors. One of the gates en route to Canada is earmarked for his 3 Amigos restaurant at the Palais des congrès, which he expects will reopen in mid-September.

Arabica Lounge itself reopened July 15 after a three-month shutdown.

Yassine, whose trading company distributed gel and masks to Quebec hospitals as the pandemic was gaining ground this spring, insists he isn't importing the doors to make money.

"As restaurateurs we’re among the people who have been hit the hardest by this crisis, and we want to help the community," he said. "We’re looking for something that can help everyone get back to some form of normalcy."

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