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HEPA: Noun or modifier?
Building Wellness Consultancy, Inc. Alpharetta, Ga.
(In the July 13 News, page four, we corrected an earlier definition of the acronym HEPA. According to the National Air Filtration Association and others, HEPA stands for "high efficiency particulate air." However, agreement on this point is not universal, as the following letter illustrates. -Editor)
Guys, all of you are wrong. You can call it what you want, but the historically correct meaning of the acronym HEPA is "high-efficiency particulate arrestor." It is still, in fact, defined in some IES specs as such, and the sales literature from original manufacturers referred to it as such.
It might be helpful to understand why this came about and why the acronym must be a stand-alone noun. The original benefactor of the patented technology for making the filter marketed it under the registered trademark, "Absolute." The patent was broken in the courts in the early 1960s (since it was developed by public money as part of the Manhattan project).
By then, however, the industry had picked up...