Anderson Coach & Travel, located in Mercer County, has added technology to its fleet of tour buses that is said to nearly eliminate airborne viruses, including COVID-19."It's kind of like having a seatbelt and an airbag in your car," said Joe Urso, CEO of ActivePure Technologies, the technology installed on the nearly 200 buses used in and around Pittsburgh. The system is installed in a small section of the overhead compartment on the buses and operated by the driver. "Once I have the coach running, I come back and turn it on and up to full speed and the unit will run the whole time," said Dan Chornenky, who has been a bus driver for Anderson Coach & Travel for nine years.The addition of ActivePure does not change the mitigation efforts onboard Anderson Coach & Travel buses. Chornenky said he still wipes the surfaces by hand. He is still separated from passengers by plexiglass — the front seats remain open to allow for distance from the driver — and everyone on board is required to wear masks. Urso said the technology is designed to help and is proven to make a difference. "It originated in the NASA space program and we've developed it to a much more advanced stage where it basically eliminates airborne pathogens in real-time by using our special proprietary formula and it actually creates these from oxygen and humidity in the air," Urso said. "The technology, more importantly, is proven. It's proven by FDA testing, military labs and it has most recently been demonstrated to reduce 99.9% of airborne COVID in less than three minutes, with the very system that's being used on busses right there in Pittsburgh."