January 18, 2022 By Carol Britton Meyer
The brother and sister team of Hingham natives Brittany Hampton and Jonny Beale created the Boston-based Purifly company in response to the pandemic, providing disinfecting services and unique self-cleaning surface protection for commercial spaces, small businesses, childcare centers, restaurants, and other locations as a protective barrier to COVID-19 infection.
Together, Hampton and Beale also run a decades-old family business, Boston Building Maintenance. Hampton is a working mother of two children who is helping to run the two companies. Beale is a father of three and a pilot for a major airline and the United States Air Force Reserve. Both attended Hingham Public Schools.
Former Hingham residents Ryan and Bryce Scottron, who are brothers, also work for Purifly. "Bryce is a best friend of mine. . . . I was friends with Bryce growing up in Hingham. He was interested in finding a way to help during the pandemic and expressed an interest in joining the business," Beale said. "He and Ryan are an integral part of our team."
The company website describes the Purifly cleaning system: "Our best-in-class disinfecting process…and surface barrier kill 99.9 percent of viruses and bacteria -- including the strain that causes COVID-19."
Besides the above-mentioned businesses, Purifly also serves a major NBA team, the Hingham Shipyard Patriot Cinemas complex, sporting venues, locker rooms, and practice facilities, and fitness centers. "Our client base runs the gamut," Hampton said.
At the start of the pandemic, the Hingham Little League board, on which Beale serves, initiated a plan through Purifly to sanitize their equipment "to prevent the passing of germs on the playing field, using an organic-based chemical. We donated our services," he said.
Beale went on to explain that the company uses only chemicals that are "safe for our clients, the environment, and the surfaces that we disinfect."
As background, it was during their work at Boston Children's Hospital that their first cleaning company, Boston Building Maintenance, received perfect scores for infection control and environmental services during federal accreditations at the centers they provide services. They were proud to learn they kept the childcare center there free of COVID and Norovirus.
"Unbeknownst to us, the childcare director did a five-month case study (from October 2019 through March 2020) on our disinfecting process, which monitored the health and safety of the 93 children and 46 adults that were interfacing at the center during that time period," Beale said. "The results were they had 0 cases of COVID, 0 cases of Norovirus, 0 cases of flu in adults, and only 4 cases of flu in children that neither spread nor originated at the center."
Ironically, the results of the case study were released "at the exact same time as COVID was entering our society in the United States," according to Beale, and that's what gave him the idea to start Purifly.
He explained how the name and the business came about. "I observed during my travels as a pilot how cleaning and disinfecting were being done in hotels, restaurants, airports, and other places, and it wasn't the way we were doing it at BBM," Beale explained.
The patented Purifly disinfecting process provides 360-degree surface coverage, whereas most traditional cleaning systems "miss a lot of places" during their spraying and wiping process, Hampton explained. "Purifly protects surfaces with a 'shield' that lasts for a year. We revisit our clients periodically to ensure the efficacy of the system."
The name "Purifly" is a combination of part of the words, "purification" and "flying," related to Beale's pilot career.
Over the past year, Hampton and Beale have scoured the globe for the safest and healthiest chemicals and technologies to use in their business, hiring a chief infection prevention officer, Chris Romagnolo, with a distinguished past in the hospital sector to assist them with their research.
The company intends to submit information about Purifly to the EPA, seeking the agency's approval of the Purifly system, according to Beale.
"We've also given safety and health talks [to various groups] in an effort to help people keep safe during the pandemic," he said.
Visit https://purifly.com/ for further information.