John Ryan and John McKeon of Allergy Standards: ‘If you have a respiratory allergy, you need products that are at a level below minimum safety standards to make them suitable for you. What we’ve done is develop a level of sensitivity below the industry norms, so the products meet higher standards.’ Picture by Fergal Phillips
McKeon decided to do something about it, and came up with the idea of developing a set of product standards that would give consumers information about whether products met certain criteria in the realm of respiratory protection. “But there wasn’t anything like that in the area of respiratory allergies, or asthma. So John’s idea was to develop technical standards and to put a certification mark on them so people could see which products met those standards.”
It divides its business into three broad categories. It develops technical standards, performs product testing for certification purposes, and licenses intellectual property to its clients. Allergy Standards currently employs nine people directly and outsources some testing work. “Our vision for the next five years is to double the business, and then double it again,” Ryan said.