Blog & News

Taza Aya’s showing at the Watt Poultry Tech conference in Atlanta earned it a place among the 28 Technologies to Watch in 2026.  See the Watt Media story here.

The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) held a workshop on 29-30 September 2025 to address the needs and lack of solutions available to protect high-risk farmworkers from respiratory diseases.  NASEM recently released the workshop proceedings, a printed report that compiles all of the workshop sessions including speaker presentations and discussions.  Taza Aya was honored to have been featured prominently for its plasma-enabled wearable air curtain, which stood out as the only respiratory protective solution on the horizon to address the needs of workers and persons not covered under a respiratory protection program that would mandate facemask (e.g., N95)

Taza Aya has appointed Dr. Robert S. Donofrio to the position of Chief Executive Officer.

Dr. Donofrio brings over 30 years of corporate experience leading innovation, product development, and product commercialization across the food safety, public health, and life science sectors, an outstanding alignment with Taza Aya’s current beachhead and future addressable markets.

National Academies to Host Workshop on PPE Practices To Protect Farmworkers Against H5N1 Transmission

The National Academies’ Standing Committee on Personal Protective Equipment for Workplace Safety and Health will host a two-day virtual workshop, September 29-30, to examine personal protective equipment (PPE) needs for workers in high-risk U.S. farm settings, as well as best practices to control Influenza A (H5N1) transmission between livestock and humans. 

Taza Aya chief scientific officer, Herek Clack, is a member of the standing committee, a member of the workshop planning committee, and will serve as moderator for a session on novel PPE technologies and approaches in which Taza Aya’s plasma-enabled wearable air curtain will be

Despite the unprecedented April power outage on the Iberian peninsula providing an unnerving welcome to Madrid, Taza Aya’s appearance on Spain’s El Hormiguero television show was a great success.  Many thanks to Sara Portabales and the EH crew who were unbelievably supportive and welcoming.  See the clip from the show here.

NIOSH, the federal agency under CDC responsible for worker health and occupational safety generally - and respiratory protection specifically - suffered devastating budget and staffing cuts earlier this spring, essentially shutting down all related activities including testing and certification of N95 respirators and other respiratory protection.  After weeks of ardent, outspoken lobbying - particularly by firefighters and congressional representatives in coal-producing states where coal miner health is closely tied to respiratory protection - several hundred NIOSH staff have been called back to work temporarily.  Read about the impact of the cuts here, and about the

Michigan Engineering News published a retrospective article marking the fifth anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic declaration and the various ways Michigan Engineering students, faculty, and staff stepped up to help, including Taza Aya’s development of non-thermal plasma technologies.

Taza Aya manned a booth at the Midwest Allied Poultry Industries (MAPI) winter seminar in Hudsonville, MI in February.  Attendees represented egg layers, broilers, turkey and other poultry producers from the region.  High on the list of topics was high path. avian influenza that continues to spread through animal production facilities, both dairy and poultry.

The February 13th edition of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the CDC highlights the potential risks posed to veterinarians of the ongoing H5N1 avian influenza outbreak.  Although the positivity rate was low (2%), those who tested positive for H5N1 antibodies did not report having treated animals with known or suspected H5N1 infections.

Work to transition Taza Aya’s current beta prototype, through the gamma prototype phase and into an MVP of the Worker Wearable Protection (WWP) product is progressing well and is on schedule for a Summer 2025 completion.   This marks yet another significant step toward redefining workplace safety, leveraging innovation as well as the know-how of an experienced product development team.  Hatch PD of Waukegan, IL is leading the product development activities.. 

“Our vision at Taza Aya is to revolutionize how industries approach worker safety and productivity,” said Herek Clack, Co-Founder at Taza Aya. “Partnering with Hatch Product Development aligns perfectly with our mission to deliver innovative, high-quality solutions that create tangible value. Their product design

We’re grateful to see Taza Aya’s unique solution reaching an audience beyond those we would normally reach.  Tech Briefs TV is an outlet of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Media Group.

Ann Arbor, MI—12/17/24—Taza Aya, Inc., is excited to announce that its innovative Worker Wearable Product (WWP) has officially moved from the alpha phase to beta. This marks a major milestone on the path to a highly anticipated 2025 launch.

The transition to the beta phase follows twenty-two months of rigorous development and testing during the alpha phase, during which core functionality was established, and early feedback was gathered from select users. The beta phase will focus on expanding testing to a broader audience, incorporating user insights, and refining performance to deliver a product that meets the highest standards of quality and usability.

“This milestone represents a pivotal step forward for our team and our vision,” said Herek Clack, Co-Founder

The realization is growing that the cause of low compliance among dairy workers with PPE recommendations to reduce transmission of H5N1 influenza is that traditional face masks present too many drawbacks in the work environment.  The recent commentary by Bagdasarian et al. in J. Infectious Diseases argues the case convincingly:   https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/230/3/543/7758743

At Taza Aya’s first attendance at the ISRP conference (Oxford, UK), conference goers voted our poster second-best!  We are grateful for the recognition, as well as for the many supportive comments towards our hard work and vision.

As of Aug 1st, CDC reports that four humans have become infected with the H5N1 strain of influenza that has spread among dairy cows in 14 states and led to preemptive depopulation of millions of head of poultry, which are more susceptible to the virus and are more likely to die once infected.

CDC has issued recommendations that dairy workers wear PPE, including traditional face masks.  However, in the same document it concedes the following limitations of the recommendations for dairy workers:

• Wearing an unfitted N95 respirator

Ann Arbor, MI

June 25, 2024

Taza Aya, a device company advancing the next generation of personal respiratory protection solutions, today announced the results of the first phase of third-party testing designed to independently evaluate its wearable air curtain feature. The curved curtain of air flows downward a few inches in front of the face, issuing from specially designed nozzles mounted along the edge of the brim of a hardhat or visor.

Taza Aya contracted ARE Labs (Overland Park, KS) to conduct performance testing, which involved paired instrumented and ventilated mannequins facing each other, one of the mannequins wearing the air curtain device.   Two measures of performance were assessed: (1) the difference in aerosol concentrations on

Ann Arbor, MI

June 13, 2024 

Taza Aya, a device company pioneering the future of air curtain breathing solutions for workers and consumers, today announced the completion of a human-centered usability study for its groundbreaking Worker Wearable device. Conducted in partnership with Michigan Turkey Producers, a leading North American processor of farm-raised
turkeys, the study assessed the device’s usability, ergonomics, and overall effectiveness. The study was conducted with oversight from Castle IRB.

The Worker Wearable device features a non-thermal plasma reactor and an air curtain, creating a barrier of air encircling the wearer’s face. This innovative solution aims to
enhance the safety and efficiency of poultry processing workers by offering

A May 23, 2024 article in The Atlantic magazine goes deeper into the H5N1 outbreak among dairy cattle and associated infections among, at the moment, a handful of dairy workers.  Aside from the epidemiology and public health best practices when a new cluster of infectious disease cases is identified, the article points out the barriers that are stopping or slowing a more vigorous response.  From worries about the stigma of testing positive for H5N1 infection - both for livestock and for humans - there is relectance to make vaccines widely available.  Protective gear that is available such as goggles have their own disincentives for their use.  Worst of all, these barriers