Fort Myers company’s product could mean fewer germs on your hands

Companies are coming up with new ways to keep you healthy and hopefully prevent the spread of illnesses like the coronavirus.

An unprecedented pandemic means a new normal.

“About the only thing I know that is true about the future is that will be different from today,” said Dr. Tom Smythe, a finance professor at Florida Gulf Coast University.

A Fort Myers company is among those innovating not only for today but for the future.

Darin Beaner with Fusion Welding thinks the repercussions of COVID-19 will be seen long after it’s gone.

“You think differently about touching a door handle or a gas pump or how you go about your daily life,” he said.

That’s why Beaner created the “no hands door pulls,” a product that lets you open a door using your foot, so you can avoid getting germs on your hands.

“As I think about how many times I touch a door handle a day, I think about how many times I’m picking up germs, so with that, I’m hoping that it helps at least a little bit.”

Beaner and his team can produce a thousand of the door pulls every day, and hopes to see them on doors across the community.

“Really everywhere, every bathroom door, every commercial entrance door could have one.”

Beaner said he’s working with distributors now to get his product on doors all over Southwest Florida.