Lee Stockhamer, a Plainview Old Bethpage JFK High School graduate, developed a product known as the Catchoo Sneeze and Cough Catcher, which helps prevent the spread of infection.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 380,000 people a year get lower respiratory or ear, nose and throat infections while being treated in a hospital.

"We're introducing a better way to catch sneezes and coughs," said Stockhamer, president of Flite-Rite, a product development company focused on respiratory etiquette.

It's a unique product, with two patents pending and recognition from the History Channel's Modern Marvels Invention Challenge, that product developer Stockhamer said will become a ubiquitous part of the fight to prevent the spread of infection.

The Catchoo is a thin tissue-like pad one would wear on their sleeve. When a cough or sneeze is necessary, turn your head and do so into the catch pad, which will trap any expelled germs. The top layer is then pulled off and thrown away. A fresh catch pad is then exposed and ready to capture the next cough.

Stockhamer's company Flite-Rite developed the Catchoo after several years of research, development and design work. Like his earlier product development projects, the Catchoo was quickly acknowledged for its uniqueness, value and innovativeness. In 2007, it earned an Honorable Mention Award in the Modern Marvels Invent Now Challenge, sponsored by The History Channel as a search for products with "Universal Implications."

For more information, visit www.catchoo.net.