Healthcare workers: A way to decontaminate and reuse N95 and surgical masks

[mpreorder]

Please print out the link and take to your administrators.

(Bolding Mine)
"4C Air confirmed all the proposed treatments have killed corona viruses. Labs have no way to test COVID-19 directly and as an accepted protocol, E. Coli is used for testing. We asked what methods can be used to decontaminate the facial mask for reuse safely and without loss to filtration efficiency. 4C Air confirms using 70 degree C hot air in an oven for 30min, or hot water vapor are additional effective decontamination methods. Please see Table 2 "



https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Fstanfordmedicine.box.com%2Fv%2Fcovid19-PPE-1-1

[GusBob]

1. Whats that about 160 F?

Do ovens go that low?

[mpreorder]

2. I can set mine at that temp NT

[Coleman]

3. Radiate them just like they do food, especially produce. nt

[sl8]

4. Key takeaways:

[...]

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Frontline health care workers across the United States report shortages of PPE ranging from
gloves, protective gowns, eye wear and face masks.

• It is unknown how wearing the same mask multiple times effects the fit of N95 masks [NIOSH]

• NIOSH states “there is no way of determining the maximum possible number of safe reuses for an N95 respirator as a generic number to be applied in all cases” and advise to “discard N95 respirators following use during aerosol generating procedures.”

• Some methods of N95 mask disinfection can maintain filtration efficiency. Their effect on mask fitis unknown, and these methods are not approved by NIOSH.

[...]

Also,

[...]

Conclusions: DO NOT use alcohol and chlorine-based disinfection methods. These will remove the static charge in the microfibers in N95 facial masks, reducing filtration efficiency. In addition, chlorine also retains gas after de-contamination and these fumes may be harmful.

[...]

In summary bleach and microwaves were failures at point of care because the bleach gases (skin and respiratory irritants) remained after multiple strategies were used to remove them, the microwave melted the masks and soaking them first led to reduced filtration.

[...]

[sl8]

5. Kick. n/t