Last Friday (7), we learned that cloth or surgical masks may not protect from Ômicron, and that experts indicate respirators (such as N95, KN95 and PFF2) to deal with the variant. In a study published in the scientific journal American Journal of Infection Control, researchers concluded that this item can be reused 25 times, as long as it is decontaminated by vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) between one use and another.
According to the study, conducted by scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the use of vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) is relatively safe and could help address the mask shortage in future epidemics.
After each cycle of VHP, the group ran a series of tests to assess the respirators’ function and effectiveness in filtering particulate matter. The results show that even after 25 cycles of decontamination, “there were no changes in respiratory integrity or filtration efficiency among the seven N95 respirators evaluated. All met the primary objectives of function and effectiveness.”
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“It’s important that we now find ways to scale and translate that capacity to smaller hospitals and resource-constrained healthcare settings that could benefit so much from this type of reprocessing of personal protective equipment,” said Christina F. Yen, co-author of the paper. , in a statement to EurekAlert.
N95 and PFF2 (Filtering Facepiece Filtering Grade 2) are regulatory body approved masks, and were required to show a minimum particle filtration efficiency of 94%. They can be recognized both as respiratory protection masks and respirators for biological hazards.
hydrogen peroxide vaporization
The hydrogen peroxide (or hydrogen peroxide) vaporization technique is performed at room temperature and is environmentally friendly. It consists of dripping an aqueous solution onto a hot surface in order to generate a cloud of decontaminating steam. It can be carried out in a room, a cabin, a passage chamber, an isolator or an autoclave — as long as it doesn’t reach its dew point.
