Do It Yourself - DIY | Decontamination & Reuse of N95 Face Mask
Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), including medical N95 masks, are forcing hospitals, care centers, and first responders across the country to, in some cases, reuse their limited supply of these critical resources during this unprecedented COVID-19 crisis.
The lack of crucial protective devices puts health care workers at increased risk of infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the COVID-19 disease. On March 31, 2020, the CDC released Crisis Standards of Care Recommendations for N95 Decontamination.
In this time of crisis, hospitals and clinics in the US and around the world would need to decide on the best risk-management approaches to protect their medical staff since there is a limited supply of new N95s.
N95DECON is a volunteer collective of scientists, engineers, clinicians, and students from universities across the US (University of California, San Francisco; University of California, Berkeley; University of Chicago; Harvard University; Stanford University; Georgetown University; Seattle University; University of Utah; Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan) as well as other professionals in the private sector. N95DECON seeks to review, collate, publish, and disseminate scientific information about N95 decontamination to help in decisions about N95 decontamination and reuse. Another goal is to identify important missing information, then plan and carry out future joint research projects to address those knowledge gaps rapidly without unnecessary duplication of effort. N95DECON is not sponsored by any group nor does it represent the interests of any private/public organization or any specific technology.
Fact Sheets on Decontamination and Reuse of N95 mask
UV – C
200401_N95DECON_UV_factsheet_v1.2_final.
.
Hydrogen Peroxide Vapor & Hydrogen Peroxide Gas Plasma
200401_N95DECON_HPV_factsheet_v1.1_final.
.
Heat & Humidity
200401_N95DECON_Heat_factsheet_v1.1_final.
.