Masks are increasingly seen as the deciding factor in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the pandemic could end in four to eight weeks in America “if only” we could get everyone to wear a mask at the moment. “But it’s not just wearing a mask. You have to clean them too.
Just like your other clothes, a mask needs to be cleaned regularly. Scientists believe that germs and pathogens can last 8-12 hours on masks, and medical groups such as the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons offer best practices for decontaminating masks during a deficiency.
Now, a new study suggests that a cleaning method could be found in your kitchen in the form of an Instant Pot, like a rice cooker.
A study from the University of Illinois, published last month in the journal Letters for Environmental Science and Technology, shows that one seeding cycle in an electric cooker, 50 minutes dry heat, can decontaminate an N95 mask well and effectively.
Vishal Verma, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Urbana-Champaign department, says in a press release that the electric cooker can offer a solution more easily on a number of levels than what is currently available.
“There are many different ways to sterilize something, but most will destroy the filtration or fit of an N95 respirator. Any sanitation method would have to decontaminate all surfaces of the respirator, but just as important is maintaining.” “The filter efficiency and the fit of the respirator to the wearer’s face. Otherwise it will not provide the right protection,” he says.
An electric cooker could check all boxes.
In search of an easy solution to the problem of cleaning N95 masks, researchers are digging for a dry heat. Considering the high demand for masks, and the potential chaos in a hospital where shortages may arise, they wanted to have a cleaning system with no special preparation and no chemical residue. Something quick and easy, with the added benefit of being accessible.
Verma and colleague Thanh “Helen” Nguyen decided that an electric cooker could control all the boxes. A preliminary test confirmed their suspicion – the electric cooker could decontaminate the masks on both sides of four different classes of virus, including a type of coronavirus. It could do so at a greater rate of efficiency than ultraviolet light.
Then came more extensive testing, with similar positive results.
“We have built a room in my laboratory for aerosol testing to specifically look at the filtration of the N95 respirators, and measure the particles that pass through. The respirators maintain their filter capacity of more than 95% and keep them fit , still good on the wearer’s face, even after 20 cycles of decontamination in the electric cooker, “says Verma.
Like any use of an electric cooker, decontaminating a mask in one has its only rules and regulations. A dry heat is crucial – no water in the pot. Hold the pot for 50 minutes at a rigid temperature of 100 degrees Celsius, and place a small towel on the bottom of the pot to prevent the masks from coming into contact with one of the very extreme heating elements of the pot.
But with those regulations in place, Verma and Ngyuen say the electric kitchens that could reuse kitchens in dot America can be found in hospitals full of Covid-19 patients, and people can help keep their masks as clean as possible at home.
Abstract: A pandemic like Covid-19 could cause a sudden drowning of the worldwide supply of respirators, forcing healthcare providers to reuse them. In this study, we systematically evaluated dry heating as a viable option for safe decontamination of N95 respirators (1860, 3M) before reuse. We found that the dry heat generated by an electric cooker (100 ° C, 5% relative humidity, 50 min) effectively Tulane virus (TV,> 5.2-log)10 reduction), rotavirus (RV,> 6.6-log10 reduction), adenovirus (AdV,> 4.0-log10 reduction), and transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV,> 4.7-log10 reduction). The integrity of the respirator (determined based on the efficiency of particle filtration and quantitative fit tests) was not compromised after 20 cycles of a 50 min dry heat treatment. Based on these results, dry heating generated by an electric cooker (e.g. rice cookers, direct pots, and ovens) could be an effective and accessible decontamination method for the safe reuse of N95 respirators. We advise users to measure the temperature during decontamination to ensure that the respirator temperature can be maintained at 100 ° C for 50 min.
