At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the shortage of N95 respiratory masks presented a dire situation for front-line and healthcare workers who needed them most. Essential workers who relied on N95 masks had no choice but to wear what were supposed to be N95 disposable masks for weeks. Some began disinfecting the masks to redistribute and reuse them.
Now, as COVID-19 infections increase and states like Texas and Florida and hospitals and healthcare workers once again feel overwhelmed by the volume of patients, N95 respirators are still scarce.
But MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital engineers and researchers have created a new type of face mask that could change the game. In a laboratory setting, the prototype worked as well as an N95 respirator to filter out virus-containing particles.
The greatest innovation? While the N95 masks are made entirely of a special material that filters out droplets and fluids in the air that could contain the COVID-19 virus, the new MIT mask is made of silicone, with slots for just two small, disposable discs of the material N95 (to serve as filters). That means the masks themselves can be quickly and easily sterilized and reused, and although small filters must be discarded, each mask requires much less N95 material.
Called iMASC, which stands for Conformable, Autoclavable, Molded Injection, this design could help solve shortage problems.
The new iMASC system can also be sterilized in different ways without sacrificing its effectiveness, the researchers wrote in an article published in the British Medical Journal Open. For example, researchers were able to use a steam sterilizer on the masks, place the masks in an oven, and soak them in chlorine and alcohol. (Treating used N95 masks with hydrogen peroxide disinfectants to neutralize any virus requires special equipment and takes a few days. It also allows the masks to be reused for one day at a time, up to 20 times longer.)
IMASC researchers “wanted to maximize system reuse,” Giovanni Traverso, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT and a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said in a press release.
The new mask could also be more environmentally friendly: it uses less disposable material, which produces far less waste than throwing away a full mask, said Adam Wentworth, a research engineer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a research affiliate at the Institute Koch. Press release.
Until now, the masks have proven to be effective and comfortable.
A group of 24 health workers (including nurses, doctors, and technicians) wore the new masks and completed tests that included breathing, conversation, head and body movement, and facial expressions. Participants said that the mask fit him well and he felt breathable. Most importantly, the mask successfully filtered a sugar solution into the air that was used to mimic aerosolized respiratory drops.
More testing needs to be done, and the group is currently working on a second mask design.
The team finally plans to have the rubber mask approved by the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Once completed, the masks could cost hospitals $ 15 each, Fast Company reported. (N95 masks can cost between $ 2.80 and $ 6.95 per unit, based on data compiled by the N95 Nonprofit Project.)
The ultimate goal is to make the masks available to healthcare workers, as well as the general public, but there is no timeline yet.
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