Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have designed a reusable face mask that can be sterilized and worn over and over, while providing as much protection as an N95 mask.
In fact, his new mask, made of silicone and rubber, incorporates N95 filters, but is made of slippery materials that are highly waterproof but much easier and faster to sterilize.
And it is cheap. Once it’s ready to ship, the protective gear, dubbed iMASC, will likely only cost around $ 15, according to Fast Company.
The team behind iMASC plans to get approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and sell it to hospitals, and eventually to the general public, through a company they are currently creating, but still it is not clear when the mask will be available for purchase.
The MIT scientists’ iMASC is made of clear silicone rubber that can be easily sterilized over and over again, with replaceable N95 filters
Between March and May, Americans wore approximately 140 million N95 masks as the coronavirus began in the U.S.
N95 respirators, made of hard, generally synthetic, woven fibers are the gold standard for respiratory safety.
Its dense compositions is one of the few classified to block small viral particles.
But the US government’s stock of msks was quickly depleted in the early days of the pandemic, the Defense Production Act had to be invoked to make tens of millions more of N95, and officials begged Americans to They did not purchase respirators in an effort to ensure that there were enough to protect front-line workers.
The anticipated shortage of personal protective equipment was avoided, but Americans still remain wearing only cloth face covers, and healthcare workers have burned millions of Morre N95 respirators.
N95s can be sterilized without losing their integrity, but the process requires specialized equipment and can be time consuming and expensive.
Therefore, the MIT team looked for a less expensive solution, easier to clean, but equally cheap and effective.
The material they landed on was silicone rubber, a synthetic commonly used in the medical industry, which can be easily sterilized by several different methods, including the use of alcohol, steam, radiation, and dry heat.
Your new mask should not only be easy to clean and block small particles, but it should be designed in such a way that its manufacture could be expanded at low cost to make thousands, if not millions, of copies.
The iMASC gets its name, in part, from having just that ability. The acronym stands for injection molded, autoclavable, scalable, compliant.
Filters made of N95 material can be removed and thrown away. The mask can be steamed at high temperatures and filters can be replaced.
Rubber can be easily injected into a mold and printed over and over again.
To allow the user to breathe while filtering virus particles, it has two slots where replaceable N95 material discs can be inserted and removed when dirty.
“With this design, the filters can be put in and discarded after use, and it’s throwing away much less material than an N95 mask,” said study co-author Dr. Adam Wentworth.
The team, made up of mechanical and medical engineers from MIT and Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, had 20 health workers in the Brigham emergency room and oncology clinic and women put the masks on through the fit test. of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSH).
For all 20 subjects, the mask remained in place while performing various tasks and movements. When scented substances were sprayed into the surrounding air through a nebulizer, none of the subjects could taste or smell it, indicating that the masks provided an airtight seal.
And participants rated the mask well for comfort, saying they liked it more or better than a surgical mask.
While an N95 mask can only be disinfected about 20 times, and only with special peroxide spray equipment, silicone can be cleaned in many ways, many times before it degrades.
The masks will cost around $ 15 a piece for hospitals, which is substantially more than the $ 3 to $ 7 charged for an N95, but the team believes they will save money and supplies in the long run, and it certainly seems to stay safe in between. of the pandemic is a long game.
“We know that Covid won’t really go away until a vaccine prevails,” said another of the mask’s developers, Dr. James Byrne.
“I think there will always be a need for masks, either in the healthcare setting or in the general public.”
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