Decontamination of N95 masks against coronavirus: a scoping review

Sarkis‐Onofre, Rafael; Borges, Rafaela do Carmo; Demarco, Giulia Tarquínio; Dotto, Lara; Schwendicke, Falk; Demarco, Flávio Fernando

doi:10.1101/2020.07.11.20151399

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Preprints are snapshots in time of science that sometimes is in rapid flux. Since then, related results were published in several preprints and published works discussed below (36,(65)(66)(67)(68)(69)(70)(71)(72)(73)(74)(75)(76)(77)(78)(79)(80).…”

Section: Present and Future Importance Of N95 Emergency Reusementioning

confidence: 99%

Principles and practice for SARS-CoV-2 decontamination of N95 masks with UV-C

Huber

Goldman

Epstein

et al. 2021

Biophysical Journal

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A mainstay of personal protective equipment during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is the N95 filtering facepiece respirator. N95 respirators are commonly used to protect healthcare workers from respiratory pathogens, including the novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, and are increasingly employed by other frontline workers and the general public. Under routine circumstances, these masks are disposable, single-use items, but extended use and reuse practices have been broadly enacted to alleviate critical supply shortages during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Although extended-time single use presents a low risk of pathogen transfer, repeated donning and doffing of potentially contaminated masks presents increased risk of pathogen transfer. Therefore, efficient and safe decontamination methods for N95 masks are needed to reduce the risk of reuse and mitigate local supply shortages. Here, we review the available literature concerning use of germicidal ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light to decontaminate N95 masks. We propose a practical method for repeated point-of-use decontamination using commercially available UV-C cross-linker boxes from molecular biology laboratories to expose each side of the mask to 800-1200 mJ/cm 2 of UV-C. We measure the dose that penetrated to the interior of the respirators and model the potential germicidal action on coronaviruses. Our experimental results, in combination with modeled data, suggest that such a UV-C treatment cycle should induce a >3-log-order reduction in viral bioburden on the surface of the respirators and a 2-log-order reduction throughout the interior. We find that a dose 50-fold greater does not impair filtration or fit of 3M 8210 N95 masks, indicating that decontamination can be performed repeatedly. As such, UV-C germicidal irradiation is a practical strategy for small-scale point-of-use decontamination of N95s.

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Section: Present and Future Importance Of N95 Emergency Reusementioning

confidence: 99%

Principles and practice for SARS-CoV-2 decontamination of N95 masks with UV-C

Huber

Goldman

Epstein

et al. 2021

Biophysical Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Different methods have been proposed to achieve the proper decontamination of N95 [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] facemasks, but few have been officially approved [16] , [17] , [18] . Ozone (O 3 ), which has a strong oxidation potential and documented antimicrobial properties [19] , [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] , [24] , has not been widely used [25] , and it could be a simple alternative for decontamination.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ozone as an alternative decontamination process for N95 facemask and biosafety gowns

et al. 2022

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Face mask use among individuals who are not medically diagnosed with COVID-19: A lack of evidence for and against and implications around early public health

Marasinghe

2020

Int J One Health

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Aim: Since the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, public health professionals from around the world have been making decisions on face mask use among individuals who are not medically diagnosed with COVID- 19 or "healthy individuals" to limit the spread of COVID-19. While some countries have strongly recommended face masks for "healthy individuals," other countries have recommended against it. Public health recommendations that have been provided to this population since the beginning of the outbreak have been controversial, contradicting, and inconsistent around the world. The purpose of this paper is to understand available evidence around the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of face mask use in limiting the spread of COVID-19 among individuals who have not yet been diagnosed with COVID-19 and most importantly, to understand the state of knowledge early public health recommendations are based on. Materials and Methods: A systematic review was conducted to identify studies that investigated the use of face masks to limit the spread of COVID-19 among "healthy individuals" in order to understand available evidence using the databases Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scopus. Two groups of keywords were combined: Those relating to COVID-19 and face masks. Results: No studies were found, demonstrating a lack of evidence for and against face mask use suggesting implications around early public health recommendations provided to "healthy individuals". Conclusion: Three and a half months into the COVID-19 outbreak (December 2019-2nd week of April 2020), there are no peer-reviewed scientific studies that have investigated the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of face mask use among "healthy individuals" to limit the spread of COVID-19. Yet, very strong public health recommendations have been provided on whether "healthy individuals" should or should not wear face masks to limit the spread of COVID-19 since the beginning of the outbreak. A lack of scientific evidence for and against face mask use heavily questions the basis of public health recommendations provided at a very early, yet a crucial stage of an outbreak. This finding and a further look at early public health recommendations conclude that there is a clear need for more concentrated research around face mask use among healthy individuals and public health recommendations that are evidence-based; precautionary in the absence of evidence; based on benefit-risk assessment; transparent; and globally aligned to provide the most successful guidelines during an infectious disease outbreak.

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Decontamination of N95 masks against coronavirus: a scoping review

Cited by 4 publications

References 30 publications

Principles and practice for SARS-CoV-2 decontamination of N95 masks with UV-C

Principles and practice for SARS-CoV-2 decontamination of N95 masks with UV-C

Ozone as an alternative decontamination process for N95 facemask and biosafety gowns

Face mask use among individuals who are not medically diagnosed with COVID-19: A lack of evidence for and against and implications around early public health

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