-
Impact of ultraviolet germicidal irradiation on new silicone half-piece elastometric respirator (VJR-NMU) performance, structural integrity and sterility during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Back
Document Title
Impact of ultraviolet germicidal irradiation on new silicone half-piece elastometric respirator (VJR-NMU) performance, structural integrity and sterility during the COVID-19 pandemic
Author
Trakarnvanich T.,Phumisantiphong U.,Pupipatpab S.,Setthabramote C.,Seakow B.,Porntheeraphat S.,Maneerit J.,Manomaipiboon A.
Name from Authors Collection
Affiliations
Faculty of Medicine, Vajira Hospital, Navamindradhiraj University, Bangkok, Thailand; Digital Agriculture Technology Research Team (DAT), Bangkok, Thailand; Research and Development Intelligent 2Systems Networks (ITSN), Bangkok, Thailand; National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), Bangkok, Thailand; National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Bangkok, Thailand
Type
Article
Source Title
PLoS ONE
ISSN
19326203
Year
2021
Volume
16
Issue
10-Oct
Open Access
All Open Access, Gold, Green
Publisher
Public Library of Science
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0258245
Abstract
Since the innovation of our new half-piece elastometric respirator, this type of filtering facepiece respirator (FFR) has been used widely in Thailand. Decontamination methods including ultraviolet C (UVC) germicidal irradiation and 70% alcohol have been implemented to decontaminate these respirators. We then examined the inactivation potential of different decontamination processes on porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) and numerous bacterial strains, most of which were skin-derived. To enable rigorous integrity of the masks after repeated decontamination processes, fit tests by the Bitrex test, tensile strength and elongation at break were also evaluated. Our results showed that UVC irradiation at a dose of 3 J/cm2 can eradicate bacteria after 60 min and viruses after 10 min. No fungi were found on the mask surface before decontamination. The good fit test results, tensile strength and elongation at break were still maintained after multiple cycles of decontamination. No evidence of physical degradation was found by gross visual inspection. Alcohol (70%) is also an easy and effective way to eradicate microorganisms on respirators. As the current pandemic is expected to continue for months to years, the need to supply adequate reserves of personnel protective equipment (PPE) and develop effective PPE reprocessing methods is crucial. Our studies demonstrated that the novel silicone mask can be safely reprocessed and decontaminated for many cycles by UVC irradiation, which will help ameliorate the shortage of important protective devices in the COVID-19 pandemic era. © 2021 Trakarnvanich et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Industrial Classification
Knowledge Taxonomy Level 1
Knowledge Taxonomy Level 2
Knowledge Taxonomy Level 3
Funding Sponsor
National Science and Technology Development Agency
License
CC BY
Rights
Author
Publication Source
Scopus