Heating may effectively disinfect N95 masks for reuse: Study

Heating may be the best way to disinfect N95 masks for reuse, according to a study which found that doing so preserves their filtration efficiency for 50 cycles.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, N95 face maskshave been in short supply, said the researchers, including those from StanfordUniversity in California, US.

   

Health care workers, in particular, desperately need thesemasks to protect themselves from the respiratory droplets of infected patients,they said. Because of the shortage, many have to wear the same mask repeatedly,according to the researchers.

The study, published in the journal ACS Nano, tested severalmethods for disinfecting N95 materials, finding that heating them preservestheir filtration efficiency for 50 cycles of disinfection.

The researchers noted that N95 masks contain a layer of”meltblown” polypropylene fibres that form a porous, breathablenetwork.

To help capture smaller particles that could slip throughthe holes, the fibres are electrostatically charged, they said.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasrecommended several methods for disinfecting N95 masks, such as heating,ultraviolet (UV) radiation and bleach treatment, the researchers said.However, so far these methods have not beentested extensively, especially for multiple rounds of disinfection, they said.

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