Scientists Have Established How And How Many Times You Can Clean Respirators From Coronavirus

Scientists have established how and how many times you can clean respirators from coronavirus

Amid the pandemic and a shortage of personal protective equipment, scientists have proposed cleaning N95 respirators for reuse. In a new study of cleaning methods, novel coronaviruses have been used for the first time.

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N95 respirators can be decontaminated by some methods without compromising their function no more than two or three times. This showed a new study conducted at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. It is published on MedRxiv, a resource dedicated to work that has not yet been peer-reviewed.

This was the first study on mask and respirator cleaning that used the true novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The New York Times points out that the National Institutes of Health published this study as a matter of urgency because it could play an important role during a crisis of personal protective equipment shortage.

Ultraviolet light and vaporous hydrogen peroxide effectively kill the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus without damaging respirators after two rounds of cleaning, according to a study. After the third purification using these methods, the filtration remained “acceptable”.

Cleaning the respirators with dry heat (70 degrees) took an hour, and the protective equipment withstood two such cleanings.

The hydrogen peroxide method was faster, cleaning up in about 10 minutes. Ultraviolet light took about an hour.

Scientists also tested how cleaning of respirators with ethyl alcohol works. They do not recommend this method, because after using it, the function of respirators has suffered.