Cardiff University researchers have been conducting tests to see whether it is feasible to sterilize personal protective equipment (PPE) used by health practitioners to combat the COVID-19 pandemic using dry heat and microwave ovens. The researchers’ findings were published in the “Journal of Hospital Infection.”
The group of researchers demonstrated that some respirators could be sterilized successfully in one and a half minutes using a baby bottle sterilizer that had water and an industrial-grade microwave oven.
Jean-Yves Maillard, a professor from Cardiff’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences who is also the study’s co-author, explained that the inability of frontline workers to access enough PPE puts both them and the patients they take care of at risk of getting the coronavirus. The researchers’ aim was to find out whether single-use masks could be used again after being safely decontaminated.
The scientists believe that decontaminating masks using a microwave could be used in emergency situations to increase the respirators available to frontline workers while also addressing any issues encountered with regard to supply.
During the study, the team introduced respirators and ran them through three microwave decontamination cycles. They discovered that the respirators reserved their capacitiea to filter viral-sized aerosols and other bacteria. However, the researchers also discovered that when surgical masks were microwaved, they lost their ability to filter aerosols.
Another co-author of the study, Michael Pascoe, also from the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, explained that surgical masks usually lose their efficacy when they get moist. The researchers supposed that disinfecting the masks using a microwave would cause a loss in their filtration capacity, which was established by the observations made in the lab.
The group of researchers, which also comprised School of Engineering academics, looked into the use of dry heat ovens as another sterilization method. Sterilization using dry heat does not require water, which makes it compatible with articles that can be damaged by moisture.
The researchers discovered that exposing respirators and surgical masks to dry heat at 70 degrees Celsius for one and a half hours effectively disinfected both PPEs. Additionally, both surgical masks and respirators maintained their ability to filter aerosols after three cycles of dry heat.
It should be noted that the researchers would not recommend using this method at home. School of Engineering’s Professor Adrian Porch explained that this is because domestic microwave ovens use rotating turntables and have a significantly lower power. So in order to achieve similar results, one would need to expose the protective equipment for a much longer period. Masks also have thin wires, which can catch fire when put in microwaves. In addition, researchers are not certain how this method of sterilization would impact the masks’ efficacy and functioning.
Aside from the coronavirus and face masks, many firms are hard at work seeking remedies to various health conditions. For instance, DarioHealth Corp. (NASDAQ: DRIO) shines as a provider of smartphone-based technologies which help those with chronic diseases to make durable lifestyle changes.
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