Is This The New Face Of The World In The Covid-19 Era And Whats Next?
As many of us contemplate what our lives will be like while still in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, we collectively are all wondering whats next? With many of us still under quarantine in the US and some states beginning to loosen the restrictions, I've come to realize that most of us will be wearing our masks and face coverings for many, many months to come and these masks will be the face of the "NEW NORMAL".
The shortage of PPE respiratory masks, Like the N95, KN95, and almost every other mask, will continue and when everyone returns to the workforce, we will need to look in new directions to protect ourselves and co-workers while combating the Coronavirus (Covid-19).
We began to researching and found a group of engineers at PSA, Production Systems Automation, in North East Pennsylvania that developed a unit that is purpose built to Sanitize face coverings from the Coronavirus to stop, PPE shortages and protecting your people. They developed, the PSA SaniPro 2000 PPE Oven, that decontaminates respiratory masks for reuse multiple times without destroying the materials. I had the opportunity to speak with the team from PSA about the system and they shared the key point of what was required from their design. It needed to be:
? Purpose Built to decontaminate and sanitize N95 and KN95 and/or other compatible respiratory Masks for re-use during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
? Portable & Compact as a wheeled unit to make them easily maneuverable and placed anywhere that there is a 220V electrical Outlet with no other connections required.
? Easy To Use and have a one button to starts the cycle with automated controls and factory presets to make operation easy, limit user error and require no technical knowledge.
? Fast Cycle Times with 30 minutes to sanitize 100 masks and a full process times of 45 - 90 minutes for rapid turnaround to process high volumes of PPE daily.
? Highly Accessible to be strategically place at the points of highest utilization to meet safety standards.
? Meet CDC Guidelines for decontamination and reuse of filtering face piece respirators.
The result of their design allows every type of industry to utilize and be suitable for manufacturing plants, food processing facilities, as well as, in hospitals, practices and surgery centers to provide a safe working environment to all organization with employees working close to each other.
The PSA SaniPro 2000's decontamination process was based off the findings from multiple medical experts like, the CDC, NCIRD, Massachusetts Massachusetts General Hospital, Standford AIM Lab, and the World Health Organizations' published articles and testing result . [i]
Process Overview
The process uses both heat and humidity through moist heat incubation (MHI), with items placed evenly in a single layer on the 12 wire shelves and loaded into the cabinet, The PPE oven circulates hot air and a moisture mist of distilled water. Upon the temperature reaching 149? F/65?C and moisture saturation levels of 80%, the treatment cycle timer starts and runs for 30 minutes. After the 30 minute cycle is complete, the oven automatically shuts off and a light will illuminate to indicate the cycle is complete. The heating & misting units shut down and the fans will continue to circulate until the doors are opened. The process from start button to green completion light is 45 minutes and can decontaminate 100 masks per cycle.
After meeting with PSA, we began review other ways to decontaminate PPE but due to the cost of the systems with similar sized units starting price beginning at a little over $150,000 to cargo hold container sized units range above $6,000,000 we found that this was going to be the best solution for most facilities as the PSA system is less than $34,000. Also, as mentioned before, there is no technical knowledge needed to use, no requirement to buy, store or use chemicals, and is mobile. They design is for the masses without needing an engineering or biomedical degree.
Over the next several months and perhaps well beyond, the face of the "New Normal" will have a respirator mask on it. I wanted to share my findings with you all, so please share this within your circles. I you have any questions please message me, I'm happy to help.
With everything we need to worry about, at least PPE shortages won't be one of them.
Footnotes:1
- Page last reviewed: April 30, 2020 content source: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD), Division of Viral Diseases
- WebMD Health News | Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD on March 24, 2020, Health Workers Get Creative With Protective Gear by Brenda Goodman, MA
- DOI:10.1111/irv.12261 www.in?uenzajournal.com, Heat inactivation of the Middle East respiratory, India Leclercq,a,b Christophe Bat??ejat,a Ana M. Burgui??ere,a Jean-Claude Manuguerraa 2014 The Authors. In?uenza and Other Respiratory Viruses Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
- W.H.O. First data on stability and resistance of SARS coronavirus compiled by members of WHO laboratory network. https://www.who.int/csr/sars/survival_2003 _ 05 _ 04/en/
- COVID-19 Evidence Service | Addressing COVID-19 Face Mask Shortages [v1.2],Amy Price, DPhil (Oxon) and Larry Chu, MD On behalf of the Stanford AIM Lab and Learnly COVID-19 Evidence Service Stanford Anesthesia Informatics and Media Lab
- https://www.cdc.gov/COVID19