Title: Evaluation of Five Decontamination Methods for Filtering Facepiece Respirators

Concerns have been raised regarding the availability of National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)-certified N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) during an influenza pandemic. One possible strategy to mitigate a respirator shortage is to reuse FFRs following a biological decontamination process to render infectious material on the FFR inactive. However, little data exist on the effects of decontamination methods on respirator integrity and performance. This study evaluated five decontamination methods [ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI), ethylene oxide, vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP), microwave oven irradiation, and bleach] using nine models of NIOSH-certified respirators (three models each of N95 FFRs, surgical N95 respirators, and P100 FFRs) to determine which methods should be considered for future research studies.

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   Person Information
   Application Sequencing
Company  Product  Process  Other  Subjects  Event  Event  Date  Location  Publication  Publication  Date Text  Descriptor

  • National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Safety and Health (NIOSH)

  • Respirator

  • Air Filtration

  • Decontamination

  • Evaluation

 

  • Coronavirus

  • Shortage

 

 

 

 

 

  • Study