The world is faced with an economic or health catastrophe. With a proactive collegial program suppliers of mitigation products and services can provide an alternative which avoids catastrophe while insuring a safer and prosperous future. Yesterday, in an 80-minute discussion, mitigation suppliers considered initiatives which would allow business to function while workers were kept safe. This discussion can be viewed at https://youtu.be/MttSotStbyE Discussion included such important technologies as sterilizing and reusing face masks. Coincidently at the time the option of hydrogen peroxide vapor sterilization was being considered by the group. Duke was sending out a news release that it was already implementing the procedure at its three hospitals. This was based on the hospital initiative and not that of the suppliers. The University of Nebraska Medical Center recently published their procedure for the disinfection of N95 masks using the ClorDiSys’ Torch UV Disinfection System. It is time for the suppliers to take the lead with a collegial proactive program. This program can be pursued to greater or lesser degrees by businesses of all types. The program for hospitals should be more robust than for an industrial products manufacturer. But for any manufacturer the program can make the difference between operation and closure. The following advice is being given to valve manufacturers in a feature Valve World article “Valve manufacturers and their suppliers can incorporate virus prevention protocols which greatly lessen the chance of on the job transmission. They include · Wearing of masks when taking public transportation to and from work · Wearing of masks while working · Follow recommended sanitization procedures for both personnel and equipment · Practice physical distancing and other recommended protocols · Upgrade HVAC systems to capture and destroy viruses. · Install local air purifying systems · Incorporate foot sanitizers at plant entrance and UV robots for periodic sterilization · Supply sanitized masks to each worker with a daily exchange of cleaned masks for the ones being worn · Purchase mask sanitizing systems using ozone, H202, UV, ClO2 or other proven methods” Suppliers need to collaborate. Duke had to investigate the deterioration of mask straps with multiple treatments. This is work that can be done on a collegial basis between mask suppliers such as 3M, media suppliers such as Ahlstrom, and the suppliers of the decontamination systems such as Ecolab. The ability to decontaminate and reuse masks completely changes the criteria for mask selection. Many of the suppliers of mask media also supply dust collection media which survives thousands of cleaning cycles. The media is customized to deal with extreme temperatures, corrosion, and very small particles. The challenge of providing a reusable media which is efficient, comfortable and has low pressure loss is no greater than these suppliers are already meeting. Even if a mask costs $10 rather than $1 and is cleaned 15-50 times it is less expensive than the disposable option. The effectiveness of foot sanitizers to greatly reduce hospital acquired infections was documented in the recorded discussion and in a separate McIlvaine InterWebview https://youtu.be/qxcnV7Z6I9g.   In the U.S. alone there are 2 million HAI infections per year and 100,000 deaths. In addition, there are 20,000 to 50,000 deaths from influenza in the U.S. As a result, the benefits of procedures to mitigate the coronavirus will also have significant and continuing value to reduce other diseases.  A metric to measure all harm and good in terms of life quality was discussed. It was used to show the high return on investment for a number of technologies including utilization of room air purifiers in many situations. An example was an apartment dweller in a building with one or more tenants in self isolation. Rental of an air purifier with particulate monitoring of the building and room air would have very high return on investment. General upgrading of HVAC systems in terms of number of air changes per hour and filter efficiency is also warranted. The world needs the mitigation suppliers to provide this alternative to economic and health catastrophes. With a collegial program this can be accomplished quickly and efficiently. Details are provided at Coronavirus Market Intelligence For more information contact Bob McIlvaine at 847 226 2391 or rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com  

Click Here For Complete Article Text

• McIlvaine

• Contamination Control

• Coronavirus

• Supplier

• Article