Digital Simulation Shows that Six Feet of Distancing is Not Adequate

Multiple Studies Show that Viruses Travel on Air Pollution Particles

Airborne Transmission Evidence Found in Wuhan

A Speaker Emits 1 to 50 Virus Particles Per Second

Individuals Release up to 180,000 Liquid Aerosols and Billions of Particles per Hour

Reshoring Could be Temporary

Mondi will Build Meltblown Line and Mask Fabrication Facility for 1 Million Masks per Day

Berry Building 400 tpy Meltblown Facility in South America

Gulsan Group is Adding a 3.2-Meter Meltblown Line in Turkey

Borealis Producing Meltblowns for Face Masks

Neenah Expanded Melt Blown Capacity in Germany and is Repurposing Other Machines

South Texas Health Systems Purchases Eighteen Room Purifiers and Four H2O2 Systems

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Digital Simulation Shows that Six Feet of Distancing is Not Adequate

Digital simulation is much more accepted in engineering than in the medical industry. Digital twins for engine conception and design have become common practice in the automotive and aerospace industries. But digital twinning is not yet widespread in the medical sector.

The Coronavirus is about to change that, according to Thierry Marchal. As the epidemic was coming to Europe, he said, Ansys started working on a series of models mid-February, with partners from the academic world (Oklahoma State University, University of Eindhoven), industrial groups (pharmaceutical, medical, automotive, aeronautic) and regulators (the FDA in the US). They decided to release their studies in March when they considered that their models were accurate enough to give recommendations on social distancing to authorities.

 

 

Ansys' digital simulation shows that droplets can be expelled up to 28 meters when coughing or sneezing.

For situations where there is a breeze or people moving the travel is different. For the jogger, Ansys imagined three cases: a) 2 people running side by side, b) 2 people running and passing each other, and c) 2 people running one behind the other. Theirry Marchal of Ansys  first thought that the most worrying case would be when the two people pass each other. But simulation shows that because of the speed of the jogger (~ 14 km/h), the potentially contaminated droplets from a breathing and/or coughing jogger will go behind him/her and easily reach the face and the clothes of the following jogger.

We also incorporated in our models the effect of the wind when two people talk to each other. We have shown that a distance of 1.80m is good unless there is the wind behind it. Our studies show that in the case of a very light breeze, 1m/s (under 4km/h) a distance of 1.80m is no longer enough. When it is windy and you want to talk to someone, you have to check where the wind is coming from and stand perpendicular to the wind.

Multiple Studies Show that Viruses Travel on Air Pollution Particles

The Italian scientists used standard techniques to collect outdoor air pollution samples at one urban and one industrial site in Bergamo province and identified a gene highly specific to Covid-19 in multiple samples. The detection was confirmed by blind testing at an independent laboratory.

Previous studies have shown that air pollution particles do harbor microbes and that pollution is likely to have carried the viruses causing bird flu, measles and foot-and-mouth disease over considerable distances.

The potential role of air pollution particles is linked to the broader question of how the coronavirus is transmitted. Large virus-laden droplets from infected people’s coughs and sneezes fall to the ground within a meter or two. But much smaller droplets, less than 5 microns in diameter, can remain in the air for minutes to hours and travel further.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/24/coronavirus-detected-particles-air-pollution

Airborne Transmission Evidence Found in Wuhan

Scientists have found evidence of air transmission of COVID in public spaces in Wuhan.

“Our finding has confirmed the aerosol transmission as an important pathway for surface contamination. We call for extra care and attention on the proper design, use, and disinfection of the toilets in hospitals and in communities to minimize the potential source of the virus-laden aerosol.”

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/tiny-airborne-particles-may-carry-the-new-coronavirus#Crowded-places

A Speaker Emits 1 to 50 Virus Particles Per Second

Wired has published an article which makes a strong case for the importance of air transmission. A vast number of the particles that come out of a person’s mouth are much smaller, under 5 microns. They dry out quickly in the air and become so light they can float around for hours. Even the slightly warm layer of air constantly wafting upward from every person—our “thermal plume”—can carry these particles up, up, and away. Random air flow makes their spread turbulent, bounced around by currents like sand in a tide pool. And we emit them all the time. “If you look at what CDC and WHO have been saying, they downplay the role of airborne transmission,” says Joseph Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings Program at the Harvard School of Public Health. “I think that’s a mistake.”

This is basically why people think being outside is less risky than being inside, and it might be why the virus is better at infecting people in enclosed spaces. Given that some significant percentage of disease transmission is coming from people who have no apparent symptoms, it’s still unknown how much virus the different sized particles carry, and how much virus it takes to infect someone. But, given what researchers have seen so far, the disease models tend to regard the number of people a given person infects, the reproductive number, as a sort of average across an entire population. But that number actually varies by individual and by context. Most infected people don’t transmit the disease to anyone else; so-called super spreaders give the disease to lots and lots of others.

Jessica Metcalf, a demographer who studies infectious disease dynamics at Princeton, estimates that 10 percent of cases might be responsible for 80 percent of transmission. Some people apparently walk around in an invisible Pigpen cloud of virus. And some circumstances—crowded rooms, sick people exuding more virus, longer periods of contact—make some situations more likely to turn into “superspreading events.”

The virus lives in the deep lungs and has to get up and out of the nose and throat for transmission. Some researchers looking into the Washington choir cluster suggested that the deep breaths and powerful exhalations required for singing carried more virus, making that outbreak worse (even though it turned out that the singers had in fact gotten inside each other’s social-distance force fields). Ristenpart’s team at UC Davis has found that simple talking gives off 1 to 50 particles per second, with louder talking corresponding to higher numbers.

That might be due to something called the “fluid-film burst mechanism”; when you inhale, the air-gathering sacs of the lungs, the alveoli, expand and stretch the thick fluid that lines them. It pops and splashes a bit, pinching off the tiny aerosol particles. And that part of the lungs is exactly where the virus is more likely to live too. “The physicists have accepted this,” says Robin Wood, director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa and an expert in the airborne transmission of tuberculosis, “whereas the physicians haven’t really got to understand it.”

And some people give off more of these “expiratory” particles than others—by an order of magnitude—no matter how loud they talk or how deeply they breathe. “A 10-minute conversation with an infected, asymptomatic super emitter talking in a normal volume thus would yield an invisible ‘cloud’ of approximately 6,000 aerosol particles,” Ristenpart’s team writes in a paper in Aerosol Science and Technology. They’ve even found that some sounds emit more of these expiratory particles than others—pa-pa-pa (linguistically a “plosive”) makes more than fa-fa-fa (a “fricative”). All in all, it’s a good argument for quiet-car rules on trains and buses in the Covid-19 era.

But it still takes context to turn that individual variation into a superspreading event. If small expiratory particles are a major factor, then a super spreader’s kryptonite will be ventilation. Work on the airborne indoor transmission of tuberculosis in the 1950s showed that the outcome depended on the number of people who were infectious, their respiratory rate, and how well the room was ventilated. It’s that last number that may provide another angle of attack for public health.

https://www.wired.com/story/to-beat-covid-19-you-have-to-know-how-a-virus-moves/

Individuals Release up to 180,000 Liquid Aerosols and Billions of Particles per Hour

The average  individual breathes in and exhales around 12 cubic feet of air each hour. That air has a maximum of 420 million particles greater than or equal to 0.5 microns. That air also has 420 billion smaller particles.  This calculation is based on  an average used in the cleanroom classifications.  This assumes no particles are retained in the lungs.

 

People also exhale as much as 180,000 liquid aerosols per hour. This is a so called splashing function in the lungs. A mL of sputum might contain upwards of 1 billion viral RNAs. So there could be multiple virions in a droplet or attached to a particle. The minimum infection rate could be as few as 10 viral particles. Therefore it would only take a tiny fraction of the droplets or particles emitted by an individual to infect many others.

In fact the numbers are so large that an individual could be generating enough virus to infect a whole city. The infection rate is kept low by the fact that only an almost insignificant percentage of the virus particles travel to the optimum locations and survive. From the perspective of masks and filters the question is not whether they might be necessary but whether they will be efficient enough.

Reshoring Could be Temporary

“If the U.S government provides direct and proper support and incentivizes domestic manufacturers [of PPE], I believe there will be some reshoring of production,” Mark Bonifacio told PlasticsToday. “There will be at least a short-term effort to address reshoring and localization of supply chains. In medtech as in other industries, we have been talking about this for at least the last four years. There is a need to manufacture the right products in the ‘right’ places — Asia for Asia, EU for EU, and North America for North America,” said Bonifacio. When global conditions return to some sense of normalcy, however, “market forces will be back at work in terms of availability, labor, and material costs,” he added.

Bonifacio heads Bonifacio Consulting Services, which works with medical device OEMs and contract manufacturers. He readily concedes that he has ties to a Hong Kong business with operations in China, which may color his thinking, and is an investor and board member of several U.S. manufacturing companies.

Bonifacio foresees some push back against China and tougher relations in the short term but hopes that “countries take the longer view that globalization has already happened — the horse has left the barn, so to speak. Countries choosing to isolate rather than collaborate on the world’s toughest challenges ahead will be a missed opportunity for generations to come,” said Bonifacio. 

Mondi will Build Meltblown Line and Mask Fabrication Facility for 1 Million Masks per Day

Mondi is set to build new production lines in its plant in Gronau, Germany, to produce meltblown nonwoven fabric and surgical face masks. This is part of Mondi's efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and respond to increased demand by health authorities, businesses and consumers for face masks.

Mondi Gronau has a proven track record of producing and handling films, laminates, nonwovens and elastic ear laminates for hygiene products. This knowledge will be applied to the entire value chain of face mask production.

 “We are well positioned for the increased production of face masks and meltblown nonwoven fabric in Gronau. Our people have the needed know-how and expertise on working with these materials and the technology required. The in-house production capability of all substantial components positions us to build up a long-term competitive local supply. Once up and running, we will be able to produce more than one million face masks per day.” said Jürgen Schneider, Managing Director, Mondi Personal Care Components (PCC).

The production lines will produce meltblown nonwoven fabric and surgical masks. Given the shortage of melt blown fabric in the marketplace, Mondi´s plant in Gronau will offer approximately 50% of its production to other face mask manufacturers in Europe.

Berry Building 400 tpy Meltblown Facility in South America

 

Berry announced the capital investment in its global meltblown nonwoven fabric capacity for South America. This investment further strengthens the Company’s global reach and position as the leading nonwovens manufacturer. This line is Berry’s first meltblown asset, based on its Meltex™ technology, to be located in South America and continues to support the demand for health and wellness products.

“We are pleased to present this state-of-the-art meltblown capacity to the South American market. As customers prepare for future outbreaks or protection demands, we will be ready to serve” said Daniel Guerrero, EVP & GM for Latin America in Health, Hygiene, and Specialties at Berry.

 

With continued demand for face masks globally, Berry has been working closely with customers to help ensure production and supply. The investment will bring more than 400 metric tons of Meltex™ meltblown nonwoven material to the region, which will enable production of more than 500 million surgical-grade masks per year.

The new asset will be operational in the March 2021 quarter, will be placed at an existing Berry production facility in South America, and will focus on the production of materials for ASTM L2, L3, and N95 masks. The new line will be upgraded with Berry’s patented charging technology post installation.

Gulsan Group is Adding a 3.2-Meter Meltblown Line in Turkey

The line, which is being supplied by Reicofil, will begin commercial production in November 2020. It will make enough material for 250 million face masks per month.

Gulsan decided to invest in the meltblown line in January after the Coronavirus was first detected in China. Gulsan will supply the meltblown in Turkey and the EMEA region.

Borealis Producing Meltblowns for Face Masks

 

Borealis has started production of meltblown fabrics for face mask applications on its unique pilot line in Linz, Austria. Borealis has managed quickly to convert the way of working from pure development to smaller scale pilot production to regularly produce rolls of fine fibre fabrics for face masks. Recently developed by Borealis, a new proprietary polypropylene (PP) meltblown resin has boosted filtration properties due to its capability for finer fibres. By exploiting a robust network of co-operation partners in the country, Borealis is helping bolster the supply of filtration media to increase face masks production.

The well-known Borealis meltblown resins HL708FB and HL712FB are reference grades for filtration. Recently, a new resin Borealis HL912FB was introduced to the market, which can be processed at higher processing temperatures allowing the production of even finer fibres. According to in-house testing, the use of Borealis HL912FB results in a significant improvement in filtration efficiency. All three grades are manufactured at Borealis facilities in Europe and made available to customers worldwide.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a sudden steep increase in the need for PPE, while supply chains are being disrupted around the globe. We would like to assure our partners that we remain the reliable supplier of advanced polymers for the manufacture of high-quality face masks and other PPE,” says Lucrèce Foufopoulos, Borealis Executive Vice President Polyolefins, Innovation and Circular Economy Solutions. “True to our company purpose, ‘Life demands progress – we are re-inventing for more sustainable living’, we are offering innovative solutions like Borealis HL912FB and are re-purposing our own pilot facilities to a small-scale production line for meltblown fabrics. We have capitalized on our close collaboration with governments, NGOs and value chain partners to optimally deploy our innovation and manufacturing capabilities at the service of society.”

Neenah Expanded Melt Blown Capacity in Germany and is Repurposing Other Machines

Neenah Filtration has expanded its meltblown capacity to better meet demand for face mask materials at its Feldkirchen-Westerham, Germany production site. Neenah Filtration is  continuously increasing the production of filter media for surgical masks according to the BFE standard as well as FFP1, FFP2, FFP3 and P3 masks based on meltblown nonwovens.

In addition, Neenah Filtration is converting other media production machines needed to combat the COVID 19 pandemic. These machines will make materials for face masks used by civilians to protect against the spread of the virus. Benefits of the material are the prevention of droplet infection, excellent strength properties and the possibility of a combination with different materials. It can also be used as one layer.

South Texas Health Systems Purchases Eighteen Room Purifiers and Four H2O2 Systems

South Texas Health Systems recently acquired technology designed to filter its air and disinfect surfaces in its hospitals — action taken to ease any public health anxieties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new tech includes a rapid UVC disinfector, 18 Amaircare filters and four dry hydrogen peroxide generators.

Since late April, after Gov. Greg Abbott lifted restrictions on elective medical procedures across the state, STHS COO Matt Malinak said patient volume has slowly gone back to normal — but the low flow of patients is still alarming.

“We have seen a significant drop-off in volume,” he said. “It’s been noticeable to the point where we know that patients are not receiving the care that they need because they’re scared to go to the emergency room. The ultimate goal post-COVID, or as we get to be comfortable with the new norm of COVID, is trying to catch up with that demand that’s been backlogged for six to eight weeks now.”

On top of several sanitation protocols that have already been implemented, STHS hospitals have recently acquired several new disinfecting machines, one being a rapid UVC (ultraviolet light) disinfector.

“After we are done cleaning a room, there might be spots under the chair, or maybe a spot on a wheel that we may not have fully been able to get to,” Malinak said. “What this will do is seek out those areas and it will zap everything in the room… it goes after the DNA of microbes and blows them up.”

The machine can sanitize a room in about 15 minutes and will be used to clean all rooms of the hospital, including operating rooms and patient rooms.

Then, working to clean the hospital’s air are a couple of machines: Amaircare filters, and dry hydrogen peroxide generators.

The Amaircare machines, Malinak explained, are considered high-efficiency particulate air filters, or HEPA filters, which process air and rid it of harmful particles.

“All this does is take air in and recycle it, and it uses a HEPA filter that’s in it to catch those microbes,” he said. “Then the air it pushes back out is clean.”

The small machines will be placed all around the hospital, including waiting areas and patient rooms.

While Amaircare machines filter air, dry hydrogen peroxide (DHP) generators continuously release disinfecting gas, which is safe for public areas.

“This gas is safe for everyone, that way, we can continuously disinfect rooms without having to clear people out to use the robot (the rapid UVC disinfector),” Malinak said.

In addition to the work of both of these machines, Maliak explained that the larger air conditioning system of the building is already built as a HEPA filter. Sitting on top of the STHS’s Edinburg Children’s Hospital, for instance, is a large air filtering machine with UVC light bulbs inside.

All of the air in the hospitals run through a similar machine, which then purifies the air and sends it back inside, much like the way lungs work.

The last piece of new equipment is not as high-tech but is just as important: disinfecting mats.

“Everyone wears their shoes in the hospital, and a lot of them wear them at home. We walk in and out of patient rooms all the time,” Malinak said.

The black mats have protruding teeth and will have disinfecting solution poured over them. So, when someone is standing on it and wiggles a little, their shoes will be scrubbed clean. Other measures that STHS has taken is providing staff members in COVID-19, as well as labor and delivery departments, with scrubs to change into while working.