Microwave-Generated Steam Decontamination of N95 Respirators Utilizing Universally Accessible Materials

  1. Katelyn E. Zulauf
  2. Alex B. Green
  3. Alex N. Nguyen Ba
  4. Tanush Jagdish
  5. Dvir Reif
  6. Robert Seeley
  7. Alana Dale
  8. James E. Kirby

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Abstract

Due to the rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), there is an increasing shortage of protective gear necessary to keep health care providers safe from infection. As of 9 April 2020, the CDC reported 9,282 cumulative cases of COVID-19 among U.S. health care workers (CDC COVID-19 Response Team, MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 69:477–481, 2020, https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6915e6 ). N95 respirators are recommended by the CDC as the ideal method of protection from COVID-19. Although N95 respirators are traditionally single use, the shortages have necessitated the need for reuse. Effective methods of N95 decontamination that do not affect the fit or filtration ability of N95 respirators are essential. Numerous methods of N95 decontamination exist; however, none are universally accessible. In this study, we describe an effective, standardized, and reproducible means of decontaminating N95 respirators using widely available materials. The N95 decontamination method described in this work will provide a valuable resource for hospitals, health care centers, and outpatient practices that are experiencing increasing shortages of N95 respirators due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.04.22.20076117: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    However these methods have significant limitations. UVGI is limited by inherent shadow effects of a light-source, and variability in dosages due to bulb age and differing platform constructions (14). Ethylene oxide is efficacious in eradicating microbial contamination, but is also a known carcinogen and teratogen, and exposure has been correlated with neurologic dysfunction (15). Vaporized hydrogen peroxide (“VHP”) is highly effective, killing greater than 99.9999% of surrogate microbial contaminants (a 6-log10 reduction), while preserving respirator filtration function (16). Yet the technology necessary for VHP is limited to larger healthcare systems that can afford the required equipment. Therefore, there is an urgent need for viable methods of decontamination that are safe, effective, and available in diverse clinical settings. In order to identify a generally accessible N95 respirator decontamination method, we focused our efforts on microwave generated steam decontamination. Microwaves are ubiquitous and previous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of microwave steam decontamination. To-date, however, studies examining microwave generated steam decontamination have employed both specific and laboratory-generated materials (e.g. pipette-tip boxes, modified reservoirs, commercial steam bags, etc.) that may not be generally available or easily reproduced (4-8). The goal of this work was to identify a widely accessible, microwave-generated steam decontamination metho...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We found bar graphs of continuous data. We recommend replacing bar graphs with more informative graphics, as many different datasets can lead to the same bar graph. The actual data may suggest different conclusions from the summary statistics. For more information, please see Weissgerber et al (2015).

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1128/mbio.00997-20
  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.04.22.20076117v1 on medRxiv