Modified full-face snorkel masks as reusable personal protective equipment for hospital personnel

  1. Laurel Kroo
  2. Anesta Kothari
  3. Melanie Hannebelle
  4. George Herring
  5. Thibaut Pollina
  6. Ray Chang
  7. Dominic Peralta
  8. Samhita P. Banavar
  9. Eliott Flaum
  10. Hazel Soto-Montoya
  11. Hongquan Li
  12. Kyle Combes
  13. Emma Pan
  14. Khang Vu
  15. Kelly Yen
  16. James Dale
  17. Patrick Kolbay
  18. Simon Ellgas
  19. Rebecca Konte
  20. Rozhin Hajian
  21. Grace Zhong
  22. Noah Jacobs
  23. Amit Jain
  24. Filip Kober
  25. Gerry Ayala
  26. Quentin Allinne
  27. Nicholas Cucinelli
  28. Dave Kasper
  29. Luca Borroni
  30. Patrick Gerber
  31. Ross Venook
  32. Peter Baek
  33. Nitin Arora
  34. Philip Wagner
  35. Roberto Miki
  36. Jocelyne Kohn
  37. David Kohn Bitran
  38. John Pearson
  39. Beatriz Arias-Arco
  40. Ricardo Larrainzar-Garijo
  41. Cristián Muñiz Herrera
  42. Manu Prakash

Reviewed by

Read the full article

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

Here we adapt and evaluate a full-face snorkel mask for use as personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers, who lack appropriate alternatives during the COVID-19 crisis in the spring of 2020. The design (referred to as Pneumask) consists of a custom snorkel-specific adapter that couples the snorkel-port of the mask to a rated filter (either a medical-grade ventilator inline filter or an industrial filter). This design has been tested for the sealing capability of the mask, filter performance, CO2 buildup and clinical usability. These tests found the Pneumask capable of forming a seal that exceeds the standards required for half-face respirators or N95 respirators. Filter testing indicates a range of options with varying performance depending on the quality of filter selected, but with typical filter performance exceeding or comparable to the N95 standard. CO2 buildup was found to be roughly equivalent to levels found in half-face elastomeric respirators in literature. Clinical usability tests indicate sufficient visibility and, while speaking is somewhat muffled, this can be addressed via amplification (Bluetooth voice relay to cell phone speakers through an app) in noisy environments. We present guidance on the assembly, usage (donning and doffing) and decontamination protocols. The benefit of the Pneumask as PPE is that it is reusable for longer periods than typical disposable N95 respirators, as the snorkel mask can withstand rigorous decontamination protocols (that are standard to regular elastomeric respirators). With the dire worldwide shortage of PPE for medical personnel, our conclusions on the performance and efficacy of Pneumask as an N95-alternative technology are cautiously optimistic.

Article activity feed

  1. Version published to 10.1371/journal.pone.0244422
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.04.24.20078907: (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: Thank you for sharing your code.

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: Please consider improving the rainbow (“jet”) colormap(s) used on page 25. At least one figure is not accessible to readers with colorblindness and/or is not true to the data, i.e. not perceptually uniform.

    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.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.04.24.20078907v1 on medRxiv