Colleagues,
On 25 March the Stanford School of Medicine published a nice Q&A on the shortage of face masks and N-95 respirators. See
file:///Users/pareinhardt/Downloads/mask-ppe-EBM-Stanford%20Medicine%20v1.2-3-25-2020.pdf
On pages 5-6 there is a good discussion of the various methods that can be used to disinfect N-95s, including a helpful table and references. One refence shows that hot water vapor from boiling water for ten
minutes is an effective decontamination method.
At Yale, we plan to use vaporized hydrogen peroxide to decontaminate and reuse N-95s using the methods described here:
https://www.safety.duke.edu/sites/default/files/N-95_VHP-Decon-Re-Use.pdf
https://www.fda.gov/media/136386/download
Pete Reinhardt
Director, Yale Office of Environmental Health and Safety
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