How To Decontaminate And Reuse Your N95 Face Mask

With the COVID-19 outbreak attacking the world, people are trying to protect themselves from being infected with the novel coronavirus.

The virus transmits from human to human. So the one way one can protect themselves is to cover their mouth and nose. People who have flu-like symptoms like coughing and sneezing are asked to wear masks. For precautions, normal people are also advised to put on face masks when visiting public places like airports and hospitals.

But these surgical face masks do not last you forever. People hunting face masks globally leads to a shortage of face masks. Many have tried washing these masks and reusing them. However, some are afraid that washing face masks may make them ineffective.

A paper from Stanford Anesthesia Informatics and Media Lab suggests that it is possible for you to disinfect and reuse your N95 masks.

To prove which method is the most ideal one, the pointed to a study in which a variety of chemicals which include bleach, hydrogen peroxide, ethylene oxide, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation, and microwave oven irradiation were tested.

The researchers were searching for methods that would have no impact on the mask’s performance.

Bleach didn’t work since its gas would remain on the mask, leading to irritation while microwaving caused the mask to be melted. Hydrogen peroxide, ethylene oxide, and ultraviolet germicidal irradiation worked on the tested models but it remains unclear whether the material strength, filtration, and airflow integrity would be the same.

The best methods turn out to be the simplest ones. The researchers asked 4C Air, an N95 filter maker for the best mask decontaminating methods. And it has been revealed that the best way to decontaminate an N95 mask would be heating the mask in an oven at 70 Celsius degrees for 30 minutes. If you don’t own an oven, using boiling water’s hot vapor for 10 minutes also worked well.

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