A major concern among healthcare experts is a projected shortage of N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) during an influenza pandemic. One option for mitigating an FFR shortage is to decontaminate and reuse the devices. Many parameters must be evaluated to verify the effectiveness of this strategy: biocidal efficacy, filtration performance, pressure drop, fit, and residual toxicity. The focus of this research effort was to evaluate the ability of microwave/steam energy, ...
An AGI-30 impinger containing particles (MS2 bacteriophage or 30-nm polystyrene latex (PSL)) of known concentration was operated with sterile air. Reaerosolized particles as a function of sampling flow rate and impinge collection liquid concentration were characterized using a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer. Reaerosolization from the impinge was also compared to that from a BioSampler. Results show that the reaerosolization increases as flow rate increases. While the increased particle concentration in ...
The filter's physical (PRE) and viable removal efficiencies (VRE) were investigated with challenges of MS2 bacteriophage aerosols, and the infectivity of MS2 collected on the filter was analyzed. To test a proposed inactivation mechanism, media containing thiosulfate or bovine serum albumin (BSA) were put in impingers to quench and consume I2 released from the filter. In direct plating experiments, treated filters presented significantly higher VREs than did untreated filters; however, ...
The advent -- 60 years after the concept was first proposed -- of practical self-decontaminating materials coincides with international efforts to prepare for global viral epidemics to highlight a need for a method to rapidly and reproducibly contaminate surfaces with pathogenic bioaerosol particles and representative surrogates. Slow rotation of a single collection stage in a cascade impactor downstream of a Collison nebulizer is demonstrated to deposit by impaction a rotationally ...
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