Effectiveness of Ultraviolet-C Light and a High-Level Disinfection Cabinet for Decontamination of N95 Respirators

• DOI: 10.20411/pai.v5i1.372
• Publication Date: 2020-05-05T18:11:22Z
• Authors: Jennifer L. Cadnum; Daniel Li; Sarah N. Redmond; Amrita R. John; Basya Pearlmutter; Curtis Donskey
• Keywords: Human decontamination; Respirator; Personal Protective Equipment; Dry heat

Background-Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) including N95 filtering facepiece respirators is an urgent concern in the setting global COVID-19 pandemic. Decontamination PPE could be useful to maintain adequate supplies, but there uncertainty regarding efficacy decontamination technologies.Methods-A modification American Society for Testing and Materials standard quantitative carrier disk test method (ASTM E-2197-11) was used examine effectiveness ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light, a high-level disinfection cabinet that generates aerosolized peracetic acid hydrogen peroxide, dry heat at 70°C 30 minutes bacteriophages Phi6 MS2 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) inoculated onto 3 commercial respirators. Three 6 log10 reductions on were considered effective disinfection, respectively. Results-UV-C administered as 1-minute cycle UV-C box or 30-minute by room device reduced contamination did not meet criteria viruses from all sites any N95s. The organisms N95s achieved with cycles over ~60 minutes. Dry bacteriophages. Conclusions-UV-C reduce However, technologies studied our under conditions used. met multiple cycles.