Skip to main content
https://www.highperformancecpmgate.com/rgeesizw1?key=a9d7b2ab045c91688419e8e18a006621

FDA grants emergency authorization to system that decontaminates N95 respirator masks for re-use

The global coronavirus pandemic has meant that there’s a widespread effort to develop and advance creative solutions to new problems, like worldwide shortages of necessary front-line medical equipment. One piece of gear that’s necessary for protecting the health of medical workers treating COVID-19 patients are N95 respirator masks, which are masks that specifically filter out very fine particles, including shed virus, with high efficacy. These are in extremely short supply, but a new FDA emergency use authorization could help significantly lessen that burden by opening a path to re-use of N95 masks originally intended for one-time use.

Research, development and lab management company Battelle has received special emergency authorization from the U.S. healthcare regulator to put into use a system it developed to decontaminate used N95 respirator masks using concentrated hydrogen peroxide. The system is able to turn single use respirators into masks that can be used up to 20 times, with a 2.5-hour decontamination process between each use.

The Battelle system is already in operation at its Ohio facility, with a decontamination capacity of up to 80,000 masks per day. That’s a considerable dent in a supply need that will be faced by essentially every healthcare facility faced with a high concentration of COVID-19 patients. The company is working with Columbus-based OhioHealth as its first healthcare system partner, but says that it’ll also start decontaminating masks for three other new major healthcare systems in the area beginning this week.

In order to ensure that everything is done as safely and transparently as possible, the N95 masks that Battelle collects for decontamination and re-use will all go back to the same healthcare facility from which they were collected, and they’ll be labeled with a serial number that provides tracking, which will also include the number of times they’re re-used.

Battelle actually worked with the FDA in 2015 to develop and demonstrate this technology – specifically in anticipation of a scenario where a global pandemic caused a shortage of available equipment. They’re also not the only ones using this technology: Duke University is also using vaporized hydrogen peroxide to decontaminate used respirators, and it’s making the protocols that it established widely available, with compatibility with a number of existing decontamination systems already in use in healthcare facilities.

This technology and method actually aren’t new, and are frequently used in decontamination of equipment used in labs that deal with biohazardous material. Its use specifically for turning single-use N95 masks into reusable gear is new, however – but this EUA from the FDA could pave the way for broader authorized, safe use of the technology to help with the growing need for more equipment.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Uber co-founder Garrett Camp steps back from board director role

Uber co-founder Garrett Camp is relinquishing his role as a board director and switching to board observer — where he says he’ll focus on product strategy for the ride hailing giant. Camp made the announcement in a short Medium post in which he writes of his decade at Uber: “I’ve learned a lot, and realized that I’m most helpful when focused on product strategy & design, and this is where I’d like to focus going forward.” “I will continue to work with Dara [Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO] and the product and technology leadership teams to brainstorm new ideas, iterate on plans and designs, and continue to innovate at scale,” he adds. “We have a strong and diverse team in place, and I’m confident everyone will navigate well during these turbulent times.” The Canadian billionaire entrepreneur signs off by saying he’s looking forward to helping Uber “brainstorm the next big idea”. Camp hasn’t been short of ideas over his career in tech. He’s the co-founder of the web 2.0 recommendatio
Post a Comment
Read more

Drone crash near kids leads Swiss Post and Matternet to suspend autonomous deliveries

A serious crash by a delivery drone in Switzerland have grounded the fleet and put a partnership on ice. Within a stone’s throw of a school, the incident raised grim possibilities for the possibilities of catastrophic failure of payload-bearing autonomous aerial vehicles. The drones were operated by Matternet as part of a partnership with the Swiss Post (i.e. the postal service), which was using the craft to dispatch lab samples from one medical center for priority cases. As far as potential applications of drone delivery, it’s a home run — but twice now the craft have crashed, first with a soft landing and the second time a very hard one. The first incident, in January, was the result of a GPS hardware error; the drone entered a planned failback state and deployed its emergency parachute, falling slowly to the ground. Measures were taken to improve the GPS systems. The second failure in May, however, led to the drone attempting to deploy its parachute again, only to sever the line
Post a Comment
Read more

ProtonMail logged IP address of French activist after order by Swiss authorities

ProtonMail , a hosted email service with a focus on end-to-end encrypted communications, has been facing criticism after a police report showed that French authorities managed to obtain the IP address of a French activist who was using the online service. The company has communicated widely about the incident, stating that it doesn’t log IP addresses by default and it only complies with local regulation — in that case Swiss law. While ProtonMail didn’t cooperate with French authorities, French police sent a request to Swiss police via Europol to force the company to obtain the IP address of one of its users. For the past year, a group of people have taken over a handful of commercial premises and apartments near Place Sainte Marthe in Paris. They want to fight against gentrification, real estate speculation, Airbnb and high-end restaurants. While it started as a local conflict, it quickly became a symbolic campaign. They attracted newspaper headlines when they started occupying prem
Post a Comment
Read more