Healthcare workers and other frontline workers are treating patients with COVID-19 at a very high risk of contracting coronavirus themselves. A part of the reason is the shortage of N95 masks, which forced them to reuse contaminated masks.
Is Sterilizing Your N95 Masks In the Microwave Effective? Here's How You Can Sterilize Them
N95 masks have become one of the best lines of defense since the beginning of the pandemic crisis. They have become a vital part of health care workers' daily life in treating patients.
The Air Force reported way back in 2012 how to sterilize N95 masks using hot steam from microwave and standard ovens, and also the using the ultraviolet germicidal radiation (UVGI) light bulbs. It is an inexpensive technique that can help provide critical protection to frontline workers.
Sterilizing N95 Masks Using Microwaves at Home
Though masks are only supposed to be used once, the rising need and ongoing shortages led the hospitals to try techniques in sterilizing masks such as using hydrogen peroxide vaporization, UV light, and heat incubation.
A new study from the American Society for Microbiology has used the same method as the Air Force in sterilizing the N95 masks. It is an accessible and affordable method: using a microwave.
According to Dr. James E. Kirby of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center of Harvard, the findings of the study are important to many health care centers that lack the high-capacity sterilization systems that large hospitals have.
"We knew there was a critical shortage of personal protective gear and N95 masks, and we knew there was a need for a solution," Dr. Kirby says.
Their team, composed of eight researchers, is set out to provide an easy disinfection method to different health care settings, which include outpatient practices, frontline workers, and remote clinical settings.
"The goal of this work was to identify a widely accessible, microwave-generated steam decontamination method," the researchers said. Due to this, they utilized only common items that are usually found at home.
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Sterilization Technique Using Microwave
To sterilize the N95 masks using only the microwave, the materials needed for this are water, a glass container, mesh, a rubber band, and a 1,100- or 1,500- watt microwave. The researchers filled the glass container with 60 milliliters of water and then secured the mesh material over the top of it using a rubber band.
After that, they placed the N95 mask on top of the mesh and then put it inside the microwave for three minutes. According to the study, this technique will effectively kill all the viruses, even the coronavirus.
This may be a simple technique, but sometimes simple things also work well, says Kirby.
The findings suggest that the sterilization method could be repeated up to 20 times on a single N95 mask without damaging it. Although the study was mainly done for health care settings, Kirby said that there is no harm trying it at home.
Furthermore, ICU specialists Pierre Kory, MD, and Paul H. Mayo, MD emphasized in a recent USA Today opinion piece that N95 masks can only prevent aerosol-size droplet inhalation.
Read More: Popular 'Face Mask Carbon Dioxide Poisoning Rumor' is Debunked by Medical Experts
