Comparative Evaluation of Microorganism Disinfection Methods for N95 Respirators

Satoshi Mitarai*; Jun Noda; Satoshi Gondaira; Ikuo Uchida; Rikio Kirisawa

**Satoshi Mitarai*, Jun Noda, Satoshi Gondaira, Ikuo Uchida and Rikio Kirisawa**

Volume5-Issue1
Dates: Received: 2024-01-17 | Accepted: 2024-01-25 | Published: 2024-01-26
Pages: 083-088

Abstract

Background: An excessive demand for N95 respirators occurred during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Therefore, health care workers were obligated to reuse N95 respirators, which were intended to be disposable.

Aim: The primary objective of this study was to establish a standard procedure for safe disinfection or sterilization that does not affect the performance of an N95 respirator.

Methods: As disinfection or sterilization methods, immersion in 70% ethanol, 0.1% hypochlorous acid, 0.3% peracetic acid, 0.2% alkyldiaminoethylglycine hydrochloride aqueous solution, hypochlorous acid water, or plant mineral-activated water, autoclaving, pasteurization and hydrogen peroxide plasma sterilization were used. After sterilization/disinfection, the filtration capacity of each N95 respirator was examined.
Findings: The performance changes in the N95 respirator caused by each sterilization/disinfection method differed for each manufacturer’s product. Seventy percent ethanol, 0.1% sodium hypochlorite aqueous solution, 0.3% peracetic acid aqueous solution, autoclaving, hypochlorous acid water, and plant mineral-activated water significantly deteriorated the performance of N95 respirators. Performance degradation (increased permeability) was observed in 0.2% alkyldiaminoethylglycine hydrochloride aqueous solution and hydrogen peroxide plasma sterilization, and the permeation performance significantly deteriorated by 50–70% in all N95 respirators tested. Only pasteurization resulted in no deterioration in performance, even after five repeated sterilizations.

Conclusion: Verification of sterilization/disinfection methods for the reuse of N95 respirators has shown that the currently recommended hydrogen peroxide plasma sterilization is inadequate as it increases permeability by more than 50% with a single treatment. In this study, pasteurization was found to be the optimal sterilization method.

FullText HTML FullText PDF DOI: 10.37871/jbres1874

Certificate of Publication

Copyright

How to cite this article

Mitarai S, Noda J, Gondaira S, Uchida I, Kirisawa R. Comparative Evaluation of Microorganism Disinfection Methods for N95 Respirators. J Biomed Res Environ Sci. 2024 Jan 26; 5(1): 083-088. doi: 10.37871/jbres1874, Article ID: JBRES1874, Available at: https://www.jelsciences.com/articles/jbres1874.pdf

Subject area(s)

Pathology

Respiratory Medicine

References

Nogee D, Tomassoni AJ. Covid-19 and the N95 respirator shortage: Closing the gap. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2020; 41: 958. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2020.124. [Epub 2020 April 13]. PMID: 32279694, PMCID: PMC7205548.
Schelhorn JE. Herbers JM. 24Profile: Peter Tsai. Beyond discovery: Moving academic research to the market. Schelhorn JE, Herbers JM, editors. Oxford University Press; 2022. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197512715.003.0004.
van Doremalen N, Bushmaker T, Morris DH, Holbrook MG, Gamble A, Williamson BN et al. Aerosol and surface stability of SARS-CoV-2 as compared with SARS-CoV-1. N Engl J Med 2020; 382: 1564-7. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMc2004973. [Epub 2020 March 17]. PMID: 32182409, PMCID: PMC7121658.
Fischer RJ, Morris DH, van Doremalen N, Sarchette S, Matson MJ, Bushmaker T, Yinda CK, Seifert SN, Gamble A, Williamson BN, Judson SD, de Wit E, Lloyd-Smith JO, Munster VJ. Effectiveness of N95 Respirator Decontamination and Reuse against SARS-CoV-2 Virus. Emerg Infect Dis. 2020 Sep;26(9):2253–5. doi: 10.3201/eid2609.201524. Epub 2020 Jun 3. PMID: 32491983; PMCID: PMC7454118.
Paul D, Mondal SK, Mandal SM. Biologia Futura: Use of biocides during COVID-19-global reshuffling of the microbiota. Biol Futur 2021; 72: 273-80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42977-021-00069-1. [Epub 2021 February 1]. PMID: 34554548, PMCID: PMC7848239.
COVID-19 epidemiological update. World Health Organization. 2024.
Kanno T, Ishihara R, Hatama S, Uchida I. Antigenic variation among recent Japanese isolates of bovine coronaviruses belonging to phylogenetically distinct genetic groups. Arch Virol 2013; 158: 1047-53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-012-1587-1. [Epub 2012 December 27]. PMID: 23269444, PMCID: PMC7086937.
Viscusi DJ, Bergman MS, Eimer BC, Shaffer RE. Evaluation of five decontamination methods for filtering facepiece respirators. Ann Occup Hyg 2009; 53: 815-27. https://doi.org/10.1093/annhyg/mep070. [Epub 2009 October 4]. PMID: 19805391, PMCID: PMC2781738.
Bergman MS, Viscusi DJ, Heimbuch BK, Wander JD, Sambol AR, Shaffer RE. Evaluation of multiple (3-cycle) decontamination processing for filtering facepiece respirators. J Engineered Fibers Fabr. 2010;5. doi: 10.1177/155892501000500405.
Kumar A, Kasloff SB, Leung A, Cutts T, Strong JE, Hills K et al. Decontamination of N95 masks for re-use employing 7 widely available sterilization methods. PLoS One 2020; 15: e0243965. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243965. PMID: 33326504, PMCID: PMC7744046.
Wigginton KR, Arts PJ, Clack HL, Fitzsimmons WJ, Gamba M, Harrison KR et al. Validation of N95 filtering facepiece respirator decontamination methods available at a large University Hospital. Open Forum Infect Dis 2021; 8: ofaa610. https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofaa610. PMID: 33575418, PMCID: PMC7863868.
Rutala WA, Weber DJ. The Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC). Guideline for disinfection and sterilisation in healthcare facilities. 2008.
Soontravanich S, Munoz JA, Scamehorn JF, Harwell JH, Sabatini DA. Interaction between an anionic and an amphoteric surfactant. Part I: Monomer-micelle equilibrium. J Surfact Deterg. 2008;11:251-61. doi: 10.1007/s11743-008-1080-8.
Nazeeri AI, Hilburn IA, Wu D-A, Mohammed KA, Badal DY, Chan MHW, Kirschvink JL. Ethanol-drying regeneration of N95 respirators. medRxiv. 2020. doi: 10.1101/2020.04.12.20059709.
Faridi-Majidi R, Norouz F, Boroumand S, Nasrollah Tabatabaei S, Faridi-Majidi R. Decontamination assessment of nanofiber-based N95 masks. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 2022;29:80411-21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20903-w. [Epub 2022 June 18]. PMID: 35716305, PMCID: PMC9206400.
Cooper J, Csapó A, Ranasinghe R, Jeronimo M, Brockington-Tyhy T, Alawfi S et al. Filtration performance of three models of N95 filtering facepiece respirators following clinical usage and vaporized hydrogen peroxide decontamination. J Hosp Infect 2022; 131: 122-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2022.09.026. [Epub ahead of print]. PMID: 36272553.
Brooks JP, Lupfer C, Yang W, Hao W, Kapiamba KF. The effect of hypochlorous acid on the filtration performance and bacterial decontamination of N95 filtering facemask respirators. Am J Infect Control 2022; S0196-6553(22)00540-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2022.07.013. [Epub ahead of print]. PMID: 35870660.
Derr TH, James MA, Kuny CV, Patel DR, Kandel PP, Field C et al. Aerosolized hydrogen peroxide decontamination of N95 respirators, with fit-testing and viral inactivation, demonstrates feasibility for reuse during the COVID-19 pandemic. mSphere 2022; 7: e0030322. https://doi.org/10.1128/msphere.00303-22. [Epub 2022 August 30]. PMID: 36040048, PMCID: PMC9599425.
Sharma S, Wang F, Rao PVK, Agrawal AK, Jassal M, Szenti I et al. Unfolding the effects of decontamination treatments on the structural and functional integrity of N95 respirators via numerical simulations. Sci Rep 2022; 12: 4191. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-08150-y. PMID: 35264706, PMCID: PMC8906365.
Iki S, Sekiguchi K, Kurata Y, Shimizu E, Sugiura A, Yuasa H et al. Effects of various physical and chemical disinfection methods on the fine particle collection efficiency of N95 respirators and surgical masks. Jpn J Infect Dis 2022; 75: 341-6. https://doi.org/10.7883/yoken.JJID.2021.663. [Epub 2021 December 28]. PMID: 34980707.