Photomedicine and Photobiology Unit, Department of Dermatology, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI.
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI.
Photochem Photobiol. 2020 Sep;96(5):1083-1087. doi: 10.1111/php.13322. Epub 2020 Sep 7.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an international shortage of personal protective equipment including N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs), resulting in many institutions using ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) technology for N95 FFR decontamination. To ensure proper decontamination, it is crucial to determine the dose received by various parts of the FFR in this process. Recently, our group customized a UVGI unit for N95 decontamination. With experimental and theoretical approach, this manuscript discusses the minimum dose received by various parts of the N95 respirator after one complete decontamination cycle with this UVGI unit. The results demonstrate that all parts of the N95 FFR received at least 1 J cm after one complete decontamination cycle with this unit. As there are a variety of UVGI devices and different types of FFRs, this study provides a model by which UVC dose received by different areas of the FFRs can be accurately assessed to ensure proper decontamination for the safety of healthcare providers.
新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情导致个人防护设备（包括 N95 过滤式呼吸防护器）在全球范围内短缺，许多机构因此采用紫外线杀菌技术对 N95 呼吸防护器进行消毒。为确保正确消毒，确定该过程中 FFR 各部位所接受的剂量至关重要。最近，我们小组专门设计了一种用于 N95 消毒的紫外线杀菌设备。本文采用实验和理论方法，讨论了使用该紫外线杀菌设备进行一次完整的消毒循环后，N95 呼吸器各部位所接受的最小剂量。结果表明，使用该设备进行一次完整的消毒循环后，N95 FFR 的所有部位至少接受了 1 J/cm 的剂量。由于紫外线杀菌设备种类繁多，且 FFR 类型各异，因此本研究提供了一种模型，可以准确评估 FFR 不同部位所接受的 UVC 剂量，以确保适当消毒，保障医护人员的安全。
