Dipartimento di Medicina Molecolare e Biotecnologie Mediche, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Via S. Pansini 5, 80131 Napoli, Italy.
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica, dei Materiali e della Produzione Industriale, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Piazzale Tecchio, 80, 80125 Napoli, Italy.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Mar 11;19(6):3296. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19063296.
The current coronavirus pandemic has increased worldwide consumption of individual protective devices. Single-use surgical masks are one of the most used devices to prevent the transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Nevertheless, the improper management of such protective equipment threatens our environment with a new form of plastic pollution. With the intention of contributing to a responsible policy of recycling, in the present work, five decontamination methods for used surgical masks that can be easily replicated with common household equipment are described. The decontamination procedures were hot water at 40 °C and 80 °C; autoclave; microwave at 750 W; and ultraviolet germicidal irradiation. After each decontamination procedure, the bacterial load reduction of ATCC 6538 was recorded to verify the effectiveness of these methods and, moreover, bacterial filtration efficiency and breathability tests were performed to evaluate mask performances. The best results were obtained with the immersion in 80 °C water and the microwave-assisted sterilization. Both methods achieved a high degree of mask decontamination without altering the filtration efficiency and breathability, in accordance with the quality standard. The proposed decontamination methods represent a useful approach to reduce the environmental impact of this new waste material. Moreover, these procedures can be easily reproduced with common household equipment to increase the recycling efforts.
当前的冠状病毒大流行增加了全球对个人防护设备的消耗。一次性医用口罩是预防 COVID-19 病毒传播最常用的设备之一。然而，这种防护设备的不当管理给我们的环境带来了一种新形式的塑料污染。本工作旨在为负责任的回收政策做出贡献，描述了五种可使用常见家用设备轻松复制的已用医用口罩的消毒方法。消毒程序为 40°C 和 80°C 的热水；高压灭菌器；750 W 的微波；和紫外线杀菌照射。在每个消毒程序后，记录 ATCC 6538 的细菌负载减少量，以验证这些方法的有效性，而且还进行了细菌过滤效率和透气性测试，以评估口罩性能。将口罩浸泡在 80°C 水中和微波辅助消毒的方法效果最好。这两种方法都实现了高度的口罩消毒，而不会改变过滤效率和透气性，符合质量标准。所提出的消毒方法代表了一种减少这种新材料废弃物对环境影响的有用方法。此外，这些程序可以使用常见的家用设备轻松复制，以提高回收力度。
