This my first chance to post this but It’s been on my mind since I heard the presidents presser yesterday. He mentioned that we shouldn’t be throwing away N95 masks. I’m sure the Medical professionals and the OSHA guys watching were saying WTF.
Here is the link.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/21/politics/trump-sanitize-medical-masks/index.html
Now I know that the president probably does not really know the ramifications of reusing a mask but desperate times do call for desperate measures, so what may be criticized as a dumb idea should be considered as a viable option under the circumstances.
At work when the shortage hit, I purchased some cartridge style respirators for the shop and saved the N95 masks for my install crews. I told them to blow them out with compressed air at the end of the day. This was so they could blow out the construction dust, but I didn’t really consider the possible ramifications if their mask had been contaminated by COVID-19. They could potentially be spraying virus onto others or themselves.
Here is what I’m thinking now. I’ve got plenty of Denatured Alcohol. At home I dunked a mask into a container of alcohol and let it soak in for about 30sec. Then I took it out, let the excess drain off and then simply let it dry out on the table. It took about 15min to be totally dry. I then blew it out with compressed air. I’ve been wearing it for about 10min now as I sit here typing. I can smell a very slight alcohol smell but other than that it seems to work fine.
I’m no virologist but from what I understand the virus is killed when in contact with Alcohol. There doesn’t seem to be any reason why this wont work. So change my mind before I open myself and business up to some OSHA lawsuit down the road. Otherwise we implement this procedure tomorrow if we are still allowed to work.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Here is the link.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/21/politics/trump-sanitize-medical-masks/index.html
Now I know that the president probably does not really know the ramifications of reusing a mask but desperate times do call for desperate measures, so what may be criticized as a dumb idea should be considered as a viable option under the circumstances.
At work when the shortage hit, I purchased some cartridge style respirators for the shop and saved the N95 masks for my install crews. I told them to blow them out with compressed air at the end of the day. This was so they could blow out the construction dust, but I didn’t really consider the possible ramifications if their mask had been contaminated by COVID-19. They could potentially be spraying virus onto others or themselves.
Here is what I’m thinking now. I’ve got plenty of Denatured Alcohol. At home I dunked a mask into a container of alcohol and let it soak in for about 30sec. Then I took it out, let the excess drain off and then simply let it dry out on the table. It took about 15min to be totally dry. I then blew it out with compressed air. I’ve been wearing it for about 10min now as I sit here typing. I can smell a very slight alcohol smell but other than that it seems to work fine.
I’m no virologist but from what I understand the virus is killed when in contact with Alcohol. There doesn’t seem to be any reason why this wont work. So change my mind before I open myself and business up to some OSHA lawsuit down the road. Otherwise we implement this procedure tomorrow if we are still allowed to work.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk