Can you use an electric cooker to disinfect N95 masks? It’s possible, study finds
A team of researchers looked no further than their kitchen cabinets in a search to find creative ways to sanitize face masks during the coronavirus pandemic.
They learned that electric cookers can disinfect the N95 masks used primarily by healthcare professionals when thrown in a 50-minute cycle with high, dry heat, according to a study by experts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Even after 20 cycles, the masks kept their filtration and fit, suggesting this method of sanitation could enable medical workers, especially those at smaller clinics that don’t have access to large-scale disinfecting equipment, to reuse their masks. A study was published in July in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters.
“There are many different ways to sterilize something, but most of them will destroy the filtration or the fit of an N95 respirator,” study co-author Vishal Verma, an assistant professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Illinois, said in a news release.
“Any sanitation method would need to decontaminate all surfaces of the respirator, but equally important is maintaining the filtration efficacy and the fit of the respirator to the face of the wearer. Otherwise, it will not offer the right protection.”
The team infected N95 masks with four different classes of virus — Tulane virus, rotavirus, adenovirus, and transmissible gastroenteritis virus, a type of coronavirus — and put them in an electric cooker set at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the study. The team put a towel at the bottom of the cooker to prevent the masks from touching the heating plate.
After one 50-minute cycle, the masks were decontaminated “inside and out” and maintained filtration capacity of more than 95%, Verma said. The researchers tested this by simulating how droplets come out of a wearer’s mouth and through the mask, and measured the particles that escaped.
The N95 masks also fit properly on a wearer’s face after 20 cycles in the electric cooker, which the researchers said disinfected them “more effectively than ultraviolet light,” according to the release. What’s more, multiple masks can be stacked in the device and achieve the same results.
The dry heat doesn’t require special preparation or leave chemical residues on the masks, and is “widely accessible for people at home,” especially as coronavirus surges continue to put a high demand on personal protective equipment, the team said.
