To help extend the useful life of life-saving equipment, researchers and hospitals are turning to a long-known, if little-used, means of disinfection -- ultraviolet radiation.
"It's generally well known that UV-C radiation kills microbes," said Bob Karlicek Jr., director of the Center for Lighting Enabled Systems and Applications at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y."What's not known is the specific quantities of UV-C radiation that is required to fully disinfect complex equipment like N95 masks, because you have to get the light to the inside of the mask.
"Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous -- whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light -- and I think you said that hasn't been checked, but you're going to test it," Trump said at a media briefing."And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you're going to test that, too. Sounds interesting.
The Rensselaer team's solution is a conveyor system that runs N95 masks through a battery of mercury UV lights. Mount Sinai doctors are testing the system to figure out the exact level of UV exposure needed to fully disinfect the masks, Karlicek said. "Anything we can do to extend the life of N95 masks in particular -- those are in relatively short supply pretty much everywhere -- that's certainly something I would like to see developed," said Dr. Matthew Heinz, a hospitalist and internist with Tucson Medical Center in Arizona.
"One of the biggest challenges we had in building the system was finding a supply of mercury lamps that were commercially available now, as opposed to being backordered for five or six weeks," Karlicek said.Similar devices -- including wands, boxes and bags -- are already available for disinfecting at home using UV light, he noted.
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