RAPID: Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation for Disinfecting and Reuse of N95 Respirators

RAPID：用于 N95 呼吸器消毒和重复使用的紫外线杀菌照射

• 批准号: 2031223
• 负责人: Kaiming Ye
• 金额: $ 18.27万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Binghamton
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-05-15 至 2022-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2031223&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Ultraviolet; Germicidal; Irradiation; Disinfecting

Hospitals across the US are facing shortage of medical supplies, especially personal protective equipment (PPE) such as N95 respirators. Consequently, there is a time-sensitive and critical need to find alternative means to keep medical professionals protected while caring for COVID-19 patients. Most PPE such as N95 respirators are designed for one-time use. For COVID-19, maintaining the supply of N95 respirators has become gravely challenging, as new supply has not matched the consumption rate. Moreover, disruption of global supply chains under lockdown also contributes to the shortage. There is an urgent need to develop effective technologies or toolboxes to help frontline healthcare workers have the PPE needed in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, the research team will collaborate with clinical investigators in the Infectious Control Division at the New York Upstate Medical University and United Health Service (UHS), a community hospital treating COVID-19 patients, to develop ultraviolet (UVC) germicidal irradiation technology to disinfect and reuse N95 respirators. UVC irradiation has been investigated in the past to decontaminate N95 masks; however, its effectiveness on COVID-19 contaminated N95 masks is not well established. The overarching goal of this research is to fill this gap and generate new knowledge for effective disinfection and reuse of N95 respirators during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sterilization technologies such as low heat, vaporized hydrogen peroxide gas (VHPG), UVC germicidal, etc. are being tested by several groups of investigators for decontaminating N95 respirators. Unlike VHPG, UVC sterilization does not require sophisticated instrumentation. A UVC sterilization unit can be built easily with relatively simple materials. It is more suitable and operable in medium size and community hospitals where COVID-19 patients are not as numerous as in medical centers located in large cities. The proposing research team has developed a UVC bath station capable of disinfecting 960 N95 respirators a day, and 1,920 a day if two stations are used. However, currently key data are not available to validate the efficacy of these sterilizations. This study is designed to provide this data and to generate new knowledge in order to improve efficiency of UV germicidal irradiation. It is also unclear whether ozone generated during UVC irradiation improves disinfection. A fundamental study will be performed to elucidate the impact of ozone on UVC sterilization. Furthermore, the research team will explore high wavelength UVC for disinfecting coronavirus-contaminated N95 respirators. The use of high wavelength UVC irradiation should reduce chemical degradation of the polymers of N95 respirators, extending their lifetime. This study is targeted to provide comprehensive data and analyses on UVC N95 mask disinfection. This data is essential for an unbiased assessment of the decontamination technique, and will provide insight into the extent to which coronaviruses can withstand UV irradiation. Studies on ozone and high wavelength UVC irradiation will provide new knowledge for designing a better UVC N95 mask sterilization system. It is anticipated that the results of the research will help guide future governmental decision making about how to manage and adapt to PPE shortages.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

美国各地的医院面临医疗用品的短缺，尤其是个人防护设备（PPE），例如N95呼吸器。因此，有时间敏感且至关重要的需要寻找替代手段，以在照顾COVID-19患者时保持医疗专业人员的保护。大多数PPE（例如N95呼吸器）都是为一次性使用而设计的。对于Covid-19，由于新供应与消费率不符，因此保持N95呼吸器的供应变得严重挑战。此外，锁定下的全球供应链的破坏也导致了短缺。迫切需要开发有效的技术或工具箱，以帮助一线医疗保健工人在与19009年大流行的战斗中所需的PPE。在这项研究中，研究小组将与纽约北部医科大学和联合卫生服务（UHS）的临床研究人员合作，这是一家治疗COVID-19患者的社区医院，以开发紫外线（UVC）生物辐照技术，以消毒和重复使用N95呼吸器。过去已经研究了UVC辐射以净化N95面膜。但是，它对195个污染的N95口罩的有效性尚未确定。这项研究的总体目的是填补这一空白，并产生新知识，以在COVID-19大流行期间有效消毒和重复使用N95呼吸器。灭菌技术，例如低热量，蒸发氢过氧化氢气体（VHPG），UVC杀性剂等，正在由几组研究人员进行测试，以使N95呼吸器进行衰老。与VHPG不同，UVC绝育不需要复杂的仪器。可以使用相对简单的材料轻松构建UVC灭菌单元。它更合适，可以在中等大小和社区医院中运行，在该医院中，Covid-19患者不像位于大城市的医疗中心那样多。提议的研究团队已经开发了一个UVC浴场，每天能够对960 N95呼吸器进行消毒，如果使用两个车站，则每天1,920。但是，目前无法使用关键数据来验证这些消毒的功效。这项研究旨在提供此数据并产生新知识，以提高紫外线辐射的效率。还不清楚在UVC辐射期间产生的臭氧是否可以改善消毒。将进行一项基本研究，以阐明臭氧对UVC灭菌的影响。此外，研究小组将探索高波长UVC，以消毒冠状N95呼吸器。使用高波长UVC辐照应减少N95呼吸器聚合物的化学降解，从而延长其寿命。这项研究旨在提供全面的数据和UVC N95面膜消毒的分析。该数据对于对净化技术的无偏评估至关重要，并将洞悉冠状病毒可以承受紫外线照射的程度。关于臭氧和高波长UVC辐射的研究将为设计更好的UVC N95掩模灭菌系统提供新的知识。预计该研究的结果将有助于指导未来的政府决策如何管理和适应PPE短缺。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并认为使用基金会的知识分子和更广泛的影响审查标准，认为值得通过评估来获得支持。