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.

美国各地的医院都面临着医疗用品短缺的问题，尤其是 N95 呼吸器等个人防护装备 (PPE)。因此，迫切需要找到替代方法来保护医疗专业人员在照顾 COVID-19 患者的同时受到保护。大多数 PPE（例如 N95 呼吸器）均设计为一次性使用。对于 COVID-19，维持 N95 呼吸器的供应已变得非常具有挑战性，因为新供应量与消耗率不匹配。此外，封锁期间全球供应链的中断也导致了短缺。迫切需要开发有效的技术或工具箱来帮助一线医护人员获得抗击 COVID-19 大流行所需的个人防护装备。在这项研究中，研究团队将与纽约上州医科大学感染控制科的临床研究人员以及治疗COVID-19患者的社区医院联合健康服务中心（UHS）合作，开发紫外线（UVC）杀菌照射技术消毒和重复使用 N95 口罩。过去曾研究过 UVC 照射可对 N95 口罩进行净化；然而，其对受 COVID-19 污染的 N95 口罩的有效性尚未确定。这项研究的总体目标是填补这一空白，并产生新知识，以便在 COVID-19 大流行期间有效消毒和重复使用 N95 呼吸器。多个研究小组正在测试低热、汽化过氧化氢气体 (VHPG)、UVC 杀菌等灭菌技术，以对 N95 口罩进行净化。与 VHPG 不同，UVC 灭菌不需要复杂的仪器。 UVC 灭菌装置可以使用相对简单的材料轻松构建。它更适合且可操作于中型医院和社区医院，这些医院的 COVID-19 患者人数不像大城市的医疗中心那么多。研究小组开发了一种 UVC 消毒站，每天可以消毒 960 个 N95 口罩，如果使用两个消毒站，每天可以消毒 1,920 个。然而，目前还没有关键数据来验证这些灭菌的功效。本研究旨在提供这些数据并产生新知识，以提高紫外线杀菌照射的效率。目前还不清楚 UVC 照射过程中产生的臭氧是否可以改善消毒效果。将进行一项基础研究来阐明臭氧对 UVC 灭菌的影响。此外，研究小组还将探索高波长 UVC 对受冠状病毒污染的 N95 口罩进行消毒。使用高波长 UVC 照射可减少 N95 口罩聚合物的化学降解，从而延长其使用寿命。本研究旨在提供 UVC N95 口罩消毒的全面数据和分析。这些数据对于对净化技术进行公正的评估至关重要，并将深入了解冠状病毒能够承受紫外线照射的程度。对臭氧和高波长 UVC 照射的研究将为设计更好的 UVC N95 口罩灭菌系统提供新知识。预计该研究结果将有助于指导未来政府有关如何管理和适应个人防护装备短缺的决策。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查进行评估，被认为值得支持标准。

项目成果

Systematic evaluating and modeling of SARS-CoV-2 UVC disinfection

SARS-CoV-2 UVC 消毒的系统评估和建模

• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-09930-2
• 发表时间: 2022-04-07
• 期刊: Scientific Reports
• 影响因子: 4.6
• 作者: Freeman S;Kibler K;Lipsky Z;Jin S;German GK;Ye K
• 通讯作者: Ye K