Impact of ultraviolet radiation on filtering facepiece respirators and SARS-CoV-2 detection.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

The global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020 caused by SARS-CoV-2 resulted in a shortage of filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs), such as N95 and KN95 masks. Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) irradiation has been proposed as a potential decontamination method to enable FFR reuse and mitigate the shortage. This study aims to evaluate the impact of UV-C irradiation on the filtration efficiency (FE) of various FFR types and SARS-CoV-2 RNA degradation.

Method

We evaluated the effect of UV-C irradiation (60-900 mJ/cm²) on the FE using various particle sizes (PSs, 0.3-5 μm) representing seven common FFR types (3M-8210, 3M-1860, Gerson 1730, Medline, Benehal, KN95 "duck shape," and KN95 "molded shape") and the stability of the SARS-CoV-2 RNA genes (E,

SUBMITTER: Al-Hadyan K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11922867 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature