Assessing the quality of nontraditional N95 filtering face-piece respirators available during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Background

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, supply chains for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) have been severely disrupted and many products, particularly surgical N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs; "masks") are in short supply. As a consequence, an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the FDA has allowed importation of N95-type masks manufactured to international standards; these include KN95 masks from China and FFP2 masks from the European Union.

Methods

We conducted a survey of mask in the inventory of major academic medical centers in Boston, MA to determine provenance and manufacturer. We then assembled a simple apparatus for performing a necessary (but not sufficient) test of filtration performance and tested masks from the inventory; an accompanyin

SUBMITTER: Plana D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7386520 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature