Friends,
N95 masks are on short supply at hospitals. If you have stockpiled them and have them available for me to BUY for me and my colleagues at the Cleveland hospitals, please let me know. I can be reached at danielasher at gmail dot com.
Thank you,
Dan Asher
please read this and share it. repurpose the material used to cover surgical instruments when being sterilized. more efficient than n95 masks. Go Gators
https://www.gainesville.com/news/20200326/more-coronavirus-diy-uf-upcycles-for-masksWith respiratory masks used by health workers battling the coronavirus in short supply, the University of Florida Health’s department of anesthesiology has developed masks that can be produced in large quantities using materials already found in hospitals and medical facilities.
N95 respirator masks have been in high demand worldwide since the outbreak of COVID-19. That led a UF Health anesthesiology professor to create a simple respirator mask from the sterile wrapping that is normally used to surround surgical instrument trays before they pass through gas sterilization or an autoclave.
The innovative mask uses Halyard H600 two-ply spun polypropylene that cannot be penetrated by water, bacteria or particles. It blocks 99.9% of particulates, making the masks about 4% more effective at blocking particulate material than the N95 masks, according to Bruce Spiess, M.D., a professor of anesthesiology in the UF College of Medicine, who made that calculation based on the manufacturer’s specifications.
The Halyard material, which comes in 4-by-4-foot sheets, is typically discarded after surgical instrument trays are unwrapped and before coming into contact with patients. About 10 masks can be made from one sheet, and an estimated 500 to 1,000 sheets are likely available from UF Health hospitals every day, according to Spiess.
“This material is otherwise thrown out, so by taking it, cutting it and making masks out of it, we’ve repurposed it,” said Spiess, who came up with the idea.
UF Health hospital administrators and infection control experts have given him approval to proceed with the project. UF Health officials noted the masks, which are not certified as an N95 mask and are not intended to replace the N95, will give the health care system future capacity if there is a critical shortage of N95 masks.
