The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that the general public should not wear N95 respirators to protect themselves from respiratory diseases, including coronavirus (COVID-19) as they are expensive comparatively to the other face masks and it is manufactured is less quantity which can cause scarcity in times of critical situations.
N95 MASK MEANS
N stands for “Non-Oil” meaning that if no oil-based particulates are present, then you can use the mask in the work environment.
95: N95 Mask have a 95 percent efficiency.
0.3 microns: The masks filter out contaminants like dusts, mists and fumes. The minimum size of .3 microns of particulates and large droplets won’t pass through the barrier, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.)
N95 Mask: REMOVES 95% OF 0.3+ MICRONS-AIR BORNE PARTICLES
VALVE: OPTIONAL REDUCES BREATHINGS RESISTANCE DURING EXHALATION
MATERIAL: TOUGH YET FLEXIBLE NON-WOVEN POLYPROPYLENE FIBRE
USAGE
The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that the general public should not wear N95 respirators to protect themselves from respiratory diseases, including coronavirus (COVID-19) as they are expensive comparatively to the other face masks and it is manufactured is less quantity which can cause scarcity in times of critical situations. Therefore, those are critical supplies that must continue to be reserved for health care workers, other medical first responders or frontline workers who have directly deal with the patients or be in a polluted environment for longer period of time or as recommended by current CDC guidance.
These N95 Masks are also called as N95 Respirators.The respirator manufacturer has recommended a maximum number of uses; if no manufacturer guidance is available on the number of usage, then preliminary data suggests that it should be limited to five uses per device
Material used for N95 Marks: The filtration material on the mask is an electrostatic non-woven polypropylene fiber which is processed through melt blowing process.
N95 Mask Making Machine
The importance of N95 MASKS
Purpose of N95 MASKS is to prevent people from being exposed to air that has been contaminated by harmful dusts, fogs, fumes, mists, gases, smokes, vapors or sprays to avoid illness.
It might seem like a hassle to wear respiratory protection, but it should never be disregarded.
Material Composition
• Straps – Thermoplastic Elastomer
• Nose Clip – Aluminum
• Nose foam - Polyurethane
• Filter – Polypropylene
• Shell – Polyester
• Cover web - Polyester
• This N95 masks contains no components made from natural rubber latex
• Approximate weight of product: 0.35 oz.
SHORTAGE OF N95 MASKS OR N95 RESPIRATORS
N95 masks look simple enough as it consists of two outer layers of fabric that forms the shape of the mask, along with a thin filter between these two layers.
It's this thin filter inner layer that complicates the mask's construction and differentiates medical-grade protection mask from a homemade mask.
A rise in demand for material for that layer is a key reason for the global shortage of N95 Masks.
This filter is made up of thousands of nonwoven fibers, each thinner than a strand of hair and fused together through a process known as melt blown process forming polypropylene
DECONTAMINATION
Disposable filtering N95 masks are not approved for routine decontamination and reuse it as standard of healthcare. However, their decontamination and reuse should be considered as a crisis capacity strategy to ensure continued availability of respirators specially in the present times when world is fighting COVID 19 (Coronavirus).
There have been efforts from various researchers to evaluate cleaning methods for respirators in emergency or shortages, however there is concern that this may reduce filter performance, or even affect mask fitting by deforming the mask. Many researchers have published a method for cleaning N95 respirators without damaging them. These methods can be read as mentioned below:
- Duke University Researchers says respirators can be decontaminated using vaporized hydrogen peroxide to allow reuse for a limited number of times
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave authorization to Battelle to sterilize N95 Masks (N95 respirators) in case of an Emergency Use.
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and health recommends that during shortages of N95 Masks (N95 respirators) may be used up to five times without cleaning them, as long as respirators are not contaminated with patients’ bodily fluids and aerosol-generating procedures are not performed. Also Contamination can be reduced by wearing a cleanable face shield over an N95 respirator, as well as using clean gloves.
- According to CDC moist heat, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation, and vaporous hydrogen peroxide showed that these are the most potential methods to decontaminate N95 masks and other filtering face piece respirators.
CERTIFICATION
We also recommend that prior to purchasing any form of safety equipment you should check that it is supported by a certificate appearing to be issued by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), also you can verify to ensure that such certificate is genuine.
In these times of need and scarcity we Precult ITES Private Limited are here 24*7 to help and serve our people. We help to provide all types of N95 masks required for manufacture of marks therefore there can be more and more production to serve.
