CATER Mask Decisions

November 30, 2020

Triumvirate Environmental Provides Fit-Testing and Respiratory Protection Expertise

SWM Expanding Electrostatic Media Production in NC

Cognex Machine Vision Detects Flaws in Masks

Aim Checks Quality of Vietnamese Masks

Vogmask has Spent Nine Years to Achieve Maximum Comfort, Attractiveness, Tight Fit and Efficiency of Its Masks

California Wild Fires Can Do Lasting Damage to Health of Children

Membrane Media Used in Mask Developed at University of Kentucky

New Replaceable Membrane Filter for N95 Masks Developed in Saudi Arabia

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Triumvirate Environmental Provides Fit-Testing and Respiratory Protection Expertise

Per OSHA regulations, if employees are required to wear respirators in the workplace, the employer must develop a Respiratory Protection Program (RPP). A major component of a compliant RPP is fit-testing, a protocol that determines whether the respirator forms a proper tight seal around the employee’s mouth and nose. Without a documented fit-test from a trained professional, there is no way to know whether the respirator is actually filtering air to remove dangerous particles, or simply allowing the outside air in through small gaps—which are often invisible.

Beyond proper, documented fit-testing, a truly protective respiratory program also includes exposure risk assessments, medical evaluations, training, and documentation. Triumvirate Environmental’s professionals are well-prepared to assist with these required components, as well as provide higher-level guidance on the selection of appropriate respirators, HR policies, and OSHA enforcement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keys to safely operating HVAC systems and maintaining healthy spaces include:

·         Before HVAC operation:

§  Review records for air quality issues, if any, at your organization in the past year;

§  Inspect systems and conduct required preventative maintenance such as coil cleaning and filter replacement; and

§  Disinfect rooms appropriately in accordance with CDC guidance. 

·         During HVAC operation:

§  A week prior to occupancy, run the HVAC system in “occupied” mode;

§  Disable occupancy sensors and the demand control ventilation system;

§  Maintain the air temperature between 68 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit;

§  For mechanical equipment, make sure all the filters are properly installed and establish a routine for replacement. The filtration should be maximized and within the capabilities of the equipment. Consider upgrading filters; HEPA filters may not be an appropriate option due to high pressure drops and the likelihood that systems will need new filtration; and

§  Perform an air flush before the building is occupied.

Ventilation Studies • Laboratory, pilot scale, & manufacturing operations • Control banding for exposure control • Fugitive emission control • Dust explosion assessment & control Audits and Inspections • Laboratory safety, biosafety, & radiation safety program evaluations • BSL 1, 2, & 3 laboratory operations • ABSL 1, 2, & 3 animal facility (vivarium) operations Respiratory Protection • Written programs • Training • Qualitative & quantitative fit testing

SWM Expanding Electrostatic Media Production in NC

In response to customer demand that has more than doubled over the past year, SWM International, is ramping up production of its Alphastar™ Electrostatic Media product at its Wilson, North Carolina manufacturing facility. Alphastar Electrostatic Media is a primary component in HVAC air filtration products, including MERV 13 rated air filters.

“We began to see demand rising in April due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and quickly developed ongoing plans to support our customers. Expanding our output was critical, as we are an essential supplier to many of the largest air filtration companies in the U.S. SWM is determined to do everything we can to help our customers deliver the air filters and medical respirators that are vital tools in stopping infection spread and improving indoor air quality,” said Bart Sistrunk, Commercial Director of Filtration for SWM. 

The company is expanding the workforce at the facility to support the higher production level and is continuing to evaluate further actions to increase output.  This follows efficiency projects earlier in 2020 to increase capacity on the existing production lines. SWM anticipates ongoing demand for Alphastar media as commercial and residential customers respond to recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers) to upgrade building filtration to a minimum of MERV 13, which requires more frequent changes compared to lower level filters such as MERV 8.

The proprietary fiber blend in SWM’s Alphastar media is carded and needled into a fully homogenous material, making it a highly effective nonwoven for a variety of air filtration applications, including emergency respirators, N95 masks, CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machines, and ventilators.

Cognex Machine Vision Detects Flaws in Masks

There are different types of face masks that help prevent the spread of disease, from a typical surgical mask to an N95 respirator. This equipment is crucial to help keep workers safe. However, these masks only protect users if they are defect free and pass stringent ISO standards, which is challenging when demand far exceeds existing supply. The quality of masks should be rigorously checked to prevent defective products from making it to the market, including checking for flaws such as embedded hair or stains, measuring the width of the mask, checking for the presence of straps, and determining that the straps are correctly attached to the mask.

By leveraging both machine vision and deep learning technology manufacturers can ensure masks are produced in compliance with ISO standards and catch defective masks before they are shipped. Cognex In-Sight 8402 vision system detects the presence of facemask components such as ear bands and strap welds, while also measuring the width of the masks to ensures they are manufactured to the correct size. Many defects, however, are difficult to predict and program with traditional machine vision algorithms. Cognex Deep Learning is trained with as few as 50 sample images to easily locate and classify random defects, such as rips, stains, and stitching errors. 

Aim Checks Quality of Vietnamese Masks

Aim is a Vietnamese Company with decades of experience in quality control. The name stands for Agriculture, Industry and Marine.  Purchasers can hire the company to visit Vietnamese media and mask suppliers and check various quality control procedures. It will also take samples and perform efficiency tests. It will determine potential damage to masks during packaging and check the operations.

Vogmask has Spent Nine Years to Achieve Maximum Comfort, Attractiveness, Tight Fit and Efficiency of Its Masks

Vogmask lists the following attributes that it strives to achieve in all its masks.

Comfortable:

Suitable constituent materials safe for respirators (including textiles, filter media, inks and dyes, packaging) [see folowing design diagrams]

Designed to facilitate correct positioning on the user and remain in place

Adequate adjustment options such as no charge wrong size replacement, head strap accessory and noseband 

No restriction of the user's field of vision

Easy breathing established by inhalation and exhalation resistance tests

Comfort as important factor in compliance

Attractiveness:

Aesthetics of product appearance on face

Several designs and colors 

Encourages compliance in mask wearing

Encourages mask use in all environments

Tight-Fitting:

Manufacturer to supply correct donning, doffing, and noseband instructions

Product support to ensure correct size 

Practical performance testing on test subjects to determine leakage under normal activities

​Efficient:

​3rd Party Testing on all design and engineering changes

NaCl Particle Filtering Efficiency at mean diameter .3-microns

Continuous flow rate at 85 L/min 

Quality plan in manufacturing to include Quality Checkpoints and Inbound Quality Inspection

Clear communications for consumer on reason for various particle size testing (most penetrating particle size)

Relationship of filtering efficiency to breathing resistance (circles back to comfort)

Vogmask also has the Organic cotton (GOTS Certified) material as an alternative to synthetics   to serve highly allergic and environmentally conscious populations which  are either sensitive to manmade textiles or prefer natural fabrics.   

Both the outer and inner layer of the Organic VM are organic cotton. The trim is 94% cotton with 6% latex-free spandex, so for highly allergic mask wearers, these are most agreeable. Note there is no carbon filter layer. Customers concerned about synthetic textiles are often also concerned about coconut-shell derived carbon ash bonded to textile, so Vogmask has left it out of the  purest Vogmask VM.  

California Wild Fires Can Do Lasting Damage to Health of Children

A recent article in the New York Times explained the fires sweeping across millions of acres in California aren’t just incinerating trees and houses. They’re also filling the lungs of California’s children with smoke, with potentially grave effects over the course of their lives.

The effects are not evenly felt. While California as a whole has seen a steady uptick in smoke days in recent years, counties in the state’s Central Valley, which is already cursed with some of the most polluted air, were particularly hard hit by wildfire smoke this year.

So for a child, it matters where you live. It matters how much foul air you breathe in on days when there are no fires at all. It matters whether your family can afford an air purifier at home or whether they can whisk you away when ash rains down from the sky.

Dr. Kari Nadeau, a professor of medicine at Stanford who specializes in pediatric allergies and asthma, said she worried that the damage to children might last a very long time. It is well-established that long-term exposure to fine particulate matter pollution, the kind that comes out of the tail pipes of cars and trucks, increases the risk of asthma in children and compromises their immune systems.

Her latest research suggests that exposure to wildfire smoke, which contains the same particulate pollution and more, is associated with genetic changes in children’s immune cells. “It could,” she said, “have irreversible consequences.”

Already, an estimated 7.6 million children are exposed to wildfire smoke every year in the United States, and with climate change making the American West hotter and drier, many more children stand to be at risk. “This is a problem that’s not going to go away,” Dr. Nadeau said. “We are going to see these very extreme weather conditions and we should be prepared.”

Patricio, a 7th grader, lives with his parents and his two younger siblings in a neighborhood flanked by several busy roads, an airport and agricultural fields that fill the air with dust.

Patricio has asthma. Even when there are no fires, there have been times when the air in California’s Central Valley is so thick with pollutants that he wheezes and struggles for air or suffers from a rash of respiratory infections. The fires are an additional assault

Everything about this area screams bad air quality,” Patricio said. “If you had a child with asthma or any person in your household with asthma and you wanted to move into this area, it’s not a good idea. I don’t recommend it.”

It’s been a rough year. First, remote schooling because of the pandemic. Then, a heat wave with temperatures peaking past 100 degrees. Then, in mid-August, fires burning to the north and east, pouring smoke into the valley.

Ash settled over every tree. The air smelled like charcoal. Patricio looked outside and told his mother, Gilda Zarate-Gonzalez, that he felt an “impending sense of doom.”

Even by mid-October, when the smoke had subsided enough for Ms. Zarate-Gonzalez to propose a family bike ride, it looked as though someone had taken a giant gray crayon and smeared it across the horizon.

Fresno and its neighboring counties in the Central Valley rank first in the country for particulate matter pollution, according to the American Lung Association. Its childhood asthma rates are far higher than the statewide average. Several busy highways pass through Fresno. Dust and chemicals swirl up from the fields. Smoke gets stuck for long stretches of time until the winds can blow it westward to the Pacific.

One afternoon in August, a few days after a ring of lightning fires had turned the skies around San Francisco orange, Robin Fletcher, 16, took her dog for a walk.

Within 10 minutes, her face turned red. Her arms broke out in hives, then her stomach. Her chest tightened. “It was stressful and scary, so I started crying,” Robin said. “Not hyperventilating. But freaking out, kind of.”

Robin has had allergies since she was little, which also makes her prone to asthma. That afternoon, her inhaler didn’t help, nor her EpiPen. Only steroids, administered in an emergency room, could temper her severe anaphylactic reaction.

To this day, neither her family nor her doctors know what brought it on. Resin from a burning tree? Cars that had gone up in flames? Other chemicals? Wildfire pollution can contain toxic metals, petroleum products, plastics and carcinogens.

“That’s what’s so terrifying,” her father, Arthur, said. “It looked beautiful. But there’s stuff out there, floating.”

Unlike the Central Valley, the air in the San Francisco Bay Area is gloriously clean for much of the year, and Robin can usually keep her asthma in check. She plays lacrosse and soccer. Her private school shuts down for a few days at a time when wildfire smoke is bad. She is in a clinical trial, supervised by Dr. Nadeau, to overcome her allergies.

At home, too, she is well protected. Her mother is a doctor. Her father has installed an electrostatic air filter in the ventilation system, which cleans and humidifies the air as it circulates through the house. There’s a stash of N-95 masks in the basement.

And since the day of the anaphylactic attack, Robin has acquired two new tools: an air quality app on her phone, and a tube-shaped device to check her lung capacity. She uses them both to assess whether it’s safe to go outside.

“I know I can keep myself safe,” Robin said, “but it’s something on my mind.”

On Dr. Nadeau’s mind is what happens next. Even after the smoke clears, she wants to know, how long might the damage last in children exposed to these sharp spikes in pollution?

There are clues in a robust body of research on the health effects of conventional particulate matter pollution. Exposure to that kind of air pollution is associated with a greater risk of preterm births among pregnant women, more severe asthma symptoms among children and, as Dr. Nadeau concluded in an earlier study, changes in children’s immune system cells.

Her more recent research, with her Stanford colleague, Dr. Mary Prunicki, suggests that children like Robin, exposed to even short bursts of wildfire smoke, show changes in their immune system genes — in particular those genes that can help the body respond to allergens further down the road.

What is not yet known, and what Dr. Nadeau seeks to examine in the months ahead, is how children exposed to chronic air pollution and then to acute episodes of wildfire smoke, like Patricio in Fresno, might be affected differently. “Most likely, the wildfires are another hammer on their systems,” Dr. Nadeau said. “That hammer is a dangerous hammer

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/26/climate/california-smoke-children-health.html


Membrane Media Used in Mask Developed at University of Kentucky

With funding and support from Kentucky's National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), a team from UK and Somerset Community College (SCC) is creating 3D-printed, membrane-filtered face masks that can inactivate the coronavirus. The goal, through passive decontamination, is to not only protect people from breathing in viruses, but to eliminate them on contact.

Isabel Escobar, professor of chemical and materials engineering in the UK College of Engineering and associate director of UK’s Center of Membrane Sciences, is working to perfect the central component of the masks — the filter. This filter will contain a unique membrane composed of a polymer dissolved in a nontoxic, bio-derived solvent, which will then be chemically bound to medical-grade silver nanoparticles, known for their antiviral efficiency.

“The virus is about 120 nanometers in size — in the world of membranes, that's large,” Escobar said. “Even more so, it's not going to come as a virus by itself, flying in the air. It's going to come in the saliva, so it's going to be a much larger particle. A large particle is just not going through (this filter).”

But Escobar’s research takes it a step further, adding the silver nanoparticles for the passive disinfection.

“(The silver nanoparticles) prevent the virus from binding and attaching, and it inactivates,” she said.

Eric Wooldridge, professor of additive manufacturing at SCC, and his team will be providing the substrates, or the structure, of the masks. These substrates, made of polypropylene, will be 3D-printed in a honeycomb pattern to allow for a strong, breathable structure. The antiseptic membranes from Escobar’s team will then line the insides, ultimately creating a safer, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable PPE that would match or exceed N95 mask requirements.

“Utilizing SCC’s additive manufacturing capabilities to produce the base components combined with UK’s groundbreaking nanotechnology to provide the coatings, our goal is to not only demonstrate that it can be done, but that we can rapidly scale production through our KCTCS additive manufacturing network,” Wooldridge said. “This collaboration represents one of the primary goals of the KY NSF EPSCoR program: bridging the gap between theoretical research and practical application to rapidly respond to a need and create solutions that truly matter to the Commonwealth.”

New Replaceable Membrane Filter for N95 Masks Developed in Saudi Arabia

The filter has a smaller pore size than normal N95 masks, potentially blocking more virus particles, according the researchers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.

Researchers have developed a more efficient membrane filter that can be attached to a regular N95 mask and replaced when needed.

The filter has a smaller pore size than normal N95 masks, potentially blocking more virus particles, according the researchers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, there's been a worldwide shortage of face masks -- particularly the N95 ones worn by health care workers, they said. Although these coverings provide the highest level of protection currently available, they have limitations, the researchers noted in the journal ACS Nano.

N95 masks filter about 85% of particles smaller than 300 nm, they said. The researchers noted that SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is in the size range of 65-125 nanometres (nm), so some virus particles could slip through these coverings.

Due to shortages, many health care workers have had to wear the same N95 mask repeatedly, even though they are intended for a single use. To help overcome these problems, Muhammad Mustafa Hussain and colleagues wanted to develop a membrane that more efficiently filters particles the size of SARS-CoV-2 and could be replaced on an N95 mask after every use.
The researchers first developed a silicon-based, porous template using lithography and chemical etching. They placed the template over a polyimide film and used a process called reactive ion etching to make pores in the membrane, with sizes ranging from 5-55 nm. The researchers then peeled off the membrane, which could be attached to an N95 mask.
To ensure that the nanoporous membrane was breathable, the researchers measured the airflow rate through the pores. They found that for pores tinier than 60 nm, the pores needed to be placed a maximum of 330 nm from each other to achieve good breathability.
The hydrophobic membrane also cleans itself because droplets slide off it, preventing the pores from getting clogged with viruses and other particles, according to the researchers.