Coronavirus Technology Solutions
June 12, 2020
Saharan Dust will Interact with COVID Next Week
in Florida
French Agency Certifies Mogul's Madaline Fabric
for Facemask Use
New Medical Gown to Meet COVID Needs Produced by
Cha Group
Precision Fabrics Group Provides Fabric for
Reusable Medical Gowns
Public Health Guidelines are Downplaying the
Role that Building Systems Should Play
Comfort First Provides Filters with
Anti-Microbial Coatings
WIX®
Filters Supplies Cabin Air Filters with Anti-Microbials
Big Need for Negative Pressure Rooms in
Hospitals
Under Armour has Mask for Athletes
______________________________________________________________________________
Saharan Dust will Interact with COVID Next Week
in Florida
A cloud Saharan dust drifting through the
Atlantic is the first significant plume of
desert-infused air this year. The billow of
brown clearly seen on
satellite images could reach the Bahamas
and South Florida next week.
The dust particles will provide a free ride for
COVID viruses. Studies in the Lombardy region of
Italy show the virus is attaching to air
pollution particles. This drifting dust will
provide a greater incentive to wear masks in
Florida.
Faced with Covid-19 and the shortage of masks,
the French government wished to protect the
population and increase the production of masks
by testing textiles available on the market in
order to verify their filtration and
antibacterial barrier capacities.
Air permeability under 100 PA after 10 washes is
112 liters (without washing 173 liters)
The performances measured on the Madaline make
it compatible with the standards related to the
realization of category 1 masks (individual mask
for use by professionals in contact with the
public) washable and reusable.
The Cha Group was founded in 1949 by Dr. Cha Chi
Ming in Hong Kong by establishing China Dyeing
Works Limited. Today, the Cha Group is a global
conglomerate with diversified businesses in
property, technology, textiles, financial
services and healthcare.
Through HDK Industries Inc (HDK) (a US leader
for HVAC filter media) and Cosmotec (UK
subsidiary), Cha Technologies Group manufactures
a range of nonwoven filter media ranging from G2
to F6 (MERV 2 to 11) using a variety of nonwoven
forming and bonding technologies. Starting with
a wide variety of staple fibers, which are then
carded, the web is bonded either by needling or
thermal bonding.
To meet COVID demands it is producing a new line
of medical gowns to meet level 1-3 criteria. Its
sister facility, Finber Innovations Technologies
developed a new fiber for use in gown
applications.
These technologies allow for the creation of a
wide range of filter media with tailored
performance characteristics of efficiency,
pressure drop and dust holding capacity.
In addition, CTG manufactures a variety of
filter media used in liquid filtration (process
and food grade) as well as automotive filtration
(synthetic air intake, pre-filters). The company
also makes face mask media.
Precision Fabrics Group is working overtime to
expand its production of a special fabric for
tens of thousands of protective gowns for
hospital workers.
The company’s factories in Vinton, VA, and
Greensboro are now working around the clock to
make fabric that a Phoenix company is using to
make tens of thousands of protective gowns for
health care workers at the front lines of
patient care.
The suits that medical workers wear are often
made of non-woven polypropylene and cost about
$1 each for one-time use every time a
professional encounters a patient. Doctors and
nurses are being forced to wear them more than
once, however, putting their own health at risk
as they go from infected patient to patient.
San Francisco-based Dignity Health is struggling
to change that, so the nation’s fifth-largest
health system contacted Phoenix-based Arizona
Fashion Source, which can make the suits, to
speed up its production to fight the pandemic.
Dignity is the largest health system in
California and many Western states.
When the order came in, Arizona Fashion Source
knew about Precision Fabrics’ reputation for
special polyester fabrics that it could use.
Before the pandemic, Precision was making its
fabric for use in reusable suits for clean rooms
in the pharmaceutical and electronics
industries. But the fabric is easily treated to
repel microorganisms and liquid, just the type
needed for medical protective suits, said Byron
Bassett, Precision’s corporate vice president.
Five weeks ago Arizona Fashion Source called and
asked for 60,000 yards of the company’s fabric
to make 30,000 of the reusable suits.
Within a matter of four or five days we had the
60,000 yards palletized and ready to go and we
were ready to put it on a truck,” Bassett said.
That would’ve taken another four or five days to
reach Arizona.
For this urgent need, however, that wasn’t fast
enough.
“We’re gonna send the Arizona National Guard to
pick up the freight,” Bassett said they told
him, to his great surprise.
So that’s what the Guard did: It flew a military
tanker jet to Greensboro, refueling a couple of
F-35 fighter jets in midair as it traveled,
Bassett said, and landed on April 3 at a private
hangar at Piedmont Triad International Airport.
It picked up a truckload of fabric and headed
back quickly to Phoenix.
The Arizona company will make 30,000 gowns that
are reusable and can be washed up to 100 times
each. They cost more, $20 apiece compared with
$1 for the one-use gowns, but even with washing
costs the gowns eventually allow the buyers to
break even and, more important, preserve a
steady supply of the essential equipment.
Bassett said that his company had a sense that
higher demand was coming when it saw demand for
equipment soar during the European pandemic in
February. So it boosted production of the fabric
and was almost ready when the Phoenix company
called.
Now Precision’s 350 workers at the Meadowview
Road plant are working three shifts around the
clock, 13 days with one day off. Their job here
is to treat the fabric that’s made in Virginia
for health care use.
It’s crucial that those workers stay healthy,
Bassett said, so they’re subject to health
screening before every shift.
The company is working on three more orders for
the fabric as the Phoenix company also boosts
production to meet demand.
Bassett doesn’t expect demand for his company’s
fabric to wane anytime soon. That’s because
American health care companies and governments
don’t want to be caught with broken supply
chains again. So their goal is to find ways to
make most of their required protective products
in the United States.
Precision also provide engineered fabrics with
ESD properties, antimicrobial properties, high
filtration efficiency and comfort that meet the
critical requirements of all classes of
cleanrooms.
Woven protective fabrics are used in clean room
apparel. Media for masks is also supplied.
An article in Living Building Systems points out
the potential for filtration and air flow
control to be one of the most important weapons
in the COVID fight. “The built environment
component of this situation has been
overlooked,” said Upali Nanda, director of
research at HKS Inc. and a leading voice on the
science behind healthy buildings.
Nanda and her colleagues are stressing their
concerns just as many employers and building
owners are reopening offices, shops and other
commercial spaces — raising the specter of a
resurgence in COVID-19 cases.
One leading advocate argued that both policy
leaders and building operators should be wary of
a natural bias toward measures that offer the
false sense that janitorial crews can “wipe
away” the virus.
“If somebody tells you, ‘OK, you get to choose
how this disease is transmitted.’ Do you want to
believe it’s transmitted by touching things so
that you can scowl at people and tell them to
use [personal protection equipment] and spray
disinfectant,” physician and architect Stephanie
Taylor asked in an interview. “Or do you want to
say it’s really spread in these practically
invisible aerosols that are literally
everywhere? That’s a lot more scary.”
The heart of the issue is what researchers have
uncovered, as well as what they don’t yet know,
about SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes the
COVID-19 disease — and how it manages to infect
people. While public health authorities say
there are no proven cases of human beings
acquiring COVID-19 by touching surfaces, they
believe it’s possible. One study found that
SARS-CoV-2 can survive up to three days on
plastic, two days on stainless steel and a much
shorter time on copper (a separate study
reported a lifespan of a day on wood).
So all public health authorities appear to agree
that it’s important for building operators to
clean interior surfaces with soap and water, and
to disinfect surfaces that are touched
frequently.
But the same study also found that the virus can
live for at least three hours in aerosols, which
are tiny particles that can be carried through
the air for long distances. Aerosols are more
buoyant than the larger “respiratory droplets”
that are more commonly understood to be sneezed,
coughed or simply exhaled by infected people.
Because they’re heavier than aerosols, most
respiratory droplets fall to the ground or onto
surfaces with six feet of being expelled — hence
the six-foot social-distancing rule. Although
far from perfect, face masks can be effective at
blocking these larger droplets, particularly the
droplets coming from the person wearing the
mask.
According to the prevailing theory, respiratory
droplets are the primary vector for spread of
SARS-CoV-2. But there’s a great deal of debate
among epidemiologists over infection via
aerosols. Some believe aerosols could only
transmit the disease in unique conditions, such
as hospitals, where vulnerable patients might be
subject to large concentrations of
SARS-CoV-2-carrying aerosols. Others
believe that aerosols are potentially a major
vector and that they could be responsible for
particularly severe cases.
In a recent Washington Post column Harvard
public health scientist Joseph Allen noted a
strong connection between aerosol, or
“airborne,” transmission and indoor
“super-spreader events”:
Airborne transmission — caused by small
particles that can linger in the air for
extended periods of time, unlike droplets from
coughs, which settle quickly — is key to
understanding why this disease spreads so
rapidly in certain circumstances. It’s also key
to figuring out how best to reopen our country.
Whether or not that’s the case, the implications
are significant for mechanical equipment,
because aerosols can be cast widely through
various air-handling and ventilating equipment.
If those aerosols can carry live SARS-CoV-2
cells over extended distances, unfiltered
re-circulation of indoor air would be a potent
way to spread the virus.
In April, ASHRAE — the organization that sets
standards for heating, cooling and ventilation —
appointed a COVID-19 task force that has offered
up a bevy of recommendations related to building
systems. Among them:
The first of those measures would address both
respiratory droplets and aerosols because
humidity increases the weight of both types of
particles, causing them to fall from the air
more quickly. Taylor, the physician and
architect, is one in a small group that has
campaigned for years for ASHRAE to raise its
minimum relative humidity standard for
controlled indoor environments from 20 percent
to 40 percent .
Among other problems, excessively dry air allows
heavier droplets to remain suspended for longer
periods.
But the push for a 40 percent humidity minimum
has butted up against the trend toward energy
efficiency. Lower humidity is less demanding on
various mechanical systems, and during the warm
season, occupants tend to tolerate higher set
temperatures if the humidity is lower.
While ASHRAE hasn’t yet adopted the higher
humidity minimum, the COVID-19 task force has
recommended that operators keep their buildings
above 40 percent during the course of the
pandemic.
Meanwhile, better filtration and ventilation
would target aerosols by reducing their
opportunity to travel around the building.
Before the pandemic, MERV-13 filters were mainly
used in healthcare settings. Although some
systems cannot use MERV-13, ASHRAE and other
authorities are suggesting the highest level
filters that do fit.
Similarly, building maintenance personnel are
being advised to turn off any functions that
recirculate indoor air, to open up dampers that
increase the importation of outside air, and to
open windows where possible.
A key part of the recommendations from public
health experts and healthy building advocates is
to let in more fresh air by opening windows
where possible.
Building experts have by no means argued that
owners and employers focus only on
humidification, filtration and ventilation.
“Take a systems approach towards re-booting,”
Nanda said. “Think about the organizational and
policy level first, followed by the building
systems and interiors, and finally at the level
of individual behavior, which includes use of
[personal protection equipment].”
The building systems are being “ignored” in part
because dealing with them requires the help of
architects, engineers and other professionals,
Nanda said. But she added that small business
and property owners who have fewer
building-operation professionals would benefit
by considering some basic principles: Focus on
the flow of people, supplies and air, for
example. Pay attention to “thresholds” to
enforce social distancing and even to check
temperatures.
She also advised that office workers consider
holding meetings outside and that building
occupants spend more time on porches, patios and
other “in-between spaces.”
A guide that Nanda and a colleague wrote on the
topic attaches specifics to each of those steps.
The document, Reboot Readiness: A Primer on
How to Design for Contagions, can be downloaded
here.
Comfort First Products is working with business
owners to create air filtering plans
specifically designed to target COVID-19.
Businesses that are concerned about the novel
coronavirus spreading throughout their building
through the air ventilation systems can reach
out to Comfort First Products for guidance. With
their unique air filtering systems, protecting
against COVID-19 can be as simple as adding or
changing the filter on the Comfort First
Filtered Diffuser or Control-A-Flow Draft
Eliminator in the office. Remember that air
filters should be changed every three to six
months.
Businesses that don't already have one of these
products can order them with a filter. Comfort
First can work with individual business owners
to determine which is best for their system.
There are several filters available on Comfort
First's website that are effective for a
COVID-19 prevention plan. For example, for the
Control-A-Flow Draft Eliminator, the filters are
treated with the Dow Corning (now Micorban)
antimicrobial Aegis, which destroys 86.5% of
airborne microorganisms on contact. This makes
this product particularly effective for quelling
the spread of the disease.
WIX® Filters, a global manufacturer of
filtration products, supplies cabin air filters
exclusively enhanced with Microban®
antimicrobial product protection. The filters in
the new line are protected from the growth of
bacteria, mold and mildew to help keep negative
elements from entering a vehicle’s interior and
keep cabin air fresh for the lifetime of the
product.
“We are absolutely thrilled to offer this
product to our customers,” said Donald Chilton,
vice president of product management for WIX.
“Americans were stuck in traffic for eight
billion hours last year, and for that amount of
time, you want to know you’re breathing the
cleanest, freshest air possible. Elevating our
filter media with Microban product protection
does just that, and places WIX at the top of the
industry.”
Most hospitals, small and large, have some form
of negative pressure space. But a pandemic with
a fast-spreading mystery virus has meant many
facilities are having to come up—quickly—with
more places to keep the COVID patients safely
isolated. Some, like Humber River Hospital, in
Toronto, built in 2015 with “SARS foremost in
our mind,” according to president and CEO
Barbara Collins, are purpose-built to be
“pandemic safe.” She told Toronto’s The Star that
her hospital is capable of isolating entire
departments under negative pressure. Moreover,
the ambulance bay and an adjoining “hazmat room”
are tailored for “seamless transformation” into
a pandemic-ready area.
In an interview with WCMH-TV, Jo Henman,
director of infection prevention at OhioHealth,
in Columbus, said her facility has 85 inpatient
negative-pressure rooms and, thanks to portable
high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters,
the ability to create more if needed.
At Westchester Medical Center, an 895-bed
regional system in the New York metropolitan
catchment area, every ICU is negative pressure,
and can swap out as needed (except with oncology
and other high-risk patients, of course).
Minnesota-based Alomere Health, which estimates
its surge volume at 20 COVID-19 patients at full
capacity, plans to use its negative pressure
medical/surgical rooms if the ICUs overflow.
The 1500-bed Cleveland Clinic has converted a
4-story health education building into a surge
hospital, with 327 beds for low-acuity patients
who don’t need ventilators and accommodating up
to 1000 hospital beds if needed. California
spent $30 million to lease short-term space. In
late March, Detroit and Chicago were both
planning to turn convention centers into
temporary COVID-19 hospitals.
Or, a hospital might, like Brigham & Women’s
Faulkner Hospital in Boston, just decide to do a
large-scale conversion—in double-quick
time. Faulkner rapidly transformed 2 negative
pressure wards for COVID-19 patients. The
initial plan went from concept to development
within just a few days, with a project that
included converting the existing HVAC systems to
100% outside air to eliminate the risk of
recirculated air, revising the system controls
by rewriting its code, and rebalancing the air
distribution components.
Older hospitals, or those with budgets that
won’t support major conversions, can still
prepare quickly. The American Society for Health
Care Engineers says that standard patient rooms
can be retrofitted as negative pressure
isolation rooms. The American Society of
Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning
Engineers’ Standard allows for using
recirculated room air, provided the air first
passes through a HEPA filter. This can be
accomplished with a recirculating HEPA filter
unit, the association says.
In a real time-crunch, a temporary isolation
area can be set up surprisingly fast.
Investigators from University of Colorado,
Boulder and the VA’s National Center for
Occupational Health and Infection Control got a
temporary 30-bed negative pressure ward up and
running in less than an hour.
They tested it in a fully functioning hospital
in the San Francisco Bay Area. The existing ward
had its own dedicated air-handling unit,
dedicated bathroom exhaust system, a separate
dedicated exhaust system for return registers in
the isolation rooms, and a firewall separating
the ward from the rest of the hospital.
The research team used two heating, ventilation,
air conditioning HEPA-filtered negative-air
machines to establish the pressure. Performing
pressure measurements at 22 locations, they
found they maintained negative pressure that was
actually higher than recommendations by the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), and there was no pressure reversal when
medical staff entered or exited. They did find
that some rooms became neutrally or slightly
positively pressured, so they advise staff to
use personal protective equipment at all times.
The infection prevention and control team “was
heavily involved and present at every meeting,”
hospital administration was very supportive, and
the nursing staff were especially interested and
engaged, Shelly Miller, PhD, the team leader,
says.
And the research team proved that it could all
be done in approximately 40 minutes—including
installation and troubleshooting of the
anteroom. “We wanted to get it up fast, it was
duct tape and plastic,” says Miller.
Their solution could be lifesaving for smaller
or rural hospitals. Miller points out that
according to the Institute of Medicine’s report
on medical surge capacity, the cost of pandemic
preparedness is important to consider—tents,
temporary housing materials, disaster response
trailers, and HEPA-filtered negative-air
machines are expensive. In their study, choices
such as plastic sheeting with zippered openings
helped lower costs.
A portable anteroom can be used as an extra
layer of protection between the isolation space
and the rest of the hospital. A positively
pressured anteroom, for instance, lets staff don
PPE in a protected environment. A drawback is
that because the anteroom is less pressurized
than the isolation room, there’s a risk of
infectious particles carrying from the movements
of healthcare workers into the patient’s room.
Further, because the pressure in these
specialized rooms has to be so carefully
nuanced, maintenance is important. Citing a 2001
long-term assessment of isolation room
performance, Nick Clements notes in his blog
post that isolation room operating conditions
may “shift away from optimal” for a variety of
reasons, and operating conditions are “somewhat
temporally variable.” A loose air handling unit
fan-belt or accidental changes made during
maintenance could, he says, result in “sharp
changes” in the room pressure.
There are few studies as yet testing the
effectiveness of establishing temporary
isolation wards during a surge, cautions
Clements, who was on the team that established
the Bay Area temporary ward. Before including a
temporary isolation ward in a hospital surge
capacity plan, he advises conducting a
(successful) full-scale demonstration to uncover
any logistical and engineering issues.
Caring for patients in negative pressure rooms
can amplify the usual constraints and stresses
for staff. Guangdong Second Provincial General
Hospital, in China, came up with a way to help
lessen some of the stress.
By February 2020, the hospital had admitted more
than 30 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more
than 200 suspected cases. It’s not uncommon,
clinicians from the hospital report in The
Lancet, that medical personnel in negative
pressure wards are not fully aware of their
exposure while caring for patients. So, the
hospital set up an innovative infection-control
system called the observing system. Cameras
cover the entire ward except for the privacy
area. Infection control observers, who are
appointed by the hospital’s Department of
Infection Control and Nursing and undergo
intensive training to become familiar with the
requirements for infection control in the
negative pressure wards, monitor the wards via
computers.
Their responsibilities include maintaining the
normal operation of the isolation wards,
supervising the implementation of disinfection,
ensuring a sufficient supply of protective
materials, arranging specimens for inspection
and—not least—they “relieve anxiety of the
medical personnel while treating patients.”
They also watch to make sure healthcare
providers don’t omit or overlook steps in
putting on or taking off PPE. In one case a
patient’s zipper unexpectedly ripped a nurse’s
glove. Discovering the situation, the observer
“immediately soothed the nurse and sent another
staff member into the ward to assist,” assessed
the risk for the nurse, and arranged a
quarantine room to ensure full safety before the
nurse returned to the ward.
The frontline medical staff highly recommend the
new system, the authors say.
Whether caring for a few or thousands of
infectious patients, healthcare facilities must
be both proactive and flexible. Most recently,
Miller and her team have been conducting another
pop-up test, this one in a nursing home,
depressurizing an entire wing. Given that
nursing homes have all along been hotspots of
COVID-19, fast, secure response is key. Until we
know more about this deadly intruder, protection
is the strongest weapon.
We reported on two Korean school boys who died
while wearing masks in 1000 meter time tests.
Some compromise in safety is therefore necessary
in mask design for athletes.
The
question is whether the right balance can be
achieved. One sportswear company believes they
have that balance.
Under Armour has
released its “Sportsmask,” a
face mask marketed toward athletes to help
protect from the spread of the coronavirus.
However a disclaimer states that is not to
protect against viruses. Under Armour has the
mask available
for preorder on its website and
is expected to ship out on or by Aug. 17.
The mask comes in four sizes and costs $30.
Black is the only color available at the moment,
but additional colors will release later in the
summer. The product “is a reusable,
water-resistant performance face mask designed
for maximum breathability by Under Armour's
innovation team in record time. This
first-of-its-kind mask functions to reduce the
spread of respiratory droplets by the wearer.”
The mask features a “unique, three-layer model
engineered for athletes during performance,”
Under Armour says. The third layer contains “a
non-metal anti-microbial technology which
inhibits growth of bacteria on the mask,” per
Under Armour.
While the product is “intended for daily wear &
use in sports by healthy individuals,” Under
Armour does note that the mask is a “non-medical
& non-surgical mask, does not protect against
viruses,” in the product description.
The UA SPORTSMASK is a reusable, water-resistant
performance face mask designed for maximum
breathability by Under Armour's innovation team
in record time. This first-of-its-kind mask
functions to reduce the spread of respiratory
droplets by the wearer. The top of the mask
features a moldable nose-bridge to help secure
it in place and mitigate airflow to the eyes,
helping to prevent glasses from fogging. It can
also be washed and dried, making it
more eco-friendly than many single-use,
disposable options.
The UA SPORTSMASK features a unique, three-layer
model engineered for athletes during
performance:
·
LAYER 1: SPACER FABRIC - It is light but has air
pockets for structure, so it stays off the mouth
and nose for better airflow.
·
LAYER 2: OPEN-CELL FOAM - The breathable middle
layer lets air through but makes it hard for
moisture and sweat to pass.
·
LAYER 3: UA ISO-CHILL - This fabric feels cool
against the skin, stretches, and is treated
with PROTX2™, a non-metal
anti-microbial technology which inhibits growth
of bacteria on the mask.
PROTX2 has been shown in laboratory tests to
destroy COVID-19 and is being reviewed by the US
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to confirm
the efficacy of the substance as it is applied
to the UA SPORTSMASK. Under Armour also has a
patent pending on its design and construction of
the mask.
The seeds for the UA SPORTSMASK were planted in
mid-March, when Under Armour began manufacturing
face masks designed by its innovation team and
distributing millions of units of personal
protective equipment (PPE) to health care and
community organizations to help fight the spread
of COVID-19. During this process, Under Armour
founder Kevin Plank recognized a need for
performance solutions that would support
athletes navigating the pandemic climate. He
called on the innovation team in Baltimore,
equipped with their recent mask-making
experience, to join him in finding a way
forward, and fast.
“As soon as we finalized the design of our face
mask for PPE, we dove straight into the
innovation process of optimizing a mask for
performance," said Kyle Blakely, VP of Materials
Innovation at Under Armour. "We knew our
athletes would need us to come through quickly
with a solve to aid their return to training,
one that would put health and safety first and
adhere to current CDC guidelines.”
Because of social distancing restrictions, the
company went back to its roots during the mask
construction phase. Plank’s design and Blakely’s
materials were sent to Ella Mae Holmes, an Under
Armour seamstress and the company’s third
employee who helped develop the brand’s original
compression shirt. Holmes got to work sewing
mask prototypes out of her Baltimore home. With
input and testing from teammates across product
development, Under Armour found success in the
13th iteration of the mask.
“Experience told us that fabric and performance
had to be our first focus, so we set out to find
a fabric combination that created structure to
ensure the mask would stand off the face and
offer maximum breathability,” added Blakely. “We
applied learnings in fit, feel, and ease and
speed of manufacturing from the face mask we
created for PPE purposes. Throughout it all, the
speed of the design process and a meticulous eye
to quality and details were paramount.”
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