Coronavirus Technology Solutions
June 26, 2020
Proactive Mask Program Initiated
More Efficient Masks are the Best COVID Weapons
Coronavirus Technology Solutions and the
Coordination with Other Initiatives such as
Climate Change
Air Treatment Tools to Deal with the Coronavirus
Coronavirus and Energy Policies are Related
Sixteen of 302 NBA Players Test Positive for
COVID
Biden Would Require Masks to be Worn in Public
Washable Nanofiber Mask Being Developed
New York Gyms and Malls Remain Closed
Based on Air Conditioning Concerns
New York Down to 1.3% Positive Results
New York Considering Cross Border Testing
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Proactive Mask Program Initiated
Here is the draft of an article which will
appear in the next issue of International
Filtration News.
This is now a publication owned by INDA
(Association of Nonwoven Manufacturers). We will
be working with INDA and others to convey
important facts and analysis to show how filters
can help win the COVID war. As one of our
subscribers we will be looking for your
collaboration in this endeavor.
The filtration industry needs to take the lead in resolving the COVID problem. Transmission does not come from contaminated food, mosquitoes, or fleas. Very little transmission has been traced to surface contact. The new evidence is that small aerosols provide a major route for COVID transmission. These aerosols create viral clouds which are not deterred by distancing or partitions. They are not deterred by masks which capture a minority of small particles being exhaled or inhaled. The proactive and best solution is efficient masks and high efficiency air filters. We will cover the filters in the next article but focus here on the masks.
It will be highly desirable for every one of the
3 billion people in contact with others to wear
an efficient mask. With highly efficient
washable and breathable media this is not only
feasible
from a technology and production
perspective but will be very cost effective.
The formulation of the best strategy has to take
into account factors relating to the virus,
wearer, mask design, and environmental
conditions.
Each of these areas is being analyzed in
detail. In this article we will focus on the
virus factors.
There are some reports that the minimum
infectious dose for COVID-19 can be as low as 10
viral particles. This means that if just a tiny
fraction of the particles we inhale every minute
are COVID we can become infected. For comparison
purposes a pharmaceutical cleanroom typically is
ISO 5 (100 particles/sq. ft. greater than 0.5
microns). The cleanest operating theaters in
hospitals are ISO 4 (10 particles/sq. ft.
greater than 0.5 microns). The semiconductor
industry spends billions of dollars per year to
reach ISO 3 (1 particle/sq. ft. greater than 0.5
microns). The task of keeping small particles
such as viruses from occupying space is very
difficult. Many of the particles we inhale are long distance travelers. For example mercury emitted from gold mines in Brazil has been traced to the Artic. When a volcano erupted in Iceland the skies turned dark in Europe for weeks. Italian researchers have found COVID on air pollution particles in the Lombardy region. Recent studies in London link COVID transmission and higher levels of air pollution.
Another takeaway is that social distancing has
limited effectiveness. Viruses travel on
cigarette smoke sized particles. So one way to
view the task is to think that everyone you
encounter is puffing away and you have to avoid
even inhaling a few of his smoke particles. The percentage of virus in aerosols versus larger droplets: Viruses attach to droplets or particles. They are only 0.1 microns in diameter but may be in droplets 20 microns in diameter or larger. Droplets in the 5 micron range can also be generated or can be the result of evaporation of larger droplets. In medical changing rooms in China higher viral loads have been noted. Viruses are also being aerosolized by cleaning the floor or from other surfaces. Viral Load: The viral load varies by individual and activity. A lusty super spreader singer was able to generate many thousands of aerosols and infect 45 people in just two hours. Minimum Infectious Dose: There are reports that only 10 viral particles is enough to cause an infection. Other views are that it generally requires a large number of particles over a period of time. Since large cough or sneeze droplets don’t travel far, social distancing is therefore the best way to avoid infection. However, if small numbers of airborne viruses can cause an infection then a whole different approach is needed. Life of Virus: The virus is known to remain viable for hours in the air and for days on various surfaces. Virus Rejuvenation from Dormancy: It has now been documented that viruses are not necessarily dead but just dormant as they travel through the air. They can then penetrate the lungs where the moisture revives them.
Creation of Aerosols from Viruses Leaving
Surfaces: There
are numerous cases tracking aerosols which were
originally on surfaces such as floors or
clothing.
Wearer:
Athletes, elderly, and those with respiratory
problems need to be evaluated separately from
the general population and there need to be
masks designed for them.
Conditions:
Areas where many people are in close proximity
dictate different masks and mask protocols from
those where few or any people congregate.
Mask Design:
There are many innovations which need to be
continually evaluated. Nanofibers and membranes
provide alternatives to meltblowns and some new
spun bond designs. Mask decontamination or
washing is now available even for media which is
subject to losing its electrostatic effect. This
opens the door for more expensive designs.
In fact a $30 design which can be used 50
times is very cost effective compared to
disposables.
Moving Forward
Mask Logic
There are two new options which need to be
considered. They are N80 masks and N95 masks
with valves. Both are far superior to the N30
masks being recommended. If both the transmitter
and the recipient are wearing N30 masks the
recipient will inhale 49% of the small virus
particles.
If both wear N95 masks the recipient will
inhale only 0.25% of the virus particles.
But these are not the only choices.
Europe is setting standards for N80 and N90
masks. There are regulations in many cities
prohibiting the N95 valved mask but its results
are equivalent to the
N80
and only 10% of the inhalation with N30
masks.
There is an opportunity to reduce risk with
masks. This requires public support. So options
such as valved masks should not be quickly
discarded. Valved masks with locks provide even
more flexibility to adjust to changing
environments.
Leadership
The confused approach to masks is similar to the
one on particulate emissions after regulations
to add acid gas scrubbers were instituted.
Because it was difficult to measure particles
after a scrubber EPA would not change the
regulation requiring a certain precipitator
efficiency despite the additional removal in the
scrubber. The scrubber industry waged a
multiyear campaign to show that the scrubber
removed substantial particulate and successfully
persuaded EPA to change the rules.
The filtration industry should show this
leadership in the use of masks and filters to
win the COVID battle.
This entails more research and
development, expanded production, and an
effective information campaign.
As shown in the following news release and
article in the McIlvaine Utility E-Alert
the Coronavirus is having
a major impact on the world economy.
Countries such as India will suffer
disproportionately due to lack of the
infrastructure to cope with COVID.
This is a crisis situation.
India and other developing countries need
to move forward with electrification in part to
better cope with the virus.
Delays such as coal fired plant
cancellations will have dire results.
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We are in the midst of the worst economic crisis
in more than 80 years and unless countries stop
ignoring mask and other COVID mitigation
opportunities we could face a worse situation
that we did in the 1919-35 period.
For those involved in the air treatment industry
there are two initiatives which are now
relevant.
One involves masks and filters to combat
COVID and the other has to do with climate
change.
The magnitude of the problem was conveyed in the
latest International Monetary fund forecasts
that World GDP will fall by nearly 5% this year.
This will be in part due to an 8% decline in the
U.S.
The global economy will contract the most since
World War II this year and emerging nations’
output will shrink for the first time in at
least six decades due to the Covid-19 pandemic,
reducing incomes and sending millions of people
into poverty, the World Bank said.
The air treatment industry can be proactive with
mask and filter programs which will allow return
to near normal life without
viral spread. Filtration experts have
heretofore not been influential. The first
government advice was that masks were not
necessary. Now the advice is that the masks are
necessary but without appreciation of the
differences between masks. When both the
transmitter and recipient wear masks there is a
huge difference in virus particles inhaled.
When both wear a 30% efficient mask 49%
of the viruses are inhaled. When both wear a 95%
efficient mask the percentage is only 0.25%. So
with inefficient masks the viral inhalation is
396 times greater than with efficient masks.
We now know that small aerosols are the main
transmission route for COVID. So wearing masks
which virtually eliminate aerosol transmission
will go a long way solve the problem. This
situation is analyzed on a daily basis in
Coronavirus
Technology Solutions.
Relative to climate change there is pressure
being exerted on developing countries e.g.
Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, India and
others to abandon coal fired power projects.
Many lenders are refusing to fund them.
These projects are a quick route to
electrification which will in turn lead to
better living conditions for citizens of these
countries.
Masks to combat COVID will cost hundreds of
dollars per year per person. Upgrading hospitals
with more isolation units and ventilators is
costly. Expanded hospital capability also means
expanded electricity requirements. Reliability
needs to increase. For a hospital with many
patients in critical condition 12 hours without
electricity can be a death sentence.
Delaying electricity supply for a few years
until wind and solar can be implemented will
result in deaths and disabilities. In a country
such as India the resources to fight COVID need
to be prioritized.
The basis for abandoning coal fired
projects is the tipping point theory.
This theory states that there is a tipping point
for CO2 levels and once that level is reached
all sorts of dire events will occur. This would
not be the case if there were a way to actually
remove CO2 from the air.
Fortunately that is now the case
Opportunistic Biomass - CCS Program is the Route
chosen by the UK and Japan.
Developing
countries can build coal fired power plants with
the potential to switch to biomass and
sequestration in twenty years and remove as much
CO2 in each of the following 20 years as they
emitted in the first twenty years.
Details on this program are provided
in Utility Tracking System
http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php/databases/42ei-utility-tracking-system
The number of confirmed new coronavirus cases
per day in the U.S. hit an all-time high of
40,000 Friday — eclipsing the mark set during
one of the deadliest stretches in late April.
The resurgence has led some governors to
backtrack or at least pause the reopening of
their states.
While the increase is believed to reflect, in
part, greatly expanded testing, experts say
there is ample evidence the virus is making a
comeback, including rising deaths and
hospitalizations in parts of the country,
especially in the South and West. Arizona, Texas and Florida are
among the states that have been hit hard.
The number of confirmed infections soared past
the previous high set on April 24 of 36,400,
according to the count
kept by Johns Hopkins University.
Deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S. are down
to around 600 per day, compared with about 2,200
in mid-April. Some experts have expressed doubt
that deaths will return to that level, in part
because of advances in treatment and prevention
but also because a large share of the new
infections are in younger adults, who are more
likely than older ones to survive.
The NBA and the National Basketball Players
Association on Friday said 16 players tested
positive for the coronavirus in the first wave
of mandatory tests done in preparation for the
restart of the season.
Those 16 players were part of a pool of 302
tested on Tuesday -- a 5.3% rate of positive
tests leaguewide.
Commissioner Adam Silver said the numbers were
roughly as expected and that none of the 16 were
seriously ill.
Any player who tested positive will remain in
self-isolation until he satisfies public health
protocols for discontinuing isolation and has
been cleared by a physician.
The player names were not disclosed; some
players, such as Malcolm
Brogdon of Indiana and Sacramento teammates Jabari
Parker and Alex
Len, have publicly acknowledged they
recently tested positive.
The NBA season is scheduled
to resume on July 30 with 22 teams
participating in Orlando, Florida.
The league did not announce results of testing
on staffers and other members of team travel
parties, all of whom are also part of the
mandatory testing program.
On Tuesday, teams were required to begin testing
players participating in voluntary workouts in
their home markets every other day. Mandatory
workouts begin July 1, and teams participating
in the restart can begin to arrive in Florida on
July 7. Training camps will run from July 9 to
29 with three scrimmages per team.
On Thursday, the NBA shared with its players
the security
plan to help enforce health and safety
protocols and to secure its campus at the ESPN
Wide World of Sports Complex for the resumption
of the season, league sources told ESPN.
Joe Biden said if elected president, he would
make wearing
a face covering in
public compulsory, further distancing himself on
the issue from President Donald Trump who has
stressed that masks are voluntary and has
flouted public health recommendations.
"The one thing we do know is these masks make a
gigantic difference. I would insist that
everybody out in public be wearing that mask.
Anyone to reopen would have to make sure that
they walked into a business that had masks,"
Biden told CNN's affiliate in Pittsburgh, KDKA,
while wearing a black mask.
Pressed if he'd use federal power to mandate
wearing a mask in public, Biden responded, "Yes,
I would. From an executive standpoint, yes I
would."
Asked again if that meant he would "in effect"
mandate mask wearing, Biden said, "I would do
everything possible to make it required that
people had to wear masks in public."
At least 16 states and the District of Columbia
have mandates on wearing cloth face masks in
public, but masks have become a political flash
point as some
argue the requirement infringes
upon their civil liberties.
Despite the advice from public health experts,
Trump continues to defy health recommendations
and has been reluctant to be seen wearing a mask
in public. The White House maintains that
everyone who comes in contact with the President
is tested for coronavirus regularly.
Trump recently told The
Wall Street Journal that
masks are "a double-edged sword" and also
suggested that masks are being worn as a
political statement, rather than a health
precaution, to show disapproval of him.
A partnership between University of Kentucky and
Somerset Community College professors could soon
deliver 3D-printed, customizable masks that hold
a re-usable, washable filter that can inactivate
COVID-19. Isabel Escobar, a UK chemical
and materials engineering professor, and Eric
Woolridge, a Somerset professor of additive
manufacturing, are using existing research,
materials, equipment and processes. Escobar and her team create
the nontoxic membrane that is chemically bound
to silver nanoparticles — both of which are key
to catching and inactivating the virus.
Woolridge, a 3D-printing expert, and his team
print the masks and the small disks that will
hold the membrane. After printing the small
disks, Woolridge said he sends them to Escobar
at UK where they are coated with the
silver-infused membrane and are tested for their
filtering abilities. The membrane-coated disks
are very thin, Woolridge said, and about the
diameter of a fist. The disk can be inserted in
3D-printed masks and function as the filter.
Escobar said the filters are as good as and
hopefully more effective than the filter in
disposable N95 masks, the gold standard of
protection during the COVID-19 worldwide
outbreak.
The membrane inside the
filter is dense enough to catch the coronavirus,
Escobar said. The virus is about 120 nanometers
in size, and likely would hit the membrane
entrapped in saliva or mucus. For
comparison, the average human hair is about
80,000 to 100,000 nanometers wide. The medical-grade, silver
nanoparticles in the membrane slowly kill the
virus, Escobar said. “What the silver
nanoparticles do, is they will bind with that
protein, they will prevent that protein from
being able to attach to any structures,” Escobar
said. “Without being able to attach to anything,
eventually the virus dies.” Silver has long been known to
have antimicrobial properties, Escobar said. “Silver has been used a lot
in the past in wound dressings, in clothing, in
surface coatings, all because of its antivirus
and also antibacterial capabilities,” Escobar
said. “It’s not specific for viruses. It can
inactivate viruses and it can inactivate
bacteria as well.”
The membranes could in theory be cleaned with
water, said Escobar who is also the associate
director of UK’s Center for Membrane Sciences.
Her aim is a filter that is washable with water
and a little mild soap.
Although New York state’s metrics continue on a
downward trend and regions continue to reopen in
phases, the state’s malls, movie theaters and
gyms must remain shuttered.
The issue, Gov. Andrew Cuomo says, is air
conditioning units.
“Are these air conditioning units recirculating
the virus? That’s what we’re trying to figure
out,” Cuomo said during Friday’s press briefing.
Cuomo said the state Department of Health is
trying to determine if and what filter can be
added to air conditioning units that will filter
out COVID-19 without reducing air quality.
It’s impractical, most gym operators say, to
tell people they have to wear a mask while
exercising on a treadmill. The deeper breaths,
laughing, shouting, tends to put more of the
virus in the air if you are positive. If you are
running and you’re breathing and exhaling deeply
that might put more virus in the air,” Cuomo
said.
“If you’re a gym that has an air conditioning
system that is recirculating the air ... that
might be problematic,” he continued.
City Councilman Steven Matteo (R-Mid-Island)
wrote to the governor, urging him to reconsider
his decision.
“Business owners in my community had long been
under the impression that our reopening is a
four-Phase process with clear benchmarks and at
least two weeks between Phases. That is how it
has been communicated to all of us since NY
Forward was released,” Matteo said.
His cited the Staten Island Mall, which is a key
part of the borough’s economy, and said it has
social distancing reopening plan ready to go.
Unfairly, he said, is that Target is permitted
to operate and be open to customers as it is
also indoors but is smaller than the mall.
He continued, “I fear we are going to see
numerous closures of stores in our malls
statewide due to the complete and utter
uncertainty.”
Matteo stated that not only is the mall
important for borough businesses, it is also a
place where people exercise indoors as they are
able to walk indoors in an air conditioned
environment.
The three-day average for coronavirus fatalities
is 16, also the lowest since the beginning of
the pandemic which, at its height, saw 800
deaths a day. There were also 950
hospitalizations yesterday, the governor
announced.
“The good news is the tracing system is
working,” he said, citing an apple plant in
upstate New York which was able to trace an
outbreak back to its processing plant.
The state is currently exploring the legality of
tracing over borders and at airlines.
“We’re going through the law right now; we have
no legal jurisdictional border control. That’s
federal,” he said, when asked about the tri-state
quarantine.
He offered several mechanisms -- hotel clerks,
business meetings and police officers stopping
vehicles with license plate from affected states
-- as ways New York could be notified of
quarantine violations.
“If you are violating the quarantine, you can be
subject to a judicial order and mandatory
quarantine,” Cuomo said. “You could have to pay
the costs of quarantine. There are also fines
that could go along with violating the
quarantine -- $2,000 for the first violation,
$5,000 for the second, up to $10,000 if you
cause harm.”
“The Port Authority oversees the airports from a
management point-of-view. We’re talking to the
airlines about our ability as a state to
question people coming into our airports,
gathering information [from them], temperature
checks and what our legal authority is,” he went
on to say.
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