Coronavirus
Technology Solutions
Efficient Face Masks for Everyone
Air Purifiers Being Purchased for
Quebec Classrooms
Healththing Canada
Compares Effectiveness of Mask
Porous Materials Provides
Instruments to Analyze Nanofiber Non Wovens
Mask Alliance Bavaria is
Expanding Members and Activities
Nonwovens Institute Receives Grant to Improve
Properties of Mask Materials
Medline will Make Masks in its Georgia Plant
Efficient Face Masks for Everyone
If efficient masks were available
and worn by everyone, COVID 19 infections could
be greatly reduced over the next six months.
This requires
Rating System;
The role of face masks in mitigating
COVID 19 has changed continuously.
Initially masks were recommended only for
prevention and not for protection. Now there is
agreement that masks are essential for
protection. The next step in the evolution is to
differentiate between those masks which are very
effective and those which are not.
The McIlvaine Company has been
analyzing the options and interviewing experts
on a daily basis since March. These findings are
published in Coronavirus Technology Solutions.
The conclusions are
·
Methods to determine media efficiency and
resistance
are well established
·
Methods to determine leakage through fit testing
have evolved and are reliable
·
Potential efficiency reduction due to quality
control problems during production and shipping
can be quantified
·
A net efficiency rating can be obtained and will
be very useful
The following examples were
calculated based on available information for
various types of masks. The net efficiency
equals the media efficiency less leaks and
defects.
Net efficiency is only important
if the mask is worn continuously. The use of
masks is greatly impacted by the breathing
resistance. By subtracting the breathing
resistance from the net efficiency, a basic
performance rating is created.
There are other considerations in
a mask purchase. The mask life as measured in
hours is one of them. In addition to breathing
resistance there are other comfort factors.
Attractiveness can be established through user
surveys.
Three types of organizations are
necessary
to provide purchasers with reliable
ratings
·
Independent rating organizations
·
Consultants and others who can gather evidence
and provide analyses
·
Mask suppliers willing to pay for independent
ratings
One qualified rating organization
is the Waterloo Filtration Institute which is
providing training and certification in a range
of filtration applications.
The McIlvaine company is involved
in consulting and analysis and is gathering much
of the relevant background material in several
of its services.
Vogmask has been producing masks
for nearly a decade. It has spared no expense to
maximize efficiency and minimize leakage while
achieving comfort and attractiveness.
Waterloo Filtration Institute has
agreed to create a rating group utilizing
experts in the filtration field. This group will
review evidence submitted by mask suppliers and
provide ratings plus evaluation reports.
Vogmask has agreed to pay for a
complete set of ratings including net
efficiency, basic performance, life, comfort,
and attractiveness.
The McIlvaine Company is
supplying evidence extracted from its
Coronavirus Technology Solutions and a new
service CATER Mask Decisions.
This new service covers Comfortable,
Attractive, Tight Fitting,
Efficient, Reusable masks which
can
be quickly made available to purchasers. Since
the masks can be used for many wearings it is
possible to quickly produce sufficient
quantities to supply all the needs. This new
service is free of charge and will thus allow
purchasers to be fully informed.
With a rating system to guide
them and ample supplies of reusable masks,
purchasers can make mask decisions to greatly
reduce the impact of COVID 19.
For more information on the
program and McIlvaine services contact Bob
McIlvaine at 847 226 2391 or
rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
Information on Waterloo
Filtration
Institute is found at
https://www.wfinstitute.com/
Details on Vogmask are found at
https://www.vogmask.com/
Air Purifiers Being Purchased for
Quebec Classrooms A
charity is raising money to purchase air
purifiers for Quebec’s classrooms,
citing concern that poor ventilation could
increase the spread of the coronavirus.
The Jasmin Roy Sophie Desmarais Foundation has
asked for donations from the public to purchase
the units, two of which placed inside a
classroom, the charity says, would improve air
quality and circulation.
Faced with the obsolete ventilation systems in a
large number of schools in Quebec, there is an
urgent need for action,” Jasmin Roy, the founder
and president of the charity, said Monday in a
press release. “Winter is already knocking on
our doors and soon the cold will prevent the
opening of windows, which will increase the risk
of spreading COVID-19.”
Quebec Education Minister Jean-François Roberge insisted
on Friday that the
air quality in Quebec’s schools is adequate. A
22-page report released by the ministry the same
day revealed that of 3,227 schools, 1,357 have
mechanical ventilation systems that are
regularly maintained, but another 1,870 have no
such systems and are “ventilated naturally by
the opening of windows or other systems favoring
the circulation of fresh air.”
Critics disparaged the report because it
contained no data on air quality in classrooms.
By contrast, an unofficial study
conducted recently by
a group called COVID-STOP found that, of 25
classrooms tested with a carbon dioxide meter,
75 per cent exceeded the acceptable level of 700
to 800 parts per million, indicating poor
airflow.
Roy’s foundation works to provide safe
environments for children in schools, normally
focusing on issues like bullying, but when
he saw the COVID-STOP study, he decided to act.
Poor ventilation could increase the spread of
SARS-cov-2 particles, which cause COVID-19. Live
particles of the virus have been found to linger
in the air in areas where there is little
airflow.
Air purifiers, however, have been touted by some
researchers as a potential way to mitigate the
spread of the virus indoors.
“It is reasonable to think that in rooms
equipped with an air purifier, or
well-ventilated, and equipped with UV, the
internal infection rate is significantly lower
than that found in rooms that do not have it,” a
group of researchers
wrote in a study published
in the early days of the pandemic in the
Journal of Biological Regulators and Homeostatic
Agents.
The Biopür purifiers, which will be purchased by
the Jasmin Roy Sophie Desmarais Foundation, are
assembled in Quebec by Sanuvox Technologies
Inc., a Montreal company. They use a combination
of high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA)
filtration and ultraviolet light to trap and
destroy viruses and other airborne pathogens.
Jocelyn Dame, the president of Sanuvox, said the
global demand for his company’s products has
increased six fold since the start of the
pandemic.
Portable units
provide a good alternative for classrooms
without ventilation systems, Dame said. He added
he resents that the government is dragging its
feet with regard to ventilation in school and
downplaying the aerosolized spread of the virus.
Healththing Canada
Compares Effectiveness of Mask
Healthing.ca, is a destination for the straight facts on symptoms,
diseases and treatments as well as smart takes
on the latest health trends, research and the
people who are disrupting health care as we know
it. Laura Hensley is a writer with Healthing.ca. and has written an article showing that some
masks are better than others.
McIlvaine comments are in italics.
A new study by the American Institute of Physics
analyzed existing research on face masks and
summarized their findings on which designs best
filter or block out infectious coronavirus
particles. Here’s what they found.
Only Certain Masks Block Aerosol Droplets
Not all masks are created equal, even though wearing a
mask is much
better than not wearing one at all. Masks range
from homemade cloth ones, blue surgical masks, N95 respirators and store-bought three-layer
woven designs. Experts advise Canadians wear three-layer masks.
If you’re
going out into a crowded mall or grocery store,
you want to sport a mask that offers both you
and others as much protection as possible. How
effective a mask is at blocking out infectious
coronavirus particles depends on two things: the
size of the particle and the design of the mask.
If someone
who has the coronavirus talks, sneezes, coughs
or even breathes, they expel infectious droplets
that can spread the virus to other people. Large
droplets are the most common, the study
reported, but smaller droplets can become
aerosolized and remain suspended in the air.
Non-medical cloth masks can reduce droplet spread, as they protect both the wearers and those around them.
Only N95s block aerosols, the
researchers wrote, because the masks filter out
95 per cent of particles.
Surgical
masks, on the other hand, are fluid-resistant,
and are designed to catch large respiratory
droplets that are released when someone coughs
or sneezes. These blue masks should cover the
nose and mouth properly, but there is a chance
of leakage around the mask’s edges during the
inhaling and exhaling processes, the study
reported.
“Such a
dynamic leakage allows the direct contact of
fluid droplets from the outside air to the
wearer and vice versa,” researchers wrote,
adding that surgical masks may not provide great
protection against extremely fine aerosols or
droplets.
Face Mask Breathability and Fabric
How
comfortable a mask is depends on its fabric and
design. Everyone knows how uncomfortable it can
be to wear a mask made of scratchy fabric.
Researchers
analyzed fabrics for their breathability. They
found that masks made of hybrid polymer
materials “could filter particles at high
efficiency while simultaneously cooling the
face.”
Furthermore,
researchers looked at face mask fabric studies
and found that materials including natural silk,
chiffon weave (made of 90 per cent polyester and
10 per cent Spandex), and flannel provided “good
electrostatic filtering of particles.”
Fabric with tighter weaves and low porosity, like cotton with a
high thread count, offer better filtration.
Bandanas and neck fleeces were not found to be
very effective and “offered little protection
against infection,” researchers wrote, based on
their materials and designs. Because of the
nature of fleece, it tends to break up larger
particles into many little ones, according to
previous research previous research out of Duke University in North
Carolina.
Masks’ Role in Squashing the Pandemic
In case this
needs to be hammered home again: masks help curb
the spread of COVID-19. Health experts across
Canada have continually stressed the importance
of masks in public, indoor spaces and whenever
physical distancing cannot be kept outside.
The American
Institute of Physics researchers reviewed
epidemiological studies that looked at whether
face masks reduce the effective reproduction
number (the transmission potential) of COVID-19.
They used COVID-19 data from New York state and
found that if the reproduction number drops
below one, the pandemic stops spreading.
“The results suggest that the consistent use of efficient face
masks, such as surgical masks, could lead to the
eradication of the pandemic if at least 70 per
cent of the residents use such masks in public
consistently,” Sanjay Kumar, one of the study’s
authors said in a statement.
“Even less
efficient cloth masks could also slow the spread
if worn consistently.”
This article is an example of the evolution of
reporting which now shows the differences in
mask performance. However, the big differences
between
masks are not communicated here.
McIlvaine will be contacting this group and
offer free access to CATER Mask Decisions.
Porous Materials Provides
Instruments to Analyze Nanofiber Non Wovens
Porous Materials Inc. (PMI), USA provides
instruments to manufacture, test and analyze
Pore characterization of Nanofiber Nonwoven and
testing of Face Mask, Lab coats.
Nanofiber nonwovens are finding increasing
applications in the filtration industry
particularly in processes involving
biotechnology. For such applications, pore
volume is very important. Through pore diameter,
pore throat diameter and permeability are also
important pore structure characteristics.
Nanofiber mats are normally sensitive to
pressure and are often brittle. Therefore, the
characterization technique should be such that
the pore structure is not distorted. In this
investigation, the applicability of the
techniques, Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry,
Liquid Extrusion Porosimetry and Liquid
Extrusion Flow Porometry for pore structure
characterization of nanofiber mats have been
investigated.
www.pmiapp.com
Mask Alliance Bavaria is
Expanding Members and Activities
In May 2020, three key companies within the face
mask supply chain joined together to form the
Mask-Alliance Bavaria: Sandler Group, a
high-tech producer of nonwovens from
Schwarzenbach/Saale, PIA Automation, an
automation specialist from Amberg, and Zettl
Group, leading supplier of products for
automotive interiors from Weng. From base
material, to machinery, to the production of the
finished product, they set up an entire value
chain for the manufacture of face masks in
Bavaria. The overriding objective of the
alliance is to ensure increased safety and
quality standards and security of supply for
personal protective equipment in the country
even beyond the corona pandemic. A dependence on
foreign suppliers should be avoided in future.
Moreover, sustainable product solutions and
maximum recyclability are focal topics.
With a view to increasing effectiveness,
safety, usability, as well as the sustainability
of face masks new materials and procedures are
continuously being tried and tested. In order to
further advance this development new partners
want to join the Mask-Alliance Bavaria.
Professor Clarissa Prazeres da Costa,
infectiologist, senior physician for medical
microbiology and infection epidemiology, and
co-director of the Center of Global Health of
the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and
her colleague Magnus Fröhling, professor for
Circular Economy at TUM, as well as professor
Franz-Xaver Reichl, microbiologist,
pharmacologist and toxicologist, of Ludwig-Maximilians-University
Munich (LMU), and product safety experts from
the team of Jörg-Timm Kilisch of the
German organization DEKRA, want to contribute
their
comprehensive know-how to the development of new
medical masks.
The intended close cooperation of member
companies, research institutions and testing
authorities aims to bring together the specific
key competences and enable a swift transfer of
knowledge and technology to small and
medium-sized enterprises, the medical sector,
and standardization. Insights obtained from this
cooperation could also be applied to protective
masks for kids or to a second generation of
simpler mouth-nose-protection masks.
With these endeavors, the Mask-Alliance Bavaria
is taking the next steps towards quickly and
focally advancing mask development and
production in Bavaria.
North Carolina State University’s Nonwovens
Institute (NWI) received a six-month,
approximately $400,000 grant from The National
Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing
Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL) to investigate
improving the properties of materials they’re
using for masks and respirators.
Medline will begin making face masks at
its Lithia Springs, GA plant and anticipates
production on level-1 ear loop procedure masks
will begin in January, with a second production
line expected to launch later in 2021. When the
two lines are fully operational, Medline
estimates it will produce 36 million face masks
per month.
This is the second U.S. manufacturing
expansion by Medline. In April, the company
launched hand sanitizer production at
its Hartland, WI plant to help meet a nationwide
shortage. Medline redeployed manufacturing
capabilities in that facility to produce the 80%
ethyl alcohol-based hand sanitizer and
retrofitted one of its production rooms for the
new product. The company also shifted
manufacturing focus in its Meriden, CT plant to
manufacture alcohol gel packets during the
height of the shortages.
The latest expansion in Georgia was made
possible in part by a $6 million contract
awarded to Medline by the U.S. Department of Defense to increase
domestic production capability for face masks.
|