Effects of UV-C Disinfection on N95 and KN95 Filtering Facepiece Respirator Reuse

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of UV technology for virus disinfection to allow FFR reuse. UV is a proven decontamination tool for microbial pathogens, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Research findings suggest that the impacts of UV-C treatment on FFR material degradation should be confirmed using microbial surrogates in addition to the commonly performed abiotic particle testing. This study used the surrogates, E. coli and MS-2 bacteriophage, as they bracket the UV response of SARS-CoV-2. Lower log inactivation was observed on FFRs than predicted by aqueous-based UV dose-response data for MS-2 bacteriophage and E. coli. In addition, the dose-response curves did not follow the trends commonly observed with aqueous data for E. coli and MS-2. The dose-response curves for the respirators in this study had a semicircle shape, where the inactivation reached a peak and then decreased. This decrease in UV inactivation is thought to be due to the degradation of the fibers of the FFR and allows for more viral and bacterial cells to wash through the layers of the respirator. This degradation phenomenon was observed at UV doses at and above 2,000 mJ/cm ². Results have demonstrated that FFR materials yield various results in terms of effective disinfection in experiments conducted on KN95 and N95 face respirators. The highest inactivation for both surrogates was observed with the KN95 respirator made by Purism, yielding 3 and 2.75 log inactivation for E. coli and MS-2 at UV doses of 1,500 mJ/cm ². The KN95 made by Anboruo yielded the lowest inactivation for MS-2 at 0.75 log when exposed to 1,000 mJ/cm ². To further test the degradation theory, experiments used a collimated beam device to test the hypothesis further that degradation is occurring at and above UV doses of 1,500 mJ/cm ². The experiment aimed to determine the effect of “predosing” a respirator with UV before inoculating the respirator with MS-2. In this test, quantification of the penetrated irradiance value and the ability of each layer to retain MS-2 were quantified. The results of the experiments varied from the intact FFR degradation experiments but displayed some data to support the degradation theory.

IMPORTANCE Research suggests degradation of FFR materials at high UV doses is important. There appears to be a peak inactivation dose at approximately 1,500 mJ/cm ². The subsequent dose increases appear to have the reverse effect on inactivation values; these trends have shown true with both the N95 and KN95-Purism respirators.