Cargando…

Supercritical CO(2) sterilization: An effective treatment to reprocess FFP3 face masks and to reduce waste during COVID-19 pandemic()

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic unveiled an unprecedented scarcity of personal protective equipment (PPE) available in sanitary premises and for the population worldwide. This situation fostered the development of new strategies to reuse PPE that would ensure sterility and, simultaneously, preserv...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Santos-Rosales, Víctor, López-Iglesias, Clara, Sampedro-Viana, Ana, Alvarez-Lorenzo, Carmen, Ghazanfari, Samaneh, Magariños, Beatriz, García-González, Carlos A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8864888/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35218842
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154089
_version_ 1784655543443390464
author Santos-Rosales, Víctor
López-Iglesias, Clara
Sampedro-Viana, Ana
Alvarez-Lorenzo, Carmen
Ghazanfari, Samaneh
Magariños, Beatriz
García-González, Carlos A.
author_facet Santos-Rosales, Víctor
López-Iglesias, Clara
Sampedro-Viana, Ana
Alvarez-Lorenzo, Carmen
Ghazanfari, Samaneh
Magariños, Beatriz
García-González, Carlos A.
author_sort Santos-Rosales, Víctor
collection PubMed
description The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic unveiled an unprecedented scarcity of personal protective equipment (PPE) available in sanitary premises and for the population worldwide. This situation fostered the development of new strategies to reuse PPE that would ensure sterility and, simultaneously, preserve the filtering properties of the materials. In addition, the reuse of PPEs by reprocessing could reduce the environmental impact of the massive single-use and disposal of these materials. Conventional sterilization techniques such as steam or dry heat, ethylene oxide, and gamma irradiation may alter the functional properties of the PPEs and/or leave toxic residues. Supercritical CO(2) (scCO(2))-based sterilization is herein proposed as a safe, sustainable, and rapid sterilization method for contaminated face masks while preserving their performance. The functional (bacterial filtration efficiency, breathability, splash resistance, straps elasticity) properties of the processed FFP3 face masks were evaluated after 1 and 10 cycles of sterilization. Log-6 sterilization reduction levels were obtained for face masks contaminated with Bacillus pumilus endospores at mild operating conditions (CO(2) at 39 °C and 100 bar for 30 min) and with low contents of H(2)O(2) (150 ppm). Physicochemical properties of the FFP3 face masks remained unchanged after reprocessing and differences in efficacy were not observed neither in the filtration tests, following UNE-EN 14683, nor in the integrity of FFP3 filtration after the sterilization process. The herein presented method based on scCO(2) technology is the first reported protocol achieving the reprocessing of FFP3 masks up to 10 cycles while preserving their functional properties.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8864888
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-88648882022-02-24 Supercritical CO(2) sterilization: An effective treatment to reprocess FFP3 face masks and to reduce waste during COVID-19 pandemic() Santos-Rosales, Víctor López-Iglesias, Clara Sampedro-Viana, Ana Alvarez-Lorenzo, Carmen Ghazanfari, Samaneh Magariños, Beatriz García-González, Carlos A. Sci Total Environ Article The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic unveiled an unprecedented scarcity of personal protective equipment (PPE) available in sanitary premises and for the population worldwide. This situation fostered the development of new strategies to reuse PPE that would ensure sterility and, simultaneously, preserve the filtering properties of the materials. In addition, the reuse of PPEs by reprocessing could reduce the environmental impact of the massive single-use and disposal of these materials. Conventional sterilization techniques such as steam or dry heat, ethylene oxide, and gamma irradiation may alter the functional properties of the PPEs and/or leave toxic residues. Supercritical CO(2) (scCO(2))-based sterilization is herein proposed as a safe, sustainable, and rapid sterilization method for contaminated face masks while preserving their performance. The functional (bacterial filtration efficiency, breathability, splash resistance, straps elasticity) properties of the processed FFP3 face masks were evaluated after 1 and 10 cycles of sterilization. Log-6 sterilization reduction levels were obtained for face masks contaminated with Bacillus pumilus endospores at mild operating conditions (CO(2) at 39 °C and 100 bar for 30 min) and with low contents of H(2)O(2) (150 ppm). Physicochemical properties of the FFP3 face masks remained unchanged after reprocessing and differences in efficacy were not observed neither in the filtration tests, following UNE-EN 14683, nor in the integrity of FFP3 filtration after the sterilization process. The herein presented method based on scCO(2) technology is the first reported protocol achieving the reprocessing of FFP3 masks up to 10 cycles while preserving their functional properties. The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. 2022-06-20 2022-02-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8864888/ /pubmed/35218842 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154089 Text en © 2022 The Authors Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Article
Santos-Rosales, Víctor
López-Iglesias, Clara
Sampedro-Viana, Ana
Alvarez-Lorenzo, Carmen
Ghazanfari, Samaneh
Magariños, Beatriz
García-González, Carlos A.
Supercritical CO(2) sterilization: An effective treatment to reprocess FFP3 face masks and to reduce waste during COVID-19 pandemic()
title Supercritical CO(2) sterilization: An effective treatment to reprocess FFP3 face masks and to reduce waste during COVID-19 pandemic()
title_full Supercritical CO(2) sterilization: An effective treatment to reprocess FFP3 face masks and to reduce waste during COVID-19 pandemic()
title_fullStr Supercritical CO(2) sterilization: An effective treatment to reprocess FFP3 face masks and to reduce waste during COVID-19 pandemic()
title_full_unstemmed Supercritical CO(2) sterilization: An effective treatment to reprocess FFP3 face masks and to reduce waste during COVID-19 pandemic()
title_short Supercritical CO(2) sterilization: An effective treatment to reprocess FFP3 face masks and to reduce waste during COVID-19 pandemic()
title_sort supercritical co(2) sterilization: an effective treatment to reprocess ffp3 face masks and to reduce waste during covid-19 pandemic()
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8864888/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35218842
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154089
work_keys_str_mv AT santosrosalesvictor supercriticalco2sterilizationaneffectivetreatmenttoreprocessffp3facemasksandtoreducewasteduringcovid19pandemic
AT lopeziglesiasclara supercriticalco2sterilizationaneffectivetreatmenttoreprocessffp3facemasksandtoreducewasteduringcovid19pandemic
AT sampedrovianaana supercriticalco2sterilizationaneffectivetreatmenttoreprocessffp3facemasksandtoreducewasteduringcovid19pandemic
AT alvarezlorenzocarmen supercriticalco2sterilizationaneffectivetreatmenttoreprocessffp3facemasksandtoreducewasteduringcovid19pandemic
AT ghazanfarisamaneh supercriticalco2sterilizationaneffectivetreatmenttoreprocessffp3facemasksandtoreducewasteduringcovid19pandemic
AT magarinosbeatriz supercriticalco2sterilizationaneffectivetreatmenttoreprocessffp3facemasksandtoreducewasteduringcovid19pandemic
AT garciagonzalezcarlosa supercriticalco2sterilizationaneffectivetreatmenttoreprocessffp3facemasksandtoreducewasteduringcovid19pandemic