Machine That Decontaminates Respirator Masks Approved By FDA

A shortage of personal protective equipment supplies is not only a concern for medical professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it's also worrisome for the people who clean facilities, like janitors and custodians. Luckily, some help could be on the way now that the Food And Drug Administration has approved a machine that can decontaminate tens of thousands of respirators a day.

Manufactured by Ohio-based nonprofit science and technology company, Battelle, the Critical Care Decontamination System can rid up to 80,000 respirators a day from COVID-19 contaminates.

Batelle, which announces the FDA's-approval via press release, says the system decontaminates masks using a concentrated, vapor phase hydrogen peroxide. It takes two and a half hours to complete the decontamination of masks and each mask can be decontaminated up to 20 times.

In addition to developing the decontamination system, Battelle is currently creating N95 respirator masks for OhioHealth and will soon begin making the masks for three other healthcare networks.