Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Dakota Helvie | Christian Cook, a contractor with TRAX International, tests for broken seals with a...... read more read more
FEMA deployed a Battelle Critical Care Decontamination System™ to Kansas to assist the state and local healthcare officials with N95 mask shortages. The Battelle system can decontaminate thousands of N95 respirators using concentrated, vapor phase hydrogen peroxide which will provide a bridge in personal protective equipment shortages.
N95 Masks that would be disposed of after a single use can be decontaminated and reused for the COVID-19 pandemic response.
“This benefits the state of Kansas, affording more freedom for local treatment facilities, hospitals and clinics that use the N95 protective masks,” said Master Sgt. Joseph Carver, 190th Refueling Wing, Kansas Air National Guard occupational safety technician. “Now they collect those masks and ship them here to be cleaned and reused,”
Extensive planning went into the system's location, ventilation, and consideration of personnel safety to mitigate the risk of exposure. Carver gives credit to the 190th Air Refueling Wing civil engineers at Forbes Field who engineered a more efficient and viable ventilation system to ensure the containers vented properly to provide a safe environment.
“It’s an optimal set up for the system,” said Carver. “This area has been cordoned off from other areas in the aircraft hangar to limit exposure. The main role of our team is escorting the mask from the main gate to this facility, and will be providing basic security to establish a clean zone.”
Masks labeled as “dirty shipments” are transported from treatment facilities and brought in through the hangar doors. Contractors from TRAX International, wearing PPE, receive the shipments and ensure they are packaged to meet OSHA standards for handling biohazard material.
The contractors working with the BCCDS™ follow the same strategy as the military in their testing cycles of the system — crawl, walk, run. Before the system can be declared operational for contaminated material, they run through dry and wet checks confirming that the team’s personal protective gear for operations and containers properly seal.
The self-contained decontamination system uses a vapor phase hydrogen peroxide, at the validated concentration level, to decontaminate biological contaminants. The system is authorized to decontaminate up to 10,000 compatible N95 protective masks per chamber load, and are able to process four chambers per sterilization cycle. It can run two sterilization processes per machine per day, sterilizing 80,000 masks per machine.
“Having this capability in Kansas directly improves our ability to respond to COVID-19,” said Maj. Gen. David Weishaar, the adjutant general and director of the Kansas Division of Emergency Management. “Purchasing PPE is a challenge and this system allows us to extend the life of the N95 masks until new equipment can be obtained.”
There have been 38 locations set up throughout the nation to decontaminate the N95 masks. The location in Kansas is viewed as having one of the best facilities made available to house these units. By utilizing this specific system, the state can assist in times of crisis when supplies run low and enable the communities in Kansas to strengthen its fight in the COVID-19 pandemic response.
“This is what I joined to do, be helpful in any regards, whether that be a pandemic, natural disaster or in the event of an activation to deploy,” said Carver.
| Date Taken: | 05.03.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 05.11.2020 12:37 |
| Story ID: | 369716 |
| Location: | TOPEKA, US |
| Web Views: | 174 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Extending the power of the Mask, by SFC Dakota Helvie, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
