I don't thin a microwave oven is an effective way to sterilize anything. Some claim it is a way to sterilize sponges. I disagree. The temperature will be too uneven and the items will be burned if you apply power too long.

Boil water in a pot and immerse the item.

 

Not everything can be immersed.
I don't think you read anything at the link that was posted.

 

Do you mean to create or reuse? Wouldn't the heat deteriorate parts of the material since it's not really built to last. Sounds very interessting.

 

To potentially reuse. The most relevant paragraph:

The goal of this study is to evaluate the use of two commercially available steam bags, marketed to the public for disinfecting infant feeding equipment, for FFR decontamination. The FFRs were decontaminated with microwave generated steam following the manufacturers' instructions then evaluated for water absorption and filtration efficiency for up to three steam exposures. Water absorption of the FFR was found to be model specific as FFRs constructed with hydrophilic materials absorbed more water. The steam had little effect on FFR performance as filtration efficiency of the treated FFRs remained above 95%. The decontamination efficacy of the steam bag was assessed using bacteriophage MS2 as a surrogate for a pathogenic virus. The tested steam bags were found to be 99.9% effective for inactivating MS2 on FFRs; however, more research is required to determine the effectiveness against respiratory pathogens.

 

I imagine you could let each mask lie dormant for 5 or whatever days and let the irus die on them and reuse..???

 

If UV rays kill the virus you could lay them in the sun all day on a sunny day and it might kill the virus.

 

UV would have to penetrate all of the fibers to kill off everything in the mask. Some of the bugs could hide from the UV behind a fiber.


The same thing happens in solar disinfection of cloudy water in clear bottles. the bacteria, mold, and viruses are riding around on particulates and if they can stay on the shaded side of the particulate, they won't be irradiated (oxidized) by the U.V.

 

Most preppers have a PRESSURE COOKER (PC) for canning.
A PC will "sterilize" bandages.
Seems to me they would also sterilize masks.

No PC, submerge in a Lysol solution & air dry.

 

I did some casual research about this last night, actually. Seems most viruses die quickly when they are outside a host and in a dry environment.

HIV lives 30 seconds.

Influenza up to 24 hours.

Seems if you leave the mask out to dry (or pressure cook and then dry to be darn sure) for a few days and rotate fresh masks while you wait, it would work.

YMMV

 

Aren’t most N95s paper and don’t they have an aluminum strip across the bridge of the nose ? I’ve had them disintegrate and collapse with sweat, and the aluminum strip makes the microwave a single use item. Doesn’t it?

 

I have an ozone cleaner for my CPAP machine
It will, for sure sterilize an N95 mask and not damage it in any way, short term at minimum
The stretch band might be affected after a while

 

LIVING AIR ion /ozone generator could do a whole house slow or a room pretty quickly when set to high. no idea on concentration- amount of time needed to kill pathogens. any one have any data / idea

 

Time will work, depends on the temperature. A black trash bag and time will work, time depends on the temperature. Quick in hot summer., outside in the sun. If you do the masks alone, and they're damp, use a paper bag.

Once a paper fiber mask gets really wet, it's toast. Fog from breath is OK, but if you haven't been exposed, switch them out when they get damp.

 

Speaking for myself, I would never dunk a n95 or any other disposable mask in liquid (water, Lysol, etc.) because it may compromise the integrity of the spun/woven filter material in the middle layers of the mask. Even small shifts in the material would not be good. Neither will breathing a high concentration of dried Lysol for hours. Keeping the lungs in tip top shape is a good idea as well, to help fight this respiratory virus.

In all my searching, I could not find any info about disinfecting disposables with Lysol or any other disinfectant. But I did find a lot of "do NOT attempt to clean or disinfect a disposable mask" (n95s, surgical, etc.)

This was typical of what I have been finding:

https://www.nap.edu/read/11637/chapter/6#59

"Any method of decontaminating a disposable N95 filtering facepiece respirator must remove the viral threat, be harmless to the user, and not compromise the integrity of the various elements of the respirator. The committee found no method of decontamination that met all three criteria."

The metal strip that is inside the portion of the mask that goes against the topside of your nose will not go well in a microwave!
(And besides, that plan will fly out the window anyway during power outages.)


***EDITED to add: I do not have any solid evidence that this is accepted protocol, and I am not recommending it to anyone, but this is what I would do***

I wondered if steaming in a vegetable steamer basket would work.

I want to do more looking into this, but a quick search suggests that 150 degrees F will kill the virus, if this can be believed (it's NPR):
(https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsa...25/799007842/coronavirus-faqs-do-masks-help-is-the-disease-really-so-mysterious)

If this is true, then ordinary steaming should work:

"Since the boiling point of water is 212° F (100° C) at sea level, the highest temperature at which steam can cook food is 212°F/100°C."

If you are not familiar with the technique of steaming, here is where you can learn about steaming foods such as meat and vegetables: https://www.reluctantgourmet.com/steaming-technique/

"Your mileage may vary," but I definitely think this is worthy of more research. My biggest reservation with this idea is that the synthetic components of the filter (such as super thin spun fibers, etc.) may be compromised. I really don't know, but if anyone finds more info on this, please post your findings!

 

I liked this so much, Slobro, I had to quote it for truth and to thank you again. (One little measly thanks from me at the bottom of your OP wasn't enough to suit me, lol.)

 

If for some reason you are caught without a way to steam a mask properly (whatever that entails), here's how you can reuse your masks if you absolutely need to or if you need to extend your supply:

CDC guidelines, etc. in post #27 in this thread:

https://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=935500

 

Just FYI, I’ve worn N-95# for hundreds of days, both as an engineer and first responder. Never had any issue with N-95s. For non healthcare use, you don/doff it more than CDC’s 5 x daily just to stay hydrated. I

 

Just put them in the oven at 250 for 20 minutes .

 

This might work, but I'm not sure if the plastic components (spun fibers in the filter or the elastic straps, etc.) would melt either in the oven by or steaming. I would keep an eye on that.

On the other hand, if anyone is trying to conserve fuel, or during power outages (for those who are cursed with electric ovens), steaming may be the way to go.


Running an oven requires a lot more fuel than steaming does.

 

Spray it with alcohol and wait 10 minutes?

 

If you could somehow preserve the elastic, baking at 200 F for half an hour would do it.

With a microwave, what would be wrong with just putting it in a covered bowl with a bit of water in the bottom?

 

Certain Instapots have a sterilizing feature that is ideal for this.

 

That crossed my mind too. Any of them will create a steam environment at a temperature well above 100 degrees C., and sources I've found say that 70 C. will kill the virus. Put the mask on a steaming tray above a quarter inch of water and set for, say, twenty minutes. Maybe I'll try it with an old one to see what happens.

 

I would think that dunking it in even a small amount of liquid could shift the microfine filter layers enough to potentially cause a breach for the tiny 120 nm-sized virus to enter...

Dry heat would definitely not cause any shifting, but not sure about possibly slight melting of the synthetics inside the filter...

What bothers me is there is a criteria of three things that must be met to effectively disinfect disposable masks, and so far (to my knowledge), it has not been reached:


https://www.nap.edu/read/11637/chapter/6#59

"Any method of decontaminating a disposable N95 filtering facepiece respirator must remove the viral threat, be harmless to the user, and not compromise the integrity of the various elements of the respirator. The committee found no method of decontamination that met all three criteria."

(I hope one of us can find more definitive info! We certainly need to keep searching, rather than experiment with something as deadly as this virus. But, if push comes to shove, we may have to resort to desperate measures...)

 

I use a ozone generator unit to clean my cpap and i can smell it all over my motor home.
$30 dollars is not much to pay for one from walmart online.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/CPAP-Dis...RDgARIsAOU75srDLTEJWo9H-BqsrS5Wr-jmgusyS5zqC-DH_m2XcKSrTpXgqyQuu20aAgAXEALw_wcB

In a emergency i would run it in my motor home 24/7

 

Have you considered using ozone cleaners? My wife has a travel CPAP machine and we have an ozone generating cleaning kit from Respify.

You charge the small unit with micro usb cord, put mask in the bag, and drop the unit in the bag with the mask. A few hours later it’s disinfected.

 

Ozone at a concentration that kill bacteria and fungi is also harmful to humans. I can find anything reliable on the innertubes that says ozone does anything at all to virii.

 

Viruses typically don’t live long outside the body anyways. But there’s quite a few sites indicating they kill viruses, though I didn’t check to see how reliable the data is.

The lil Respify ozone generator isn’t large and only makes enough ozone to disinfect the contents of the small bag. So there isn’t going to be adverse affects on personal health.

 

In the heating and air world they make uv lights that mount in the ductwork to kill viruses and such could I wrap my mask around one of these lights for a while?

 

Autoclave 'em in pressure vessel. This may mess with the elastic.
Ozone is definitely gonna mess with the elastic, but otherwise would work.