UV-C Tower for point-of-care decontamination of filtering facepiece respirators

Kayani, B. J.; Weaver, D. T.; Gopalakrishnan, V.; King, E. S.; Dolson, E.; Krishnan, N.; Pelesko, J.; Scott, M. J.; Hitomi, M.; Scott, J. G.; Charnas, I.

Filtering facepiece respirators (FFR) are critical for protecting essential personnel and limiting the spread of disease. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, FFR supplies are dwindling in many health systems, necessitating re-use of potentially contaminated FFR. Multiple decontamination solutions have been developed to meet this pressing need, including systems designed for bulk decontamination of FFR using vaprous hydrogen peroxide or UV-C radiation. However, the large scale on which these devices operate may not be logistically practical for small or rural health care settings or for ad hoc use at points-of-care. Here, we present the Synchronous UV Decontamination System (SUDS), a novel device for rapidly deployable, point-of-care decontamination using UV-C germicidal irradiation. We designed a compact, easy-to-use device capable of delivering over 2 J/cm^2 of UV-C radiation in one minute. This short decontamination time should enable care-providers to incorporate decontamination of FFR into a normal donning and doffing routine following patient encounters.