Alternative Qualitative Fit Testing Method for N95 Equivalent Respirators in the Setting of Resource Scarcity at the George Washington University

Destie Provenzano; Yuan James Rao; Konstantin Mitic; Sofian N Obaid; Jeffrey Berger; Sharad Goyal; Murray H Loew

is the (which was not peer-reviewed) The copyright holder for this preprint . https://doi.org/10. 1101 /2020 We reviewed the four qualitative methods for the OSHA recommended fit test. Of the four, Saccharin was determined to be low-cost, readily available, and easily detectable. For these reasons Saccharin was selected for candidacy in developing an alternative fit test. We used pellets of sodium saccharin made by NectaSweet, and purchased from a commercial vendor (Amazon, etc.). The tablets contain approximately 30 mg of sodium saccharin each, with a binder of sodium bicarbonate and cellulose. An alternative source may also include "Sweet n Low" packets, which contains approximately 36 mg of sodium saccharin per packet. However, we used NectaSweet tablets because it contained less binder material. NectaSweet tablets were dissolved into a warm neutral water solvent. To form this solution 60 ml water was first warmed to near boiling and then 10 pellets (each containing 30 mg of sodium saccharin) were added to the water and stirred until fully dissolved. The solution was then cooled to room temperature before use. The final solution had a concentration of 5 mg/ ml of sodium saccharin.