Disposable N95 Masks Pass Qualitative Fit-Test But Have Decreased Filtration Efficiency after Cobalt-60 Gamma Irradiation

Avilash Cramer; Enze Tian; Sherryl H Yu; Mitchell Galanek; Edward Lamere; Ju Li; Rajiv Gupta; Michael P Short

is the (which was not peer-reviewed) The copyright holder for this preprint . All masks, including the unirradiated controls, the 10 kGy, and the 50 kGy masks passed a qualitative fit test (no saccharin was detected by the subject), with the exception of one mask that had received 50 kGy that was donned improperly. For the one 50 kGy-irradiated 8210 mask that did result in saccharin taste sensation by the test subject, the cause was found to be poor donning of the mask (the subject reported cool air flowing in around his nose while breathing in during that particular test). This was the second mask tested in the series of 18, and this test failure was believed to be due to inexperience on the part of the test subject in correctly applying a tight fit to the mask. After more practice, an additional 50 kGy-irradiated 8210 mask was randomly inserted into the test matrix, and it along with all other masks resulted in no detection of the saccharin mist. The one anomalous test served to confirm that the test subject could strongly taste the saccharin mist if it entered the mask, either through the filter or around the mask periphery. The subject did notice that some irradiated masks had a slight unrecognizable odor-the Food and Drug Administration notes that gamma ray sterilization of foods can impart an odor as well [14] .