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Electric cooker an easy, efficient way to sanitize N95 masks, study finds

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Re: Electric cooker an easy, efficient way to sanitize N95 masks, study finds

#2
The main thing is consistency, as ovens/cookers are temperature controlled. Other bootleg options are available:

Household clothes driers can get hot enough as well, but not all of them do.

Cars on a hot day can also get to the desired 140-150f+ range.

Many dishwasher sanitize cycles as well

https://www.who.int/csr/sars/survival_2003_05_04/en/

https://dailyhomesafety.com/does-dryer-kill-bacteria-and-ger...

https://heatkills.org/how-hot/

https://www.quora.com/What-temperature-ballpark-does-the-hea...

Re: Electric cooker an easy, efficient way to sanitize N95 masks, study finds

#3
Don't just look at single studies. This is a meta-review resource: https://www.n95decon.org/implementation

It's a collaboration among the many people doing research on decontamination that also takes into account the tacit implementation knowledge of those who conducted the studies.

Re: Electric cooker an easy, efficient way to sanitize N95 masks, study finds

#6
I've heard you can use 151-proof grain alcohol in lieu of rubbing alcohol (which has disappeared entirely from store shelves for months) in order to sanitize things. Apparently if you mix it with vegetable glycerin you can create your own ersatz hand sanitizer?

I was thinking you could create your own rubbing alcohol by mixing water, sugar, and yeast, distill it over your stove, and then combine it with aloe vera to create hand sanitizer, but that's probably less preferable than using store-bought ingredients that are more consistent.

Re: Electric cooker an easy, efficient way to sanitize N95 masks, study finds

#8

Many N95s are rated for a month (20 days) of 8 hours use. If you're only using them for a few hours a day you can stretch their life by quite a bit.

I’ve been using one for a while. I put it on for 30 minutes or so for only grocery shopping. Then stick it in a paper bag and don’t touch it for 7 days. Repeat.

Re: Electric cooker an easy, efficient way to sanitize N95 masks, study finds

#9
post #6

I've heard you can use 151-proof grain alcohol in lieu of rubbing alcohol (which has disappeared entirely from store shelves for months) in order to sanitize things. Apparently if you mix it with vegetable glycerin you can create your own ersatz hand sanitizer? I was thinking you could create your own rubbing alcohol by mixing water, sugar, and yeast, distill it over your stove, and then combine it with aloe vera to…

I’m not a medical professional, but since 151 is basically 75% ethanol, and ethanol is sold as a cleaner/disinfectant when pure, i assume it would work well.

Re: Electric cooker an easy, efficient way to sanitize N95 masks, study finds

#10

Many N95s are rated for a month (20 days) of 8 hours use. If you're only using them for a few hours a day you can stretch their life by quite a bit.

That's what I've been doing with a pack of N100s and it works fine. The problem is threefold: leaving it in a car out in the sun will quickly melt the glue holding the plastic filter to the mask, after a few uses it just quickly gets contaminated on the inside unless you're obsessive about decontamination before taking the mask off each time, and that month rating is because the plastic fibers used to make the electrostatic filter dry out and crumble, which can also be pretty bad for your lungs.
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