Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.illinois.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 134 posts

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

#51

Post by afterburner »

jdc wrote: post #43
everybodyknows wrote: post #33

SARS Cov-2 infectiousness decays exponentially, with the time constant a function of temperature and humidity. A two-parameter calculator: https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/sars-calculator

Sounds like wetting the towel first would be the way to go.

Cooking a wet towel would turn the water to steam, I'm guessing that would be problematic for the mask's durability.

Also, the humidity factor seems counter intuitive to me on that site. I thought the virus survived longer in the air in damp spaces, while sunlight dried out the virus rendering it inert.

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

#52

Post by tedunangst »

BoiledCabbage wrote: post #30
clairity wrote: post #22

if your concern is corona, there's no need to do any of this for most people, most of the time (i.e., not a front-line worker). the likelihood of getting live corona on the mask is pretty low, and any corona that does get on the mask will die naturally overnight. certain situations like going to a party might warrant it, but in that case, just throw the mask away and use a new one next time. if you're more worried ab…

And the reasons people ask for citations is what you are saying is very misleading. The CDC estimates that 45% of US Adults fall into these increased risk categories. So no, it's not just people fighting off cancer it's almost half the country. > We estimated that 45.4% of US adults are at increased risk for complications from coronavirus disease because of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory disease, hyper…

What did the parent comment say about people fighting cancer?

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

#53

Post by cf100clunk »

An autoclave is what the electrical cooker is being used to emulate. A pressure cooker is a better option if you'll be on the road, camping, or otherwise without electricity. Researchers in Canada already proved several months ago that N95 masks could be sanitized this way:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22761264

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

#54

Post by Jerry2 »

My family has been decontaminating our N95 masks with ozone. I bought a battery-operated O3 generator and if you place it into a tupperware container along with the mask, it will decontaminate it and then you can use it the next day. Yale School of Medicine has done a study on the efficacy of this method. [1]

I prefer this method because it doesn't degrade the mask at all, it needs no disinfecting/harsh chemicals, it penetrates into the pores of the mask completely, and it's near fool-proof.

[1] https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.28.20097402v...

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

#55

Post by weaksauce »

RobLach wrote: post #18

Wouldn’t that jeopardize the filtration ability of these masks by affecting the fields of the electrets under heat?

absolutely. don't do this please. The filter is able to filter out particles smaller than 0.3um by using weak electrostatic forces. baking it will make the mask less effective. if you can just have a few masks that you rotate through... the best would be a 3 day rotation.

there's a good reason the CDC doesn't say to do this.

anyway .3 micron particles are the hardest for a mask to filter out because they are small and tend to go in a straight line more than the smaller particles. the filtration effectiveness of the mask is a u shaped curve with a trough in the region of the .3 micron particle sizes.

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

#56

Post by weaksauce »

masklinn wrote: post #16
petra wrote: post #7

Generally,the instant pot requires at least 1 cup of water when running, according to the manual. How does this work without water ?

I'm also wondering, IIRC rice cookers rely on the temperature of the pot not exceeding 100C until all the water has evaporated (which is why getting the correct rice/water amount is important). Without any water in the container I would expect the pot to quickly exceed 100C and shut off. Mine certainly seems to provide no way to maintain such a temperature, I'd guess it'd just switch to "keep warm" and AFAIK that's n…

the cheap rice cookers use a temperature switch that triggers after it reaches a bit over 100C yes.

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

#58

Post by Larrikin »

foobiekr wrote: post #57

Related: can anyone explain why there are still no n95 masks available? It seems like, a few months in, it's surprising that there are none available for non-medical buyers. Is this perception wrong?

There is no unified approach to the virus and states and are fighting each other for the little supply there is

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

#59

Post by rayuela »

Jerry2 wrote: post #54

My family has been decontaminating our N95 masks with ozone. I bought a battery-operated O3 generator and if you place it into a tupperware container along with the mask, it will decontaminate it and then you can use it the next day. Yale School of Medicine has done a study on the efficacy of this method. [1] I prefer this method because it doesn't degrade the mask at all, it needs no disinfecting/harsh chemicals, it…

Wow this is actually incredible if this works. However this study was tested bacteria and relate it to covid in the following way:

"an ozone application achieves a high level of disinfection against PsA, a vegetative bacteria that the CDC identifies as more difficult to kill than medium sized viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19)"

Would the implication be that this same method works on covid as well? That is not immediately apparent to me...

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

#60

Post by tarikjn »

foobiekr wrote: post #57

Related: can anyone explain why there are still no n95 masks available? It seems like, a few months in, it's surprising that there are none available for non-medical buyers. Is this perception wrong?

I think price-gouging laws could also have something to do with this. Suppliers have increased their prices in what is essentially protracted inflation from demand. But in most states retailers are not legally allowed to increase price tags which was triggered in March when most states entered a state of emergency/declared disaster [1]. So the results is that retailers have to stop stocking these or they lose money; and the increased demand doesn't fully reach suppliers which means that in turn, manufacturers have also less incentives to increase production.

[1] https://www.natlawreview.com/article/price-gouging-laws-and-...

Post reply on HN