Article
Mechanics
Neha Bhattacharyya, Soumendra Singh, Ria Ghosh, Amrita Banerjee, Aniruddha Adhikari, Animesh Halder, Mahasweta Goswami, Arpita Chattopadhyay, Pulak Mondal, Sameer S. A. Natto, Saleh A. Ahmed, Asim Kumar Mallick, Samir Kumar Pal
Summary: The article discusses the widespread use of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic and the issues with current masks, as well as the development of an innovative mask aimed at improving breathing comfort and reducing discomfort.
Letter
Medicine, General & Internal
Matthew Kampert, Tamanna Singh, Debasis Sahoo, Xiaozhen Han, Erik H. Van Iterson
Summary: This randomized crossover trial investigates the effects of wearing a cloth mask or N95 respirator compared to no mask during peak exercise in healthy, active adults.
Article
Engineering, Industrial
Lindsey B. Bezek, Jin Pan, Charbel Harb, Callie E. Zawaski, Bemnet Molla, Joseph R. Kubalak, Linsey C. Marr, Christopher B. Williams
Summary: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the supply chain for personal protective equipment, leading to a shortage of N95 respirators. Many have turned to additive manufacturing (AM) systems for a decentralized production solution, but concerns remain about the safety and quality assurance of 3D printed respirators. Studies show that most open-source respirator designs for AM do not provide N95-equivalent protection, and particle transmission issues exist in printed respirators, with performance similar to cloth masks.
JOURNAL OF MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Christian M. Sterr, Inga-Lena Nickel, Christina Stranzinger, Claudia I. Nonnenmacher-Winter, Frank Guenther
Summary: The effectiveness of masks in protecting against airborne particles is related to their filtration efficiency and breathing resistance, with medical face masks performing better than cloth masks. FFP2 respirators may be more effective in high-risk situations, despite requiring greater breathing effort.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Guillaume R. Golovkine, Allison W. Roberts, Chase Cooper, Sebastian Riano, Angela M. DiCiccio, Daniel L. Worthington, Jeffrey P. Clarkson, Michael Krames, Jianping Zhang, Ying Gao, Ling Zhou, Scott B. Biering, Sarah A. Stanley
Summary: Decontaminating N95 respirators for reuse using Ultraviolet-C irradiation shows promising results, but the efficacy depends on the mask model, material, and location of contamination. Caution is needed when interpreting the effectiveness data from UV-C decontamination methods.
Review
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
X. Yin, X. Wang, S. Xu, C. He
Summary: Through a Bayesian network meta-analysis, it was found that continuous wearing of N95 respirators can be more effective in preventing laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infections, but no rPPE showed superior protective effectiveness in reducing clinical respiratory illnesses.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Warren R. Myers, Weihua Yang, Kenneth J. Ryan, Michael S. Bergman, Edward M. Fisher, Jhy-Charm Soo, Ziqing Zhuang
Summary: This study quantified the particle total outward leakage (TOL) of five different devices and found that N95 filtering facepiece respirators without exhalation valves had the lowest TOL, while surgical masks had about three times higher TOL than N95 respirators without exhalation valves. The TOL of N95 respirators with exhalation valves was comparable to surgical masks in certain conditions, but significantly higher when the faceseal was 100%. Elastomeric half-mask respirators had the highest TOL due to the presence of exhalation valves.
JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE
(2023)
Article
Mining & Mineral Processing
Jintuo Zhu, Xinjian He, Liang Wang, Xiaoxue Liao, Guangping Teng, Pengli Jing
Summary: This study quantitatively evaluates the performance of respirators used in deep coal mines under high humidity and high dust concentration conditions. The results show that the filtration efficiency of respirators decreases and breathing resistance increases with the increase of dust loading and concentration.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MINING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Sinan Sousan, Nicole Garcia, Avian White, Jo Anne Balanay
Summary: The study compared the efficiency of Halyard H600 fabric with N95 and P100 filters, revealing that while H600 had 100% efficiency for large particles, its performance was inconsistent for smaller particles. The study also found a significant increase in breathing resistance for Halyard H600 compared to N95 and P100 filters, indicating that it is not a suitable substitute for respiratory protection.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INFECTION CONTROL
(2021)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Jingcui Xu, Cunteng Wang, Sau Chung Fu, Christopher Y. H. Chao
Summary: The orientation of an infected person's head can significantly impact the deposition density of bioaerosols on a healthy person. Personalized ventilation has shown to effectively reduce bioaerosol deposition in most cases studied, with its effectiveness being influenced by the head orientations of the infected person. Changing head orientations could be a control measure to decrease bioaerosol deposition, while personalized ventilation shows potential as a method to reduce bioaerosol deposition.
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Junli Hao, Rachel Passos de Oliveira Santos, Gregory C. Rutledge
Summary: Analysis of 136 respirators revealed that some had low filtration efficiency due to a lack of electrostatic filtration mechanism, while the level of electrostatic charge on the FFRs affected the filtration performance of the respirators.
ACS APPLIED NANO MATERIALS
(2021)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Marc Levine, Lance Levine, Helen Xun, Adam Gerber, Michael Antonietti, Prakash J. Mathew, Devinder Singh
Summary: The study suggests that some 3D-printed masks demonstrate a fit factor exceeding that of N95 masks in fit testing, making them a potential alternative to N95 masks.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE
(2022)
Article
Immunology
Michael Klompas, Chanu Rhee, Meghan A. Baker
Summary: The greatest threat of transmission in healthcare facilities may come from patients and healthcare workers with early occult infection. Universal use of N95 respirators when community incidence rates are high can help decrease nosocomial transmission.
CLINICAL INFECTIOUS DISEASES
(2022)
Article
Materials Science, Textiles
Katy H. K. Li, David C. M. Yeung, Lowell Ling
Summary: This study evaluated the effect of ethanol cleaning on the fit performance and comfort rating of Totobobo Masks. The research found that there was no significant drop in fit performance and comfort of Totobobo mask with up to 15 cycles of cleaning with 70% ethanol.
JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL TEXTILES
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Farzan Gholamreza, Anupama Vijaya Nadaraja, Abbas S. Milani, Kevin Golovin
Summary: This study aimed to investigate the impact of face mask fabric/garment properties on thermophysiological comfort. The results showed that the additional N95 middle layer filter had no significant effect on the thermal and evaporative resistances of the masks, while size and fit significantly affected these resistances. Interestingly, tightly fitting large masks performed better in dissipating heat and moisture from the skin.
Article
Infectious Diseases
Lewis J. Radonovich, Mary T. Bessesen, Derek A. Cummings, Aaron Eagan, Charlotte Gaydos, Cynthia Gibert, Geoffrey J. Gorse, Ann-Christine Nyquist, Nicholas G. Reich, Maria Rodrigues-Barradas, Connie Savor-Price, Ronald E. Shaffer, Michael S. Simberkoff, Trish M. Perl
BMC INFECTIOUS DISEASES
(2016)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Peter A. Jaques, Pengfei Gao, Selcen Kilinc-Balci, Lee Portnoff, Robyn Weible, Matthew Horvatin, Amanda Strauch, Ronald Shaffer
JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE
(2016)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Ziqing Zhuang, Michael Bergman, Elizabeth Brochu, Andrew Palmiero, George Niezgoda, Xinjian He, Raymond Roberge, Ronald Shaffer
JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE
(2016)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Pengfei Gao, Matthew Horvatin, George Niezgoda, Robyn Weible, Ronald Shaffer
JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE
(2016)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Samy Rengasamy, Ronald Shaffer, Brandon Williams, Sarah Smit
JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE
(2017)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Ziqing Zhuang, Michael Bergman, Zhipeng Lei, George Niezgoda, Ronald Shaffer
JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE
(2017)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Tyler M. Brady, Amanda L. Strauch, Claudia M. Almaguer, George Niezgoda, Ronald E. Shaffer, Patrick L. Yorio, Edward M. Fisher
JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE
(2017)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Aitor Coca, Tyler Quinn, Jung-Hyun Kim, Tianzhou Wu, Jeff Powell, Raymond Roberge, Ronald Shaffer
DISASTER MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH PREPAREDNESS
(2017)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Tyler Quinn, Jung-Hyun Kim, Amanda Strauch, Tianzhou Wu, Jeffery Powell, Raymond Roberge, Ronald Shaffer, Aitor Coca
DISASTER MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH PREPAREDNESS
(2017)
Correction
Nursing
K. Wizner, L. Stradtman, D. Novak, R. Shaffer
WORKPLACE HEALTH & SAFETY
(2017)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Francoise M. Blachere, William G. Lindsley, Cynthia M. McMillen, Donald H. Beezhold, Edward M. Fisher, Ronald E. Shaffer, John D. Noti
JOURNAL OF VIROLOGICAL METHODS
(2018)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Steven H. Ahrenholz, Scott E. Brueck, Ana M. Rule, John D. Noti, Bahar Noorbakhsh, Francoise M. Blachere, Marie A. de Perio, William G. Lindsley, Ronald E. Shaffer, Edward M. Fisher
JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE
(2018)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ana M. Rule, Otis Apau, Steven H. Ahrenholz, Scott E. Brueck, William G. Lindsley, Marie A. de Perio, John D. Noti, Ronald E. Shaffer, Richard Rothman, Alina Grigorovitch, Bahar Noorbakhsh, Donald H. Beezhold, Patrick L. Yorio, Trish M. Perl, Edward M. Fisher
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Lewis J. Radonovich, Michael S. Simberkoff, Mary T. Bessesen, Alexandria C. Brown, Derek A. T. Cummings, Charlotte A. Gaydos, Jenna G. Los, Amanda E. Krosche, Cynthia L. Gibert, Geoffrey J. Gorse, Ann-Christine Nyquist, Nicholas G. Reich, Maria C. Rodriguez-Barradas, Connie Savor Price, Trish M. Perl, Justin Getka, Tina Hoang, Rose Kajih, Amanda Krosche, Meghan Kubala, Jenna Los, Liandra Presser, Kathleen Pulice, Margaret Spach, Michael S. Simberkoff, Cynthia Akagbosu, Madeline Dansky, Benedict J. Frederick, Marilyn Last, Scott Laverie, Courtney Pike, Shefali Rikhi, Nicole Spector, Christine A. Reel-Brander, Connie Price, Katie Gorman, Amy Irwin, Sean O'Malley, Kevin Silva, Trish M. Perl, Deepa Raj, Mary Bessesen, Jill C. Adams, Shannon Kingery, Stefanie Tuder, Erron Fritchman-Palmer, Ann-Christine Nyquist, Megan Gorski, Cynthia Gibert, Laura Chopko, Kathy Haines, Caitlin Langhorne, Dana Silver, Courtney Southard, Michael C. DeBakey, Maria C. Rodriguez-Barradas, Barbara Kertz, Mahwish Mushtaq, Blanca Vargas, Edward Fisher, Ronald Shaffer, Lewis J. Radonovich, Aaron Eagan, Lewis J. Radonovich, Melanie Lipka, Michael Tsang, Charlotte Gaydos, Jeffrey Holden, Alexandra Valsamakis, Geoffrey J. Gorse, Michelle Mitchell, Gira B. Patel, Yinyi Yu, Andre Hackman, Michael Sherman, Brooke A. Borgert, Derek A. T. Cummings, Susan Rattigan, Alexandria C. Brown, Nicholas G. Reich, Justin Lessler
JAMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
(2019)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Margaret Sietsema, Lew Radonovich, Frank J. Hearl, Edward M. Fisher, Lisa M. Brosseau, Ronald E. Shaffer, Lisa M. Koonin