Sterilizing lab gear

[Jonathan Cline]

Re-use of consumables ... 

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

August 6, 2020

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

50 minutes of dry heat in an electric cooker, such as a rice cooker or Instant Pot, decontaminated N95 respirators inside and out while maintaining their filtration and fit.  ... 50 minutes of dry heat in an electric cooker decontaminated N95 respirators inside and out while maintaining their filtration and fit. This could enable wearers to safely reuse limited supplies of the respirators.

... one cooking cycle, which maintains the contents of the cooker at around 100 degrees Celsius or 212 Fahrenheit for 50 minutes, decontaminated the masks, inside and out, from four different classes of virus, including a coronavirus -- and did so more effectively than ultraviolet light.   ....  the heat must be dry heat -- no water added to the cooker, the temperature should be maintained at 100 degrees Celsius for 50 minutes and a small towel should cover the bottom of the cooker to keep any part of the respirator from coming into direct contact with the heating element. However, multiple masks can be stacked to fit inside the cooker at the same time, Nguyen said.