Due to the global shortage of N95 respirators, a local brewery in Burnaby has introduced new equipment to decontaminate the masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The steam-driven chamber pasteurizer was delivered to Steamworks Brewery just days before the COVID-19 outbreak. The pasteurizer was originally for laboratory use to prevent re-fermentation from occurring in beers with high values of sugar.
Amidst the shortage of N95 respirators for front-line healthcare workers, the CEO of Steamworks Brewing Company offered the equipment to the provincial health authority and health authorities in Washington state at no cost.
According to Health Canada, any registered hospital might use the Steamworks pasteurizer for N95 mask decontamination without any further regulatory authorization.
Steam is used to decontaminate masks faster in greater quantities but hydrogen peroxide vapor is utilized for greater reusability. With the steam, the pasteurizer can decontaminate 1,2000 masks per cycle and around 10,000 N95 masks per day. By using steam, every mask can be decontaminated up to three times. With hydrogen peroxide vapor, it can handle up to 5,000 masks in a day, but they can be decontaminated a maximum of 10 times before discarding.
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