The new silicone N99 half-piece respirator, VJR-NMU N99: A novel and effective tool to prevent COVID-19

Abstract

Filter facepiece respirators (FFRs) are critical for preventing the transmission of respiratory tract infection disease, especially the dreadful coronavirus 2 (SARs-CoV-2). The N95 mask is a prototype, high-efficiency protective device that can effectively protect against airborne pathogens of less than 0.3 μm. The N95 mask is tightly fitting and has high filtration capacity. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led to a greater requirement for FFR. This rising demand greatly exceeds current production capabilities and stockpiles, resulting in shortages. To address this, our team has invented a new type of half-piece respirator made from silicone and assembled with HEPA or elastostatic filter. A variety of methods have been used to evaluate this new device, including a qualitative fit test with the Bitrex® test kit and filtration test. The preliminary results showed that the new N99 respirators pass the fit test. The filtration tests also confirmed the superiority of N99 over traditional N95 masks, with a mean performance of protection greater than 95%. For the filters, we used two types: SafeStar, which is a kind of HEPA filter; and CareStar, which is considered an elastostatic filler. CareStar was developed to filter virus and bacteria in the operating room, with a limit duration of use up to 24 h, while the safe star was designed for 72 h use and has the quality equivalent to a HEPA filter. Our study demonstrated superior filtration efficacy of both filters, more than 98% even after 24 h of use. CareStar has significantly more filtration efficacy than a safe star (p < 0.001). In conclusion, the development of our new N99 half-piece respirator should ultimately be applicable to healthcare workers with at least non-inferiority to the previously used N 95 respirators.. Currently, the adequate supply of such equipment is not feasible. The advent of the new protective device will help protect healthcare workers and replenish the shortage of N95 respirators during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reciprocal Personal/Public Protection for COVID-19 with Facepiece Discriminating Mouth and Nose

“…MDMN, featured with high efficiency protection, high degree comfort, easy wearing, tight-fitting, easy facial recognition & communication, reusability, cost-effective, environment friendly and scale manufacturing more readily and widely etc., is a simple and sustainable solution, the core principle behind MDMN is "less is more", while most of the innovations on mask for Covid-19 add something to it resulting more complexity [16,[118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126][127][128], MDMN try to get the mask with as less things as possible by focusing on the main function without any sacrifice, but only with significant improvement such as efficiency and comfortability, and simplify it to the great extent, which is essential for ordinary people to keep wearing it properly for protection.…”

“…The mouth cover could be a solid cover with a small open equipped with polymer membrane [15] which collect over 99.9% of the particles, and could be reusable, the cover is preferably made by flexible polymer materials such as silicone [16], which could be tightly fitting to prevent face-seal leakage.…”