FDA Approves New Way to Decontaminate N95 Face Masks

Measure will result in the decontamination of about 750,000 N95 face masks a day
N95 medical mask
N95 medical mask

FRIDAY, April 10, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The second emergency use authorization to decontaminate N95 face masks and equivalents for reuse by hospital health care workers has been issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The measure will result in the decontamination of about 750,000 N95 face masks a day nationwide, according to the FDA.

The authorization "will allow hospitals to decontaminate compatible N95 respirators using vaporized hydrogen peroxide sterilizers that are readily available in approximately 2,000 U.S. hospitals," FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, M.D., said in an agency news release.

"It's another important step forward in helping to reduce shortages in critical N95 respirators, by allowing for these important devices, when decontaminated, to be reused by health care personnel on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic," according to Hahn.

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