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The recommendation of the health authorities is clear: the surgical mask must be discarded after use. But due to the accumulated waste and costs incurred by citizens, many voices support conditional reuse by the public, according to AFP.
“Medical masks are disposable. Dispose of the mask immediately,” says the World Health Organization (WHO).
However, in the event of a shortage such as at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, WHO allows exceptional procedures for decontaminating masks to allow for reuse, according to News.ro.
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The US Medicines Agency (FDA) has also validated a process for decontaminating N95 masks (for medical personnel, FFP2 equivalents) by spraying with hydrogen peroxide.
There are other methods, such as exposure to high temperatures or ultraviolet irradiation.
“But that’s not practical for particles,” says Denis Corpet, a microbiologist and hygiene professor who is a member of Adios Corona, a team of French researchers in various specialties.
To limit the plastic pollution generated by polypropylene masks and family expenses, Adios Corona supports – in the domestic context where people are not exposed to viral changes comparable to those of the resuscitation personnel – for the “envelope method”.
It means putting the used mask, if not damaged, in a paper bag, writing down the date and keeping it for seven days.
“Several scientific studies show that on a mask, viruses die after 7 days,” says researcher Denis Corpet.
Therefore, according to the results of a team from the University of Hong Kong published in The Lancet, only 0.1% of the viruses are still detectable on the outside of the mask after a week.
Peter Tsai, the inventor of the N95’s electrostatic charging technology, which allows particles to be attracted to prevent them from passing through, agrees with the seven-day method.
“To limit consumption and protect the environment, I would recommend reusing the mask after seven days, 5 to 10 times for the general public,” he told AFP.
He also mentions putting the mask in the oven – not too hot to avoid burning the plastic, but enough to kill the virus. “The temperature needs to be controlled to stay between 70 and 75 degrees Celsius,” says the retired researcher, who returned to the University of Tennessee during this Covid-19 crisis.
However, he does not advise people to wash their masks: “Washing without detergent may not cause the virus to disappear. Washing with the detergent will destroy the (electrostatic) load,” he says.
However, he believes that despite this large decrease in filtering capacity, a machine washed mask may be more effective than a cloth mask.
This is the conclusion of the tests carried out by the French consumer protection group UFC-Que Choisir, published this week.
Three masks with 95% particle filtration standard of 3 microns were washed at 60 degrees Celsius, then dried and ironed. As a result, after 10 similar treatments, the three models have maintained their filtering capacity by at least 90%.
But without the publication of studies in scientific journals, the recommendations of the health authorities do not change.
“Disposable surgical masks must be disposed of after use,” the French Directorate-General for Health insisted this week, stressing that “in France they are working” on the reuse of masks.
“I don’t think a surgical mask can be washed,” said Kaiming Ye, director of the biomedical engineering department at Binghamton University.
A medical mask can be “reused,” “but extensive testing is required,” the researcher said.
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