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. 2020 Jul;48(7):854-855.
doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2020.04.012. Epub 2020 Apr 22.

It's not the heat, it's the humidity: Effectiveness of a rice cooker-steamer for decontamination of cloth and surgical face masks and N95 respirators

Affiliations

It's not the heat, it's the humidity: Effectiveness of a rice cooker-steamer for decontamination of cloth and surgical face masks and N95 respirators

Daniel F Li et al. Am J Infect Control. 2020 Jul.
No abstract available

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Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
Efficacy of treatment in a rice cooker-steamer including 8-10 minutes of heating and 5 minutes of steam vs dry heat at 100°C for 15 minutes in an oven for decontamination of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and bacteriophage MS2 on 3M 1860 N95 respirators, surgical face masks, and cotton and quilting fabric cloth face masks. 10-μL aliquots containing 106 colony-forming units (CFU) or plaque-forming units (PFU) of the test organisms in the simulated mucus suspension were spread to cover an area of 1-cm on inner and outer surfaces of the N95 respirators and surgical face masks and on 1 surface of the cloth masks. Error bars indicate standard error.

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