A letter to reconsider the conditions for testing decontaminated N95 respirators for emergency reuse to address shortage

ABSTRACT The battle with COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the shortage of personal protective equipment, particularly, N95 respirators. Healthcare workers who reused N95 respirators may resort to unproven methods of cleaning/sterilization that can severely compromise the respirators’ filtration efficiency. A recently issued guideline will test decontaminated N95 respirators against particles with a median diameter of 0.075 ± 0.020 µm at a flow rate of 85 L min–1. For emergency reuse, these conditions may be too stringent. N95 respirators tested at this flow rate had predicted efficiencies of 0.5 µm). By reconsidering the test conditions, a substantial fraction of used/decontaminated respirators can be reused.