Past Event! Note: this event has already taken place.
Decontamination of Medical Masks Using Ultraviolet Light
July 8, 2020 at 1:30 AM
Location: | Via Zoom Webinar |
Cost: | Free |
Adequate personal protective equipment is critical for ensuring the safety of nurses, doctors, and other frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, personal protective equipment supply chains are stretched, with a notable shortage of N95 masks for healthcare workers. Recently, decontamination has emerged as a promising strategy for maintaining the supply of medical masks. Instead of treating masks as single-use items, decontaminated masks can be used repeatedly, potentially providing a substantial reduction in demand for new masks. Heat, volatilized hydrogen peroxide, and ultraviolet-C (UV-C) irradiation are all promising strategies for decontamination. I will discuss some of the promises and pitfalls of UV-C decontamination, and will describe my lab’s work in optimizing UV-C irradiation strategies.
Alex Wong
Department of Biology
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Alex Wong is an Associate Professor of Biology at Carleton University. He holds a PhD in Genetics and Development from Cornell, and completed post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Ottawa and at Carleton University before starting his faculty position in 2013. He uses experimental and computational approaches to study evolution, with a focus on bacteria. He is interested both in the fundamental principles of evolution, and in applying evolutionary thinking to applied problems such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR).