Ask HN: Sterilizing used N95 respirators with UVC light?
Specifically, many hospitals are being forced to or will be forced to reuse their respirator masks. They're not designed for this, but it happens anyway due to limited supply.
I'm working on building something similar to
https://www.amazon.com/Light-Clean-Ozone-minutes-Capacity/dp/B07KWCQBKX/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=uvc+sterilizer&qid=1584471270&sr=8-4
but for less money, using
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FB140TU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
(basically an aquarium sterilizer bulb, which should have fairly good inventory).
I believe putting a respirator in such a sterilizer for 30m would be preferable to trying to sterilize it with liquid (which would likely ruin the mask) or to not sterilizing it at all (which apparently runs a good risk of reinfection).
My question: assuming this or a similar UVC-based sterilizer was cheap and readily available to health care facilities, would it be a good idea?
Disclaimer: I am a software engineer and definitely not a healthcare professional. I have a little bit of biotech lab experience, and have not seen UVC light used in a biotech context for this sort of thing.