AbstractHow often does one perform hand disinfection while wearing a mask? In the current COVID-19 pandemic, wearing masks and hand disinfection are widely adopted hygiene practices. However, our study indicated that exposure to the vapors from alcohol-based sanitizers during hand disinfection might degrade the filtration performance of the in-use masks, and the degradation worsened with the increasing number of hand disinfection. After five times of hand disinfection, the filtration efficiencies of surgical masks decreased by >8% for 400 and 500nm particles and by 3.68±1.83 % for 1μm particles. This was attributed to the dissipation of electrostatic charges on the masks when exposed to the alcohol vapor generated during hand disinfection. Simple practice of vapor-avoiding hand disinfection could mitigate the effects of alcohol vapor, which was demonstrated on two brands of surgical masks. The vapor-avoiding hand disinfection is recommended to be included in the hygiene guide to maintain the mask performance.Graphic abstract
Filtration Performance Degradation of In‐Use Masks by Vapors from Alcohol‐Based Hand Sanitizers and the Mitigation Solutions
