PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jesse J. Kwiek
AU  - Christopher R. Pickett
AU  - Chloe A. Flanigan
AU  - Marcia V. Lee
AU  - Linda J. Saif
AU  - Jeff Jahnes
AU  - Greg Blonder
TI  - A practical PPE decontamination method using warm air and ambient humidity
AID  - 10.1101/2020.11.12.380196
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.11.12.380196
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/10/15/2020.11.12.380196.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/10/15/2020.11.12.380196.full
AB  - Despite a year-and-a-half of Sars-CoV-2 pandemic experience, personal protective equipment (PPE) remains in short supply1. Current decontamination methods are complex, slow, expensive and particularly ill-suited for low to middle income nations where the need is greatest. We propose a low temperature, ambient humidity decontamination method (WASP-D) based on the thirty minute or less half-life of Sars-CoV-2 (and other common pathogens) at temperatures above 45°C, combined with the observation that most PPE are designed to be safely transported and stored at temperatures below 50°C. Decontamination at 12 hours, 46°C (115°F) and ambient humidity should consistently reduce SARS-CoV-2 viral load by a factor of 106, without negatively affecting PPE materials or performance.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.