How can I clean and disinfect reusable respirators and PAPRs?
Neither CDC nor WHO have provided any recommendations for cleaning and disinfecting respirators. The CDC does, however, in its guidelines for ground emergency medical transport (April 4, 2003) and air medical transport (March 26, 2003) indicate patient care areas (surfaces likely to be directly contaminated during care of a SARS patient) should be cleaned with a US EPA-registered disinfectant. Please also check with your local agencies for other nationally approved disinfectants. Refer to the cleaning and sanitizing instructions for the specific facepiece or PAPR unit and headgear used to identify the components that can be cleaned. For example, filters cannot be cleaned or disinfected and should be disposed. In some parts of the world 3M offers aUS EPA registered disinfectant the 3M Twist n FillTM 5L Quat, a low level hospital grade quaternary ammonium disinfectant cleaner that is effective against a broad spectrum of bacteria and is virucidal and fungicidal. Please note that its effi
