Method that could improve PPE protection, reusability

Researchers from Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria have discovered a method-using only visible light-to treat and safely sterilize non-woven polypropylene-fabrics, the material used to fabricate personal protective equipment (PPE). Led by Tyler Cuthbert, a former SFU School of Engineering Science post-doctoral fellow, researchers tested a chemical insertion method developed by UVic chemistry professor Jeremy Wulff to attach a light-sensitive, zinc-based compound onto a non-woven polypropylene fabric. SFU health sciences colleagues Siobhan Ennis and Masahiro Niikura placed a small measure of a known infectious virus-Influenza A-onto the treated fabric before exposing the fabric to high intensity visible light for approximately four hours. Following the light exposure, researchers found that the treated sheet had inactivated 99.99 per cent of Influenza A virus particles compared to a control. Influenza A was chosen as the virus for this study to provide proof of concept because its enveloped structure and RNA genome are similar to SARS-CoV2, the virus responsible for the current global COVID-19 pandemic. As well, Influenza A itself is a pathogen that has high pandemic potential-indeed, a strain of Influenza A was responsible for the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009-10. -This work has the potential to decrease the environmental impact of a large industry producing billions of single-use PPE products per year that are not being recycled,- says Cuthbert, currently at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zürich.