Province gifts McMaster $1.2M for PPE research
Recently established centre at university designs and develops equipment for local manufacturers
A good face mask seems like a simple device — two straps bound to a piece of cloth — but any biomedical engineer will tell you differently.
In fact, there are a number of criteria that can affect a mask’s effectiveness.
Low pressure, for instance, helps to increase breathability, while the filtration system helps to weed out unwanted particles and bacteria. And fit, of course, helps to improve comfort.
But these criteria take time to develop — not to mention money.
That’s the rationale for the more than $2.3 million in funding the provincial government has given McMaster University and the University of Toronto to research and test the next generation of personal protective equipment (PPE) in Ontario.
“With this investment into research and testing at two of our leading universities, we are reinforcing our province’s reputation as the gold standard for medical equipment,” said Vic Fedeli, minister of economic development, job creation and trade, at a Zoom news conference Tuesday.
Half of the investment, about $1.2 million, will help accelerate work at McMaster’s recently established Centre of Excellence in Protective Equipment and Materials (CEPEM), which designs and develops PPE for local manufacturers.
The CEPEM opened in March 2020 after Hamilton Health Sciences raised the alarm over an anticipated supply-chain breakdown due to COVID-19.
A month later, the centre partnered with a pair of local manufacturers — Whitebird and Niko Apparel Systems — who now produce 20,000 face shields and 20,000 face masks a day for front-line workers.
Ravi Selvaganapathy, a biomedical engineering professor at McMaster and head of the CEPEM, said each piece of PPE goes through several rounds of testing prior to production to ensure standards are met.
The investment from the province will bridge the gap between the design and production phases, he said, and get protective equipment into the market faster.