Virus sparks tech innovations
New methods to disinfect and sanitize public spaces evolving
It’s been nearly two decades since the introduction of Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners. New models and brands have since come on the scene and they are more than a novelty.. The next iteration, though, could be a Roomba-like device that rolls across the floor to disinfect and guard against coronaviruses and other emerging health threats.
The same evolution may apply to ultraviolet lamps, which have long been used to kill viruses and bacteria. In the future, though, they may serve as ceiling lamps, where office workers or homeowners turn them on at night to sterilize a room while people are sleeping. Rolling UV lamps are also being adopted in some hospitals, mostly in China.
These are some of the developments that may emerge from the current fight against the coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 respiratory illness.
As society battles the spread, part of the fight has taken on characteristics of of a war with a united fight against a common enemy.
While World War II spurred development of technologies like radar, synthetic rubber, computers, and nuclear power, the coronavirus may well lead to medical advances, including methods of sanitizing and disinfecting our living and workspaces.
“This will all come in the future,” said Deepak Vashishth, director of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Center for Biotechnology & Interdisciplinary Studies and a biomedical engineering professor.
The school is working on a number of initiatives including a new technique that may allow rapid sterilization of N95 face masks.
These specialized high filtration masks have been in short supply since the coronavirus pandemic erupted during the winter. Rather than disposing of the masks, researchers from RPI and Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City are exploring ways of sterilizing them for reuse with a portable ultraviolet disinfecting machine.
Bob Karlicek, director of RPI’S Center for Lighting Enabled Systems
& Applications, led a team that built a closet-sized prototype in about two weeks’ time. It
uses ultraviolet ‘C’ wavelengths to bombard the masks from all directions.
It’s effectiveness is being evaluated on a fast-track basis by the FDA. One key question involves taking samples from a sterilized mask, and culturing them for seven days to make sure the UV killed all the virus specimens, Vashishth said.
Also being fast-tracked are ways to use electrostatic cleaning, in which disinfectants are ionized, or electrically charged through a spray device in a way that makes the chemical adhere to its subject, such as a mask or countertop.
The pandemic is also drawing attention of environmental advocates who want to ensure that cleaning products being used are as safe as possible.
The EPA has developed a list of cleaning agents such a quaternary ammonia and glycolic acid that could be used against the viruses.
But there’s no human health rating for the chemicals themselves, said Clair Barnett, executive director of the Healthy Schools Network.
“They should stay focused on what’s permitted in New York
state,” she said. Barnett said
New York has a Green Cleaning initiative to utilize safer cleaning agents. But that doesn’t apply to coronavirus disinfectants.
“It’s all about COVID, which is fine, but what EPA really should be doing is driving people to safe substances,” said Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist with the National Resources Defense Council.
Known as the ”N” list, the
EPA roster doesn’t differentiate the human health effects of different chemicals. Safety and environmental advocates, for example, would rather use hydrogen peroxide-based disinfectants than ones with bleach since bleach can cause asthma in susceptible children, said Alicia Culver, executive director of the Responsible Purchasing Network.
At Albany Medical Center, cleaners over the past few years have adopted disinfectants with hydrogen peroxide such as Oxycide.
But maintaining a sterile environment still requires a lot of old-fashioned elbow grease and constant repetitive scrubbing, wiping and spraying, said Tom Bucci, director of Environmental Services and Patient Support Associates at AMC.
“There’s still an awful lot of that,” he said of the traditional materials and methods used by his unsung heroes such as custodians and cleaners.
The cleaning schedule has been expanded with people being pulled from maintenance duties like refinishing floors to wiping down the various rooms and hallways in the hospital and then doing it again.
Cleanings also have increased on Capital District Transportation Authority buses.
Workers now go in and clean the interiors when drivers take regular “layovers” or brief rest stops during the day, spokeswoman Jaime Watson said.
“They get on the bus and they do a wipe down of all the solid surfaces,” she said. “It’s going to be permanent for the foreseeable future.”
“A lot of this in terms of procedures are really just going to become the regular way that people sanitize wok sites from now on,” said Nellie Brown, director of Workplace Health & Safety Programs at Cornell University.
Brown believes there will be more air filtration systems and barriers, such as the clear plastic shields that have gone up on supermarket checkout counters.
Shared computers will be a thing of the past and high-walled cubicles will likely replace open concept offices.
Devices as unobtrusive as escalators may be changed as well. At Albany International Airport, the use of UV lamps to sterilize the escalator handrails as they circulate between floors are under consideration.
If adopted, the change would be permanent, spokesman Doug Myers said.
“Some of this stuff is here to stay and ought to be,” said Brown.
“The way we live our lives,” she said. “It’s going to be quite different.”
Known as the ”N” list, the EPA roster doesn’t differentiate the human health effects of different chemicals. Safety and environmental advocates, for example, would rather use hydrogen peroxide-based disinfectants than ones with bleach since bleach can cause asthma in susceptible children, said Alicia Culver, executive director of the Responsible Purchasing Network.