Respirators in Healthcare: Material, Design, Regulatory, Environmental, and Economic Considerations for Clinical Efficacy
Name
Global Challenges - 2022 - Young - Respirators in Healthcare Material Design Regulatory Environmental and Economic.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.65 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
4a6c59ca0fb0ec4bbf70203df89baeab
Author(s)
Young, Cameron C
Byrne, James D
Wentworth, Adam J
Collins, Joy E
Chu, Jacqueline N
Traverso, Giovanni
Date Issued
April 12, 2022
Journal
Global Challenges
Publisher
Wiley
Citation
Young, Cameron C, Byrne, James D, Wentworth, Adam J, Collins, Joy E, Chu, Jacqueline N et al. 2022. "Respirators in Healthcare: Material, Design, Regulatory, Environmental, and Economic Considerations for Clinical Efficacy." Global Challenges.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Maintaining an ample supply of personal protective equipment continues to be a challenge for the healthcare industry, especially during emergency situations and times of strain on the supply chain. Most critically, healthcare workers exposed to potential airborne hazards require sufficient respiratory protection. Respirators are the only type of personal protective equipment able to provide adequate respiratory protection. However, their ability to shield hazards depends on design, material, proper fit, and environmental conditions. As a result, not all respirators may be adequate for all scenarios. Additionally, factors including user comfort, ease of use, and cost contribute to respirator effectiveness. Therefore, a careful consideration of these parameters is essential for ensuring respiratory protection for those working in the healthcare industry. Here respirator design and material characteristics are reviewed, as well as properties of airborne hazards and potential filtration mechanisms, regulatory standards of governmental agencies, respirator efficacy in the clinical setting, attitude of healthcare personnel toward respiratory protection, and environmental and economic considerations of respirator manufacturing and distribution.
MIT Department
Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1002/gch2.202200001
