Articles: personal-protective-equipment.
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To report frontline healthcare workers' (HCWs) experiences with personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. To understand HCWs' fears and concerns surrounding PPE, their experiences following its guidance and how these affected their perceived ability to deliver care during the COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ This study found that frontline HCWs persisted in caring for their patients despite multiple challenges including inappropriate provision of PPE, inadequate training and inconsistent guidance. In order to effectively care for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, frontline HCWs need appropriate provision of PPE, training in its use as well as comprehensive and consistent guidance. These needs must be addressed in order to protect the health and well-being of the most valuable healthcare resource in the COVID-19 pandemic: our HCWs.
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Chem. Res. Toxicol. · Jan 2021
Protection Level and Reusability of a Modified Full-Face Snorkel Mask as Alternative Personal Protective Equipment for Healthcare Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 has drastically increased pressure on medical resources and highlighted the need for rapidly available, large-scale, and low-cost personal protective equipment (PPE). In this work, an alternative full-face mask is adapted from a modified snorkel mask to be used as PPE with two medical-grade filters and a 3D-printed adapter. Since the mask covers the eyes, mouth, and nose, it acts as a full-face shield, providing additional protection to healthcare workers. ⋯ The filtration performance of the adapted full-face mask is characterized using NaCl particles below 500 nm and different fitting scenarios to determine the minimum protection efficiency. The mask is compared to a commercial respirator and characterized according to the EN 149 standard, demonstrating that the protection fulfills the requirements for the FFP2 level (filtering face-piece 2, stopping at least 94% of airborne particles). The device shows a good resistance to several cycles of decontamination (autoclaving and ethanol immersion), is easy to be produced locally at low cost, and helps to address the shortage in FFP2 masks and face shields by providing adequate protection to healthcare workers against particles <500 nm in size.
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Environmental pollution · Jan 2021
An emerging source of plastic pollution: Environmental presence of plastic personal protective equipment (PPE) debris related to COVID-19 in a metropolitan city.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented surge of production, consumption, and disposal of personal protective equipment (PPE) including face masks, disposable gloves, and disinfectant wipes, which are often made of single use plastic. Widespread public use of these items has imposed pressure on municipalities to properly collect and dispose of potentially infectious PPE. There has been a lack of structured monitoring efforts to quantify the emerging trend of improperly disposed of PPE debris. ⋯ The two surveyed residential areas had the following highest PPE densities (0.00029 items/m2 and 0.00027 items/m2), while the recreational trail had the lowest densities (0.00020 items/m2). Assuming a business-as-usual accumulation, an estimated 14,298 PPE items will be leaked as debris in just the surveyed areas annually. To facilitate proper disposal of PPE debris by the public we recommend development of municipal efforts to improve PPE collection methods that are informed by the described PPE waste pathways.
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Ann Work Expo Health · Jan 2021
Availability of Personal Protective Equipment in NHS Hospitals During COVID-19: A National Survey.
The continuous supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the National Health Service (NHS) is paramount to reduce transmission of COVID-19 to patients, public, and staff. ⋯ Our survey demonstrated an overall lack of PPE volume supply in the UK hospitals during March 2020, demonstrating a lack of preparedness for a pandemic. PPE was more readily available in London which was the epicentre of the outbreak. Eye and full body protection are in most lack of supply.
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Examine compliance with personal protective measures in communities for the prevention and control of local transmission of the COVID-19, and explore indicators for such behavioural compliance. ⋯ Male gender was associated with lower compliance with home quarantine yet higher compliance with mask-wearing and temperature-taking. The middle-age participants (31-50 years) had lower compliance with home quarantine but higher with other measures. These findings may be supported by the economic considerations and the long-inherited Confucian values among Chinese. In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, public health authorities should tailor policy implementation to disparities in psychosocial indicators.