Vaporized hydrogen peroxide treatment modified by a Michigan State University veterinary team to decontaminate N95 masks for health care workers has been approved on an emergency basis by the Food and Drug Administration. The team is continuing to work with the FDA towards a September start of large-scale decontamination operations. MSU is the first and only public institution to receive this authorization to date.

When Columbus-based Battelle Memorial Institute received emergency use authorization for its VHP process (Halo Fogger) in March, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and MSU President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D., tasked an effort that included the conversion of an animal housing area into a nine-room decontamination center now capable of cleansing tens of thousands of masks each week. 

University Veterinarian F. Claire Hankenson, Director of Campus Animal Resources, is leading the project along with the MSU Office of Regulatory Affairs.

VHP was already in use at MSU sanitizing animal areas when the COVID-19 pandemic sparked widespread shortages of personal protective equipment for physicians, nurses and other medical personnel.

“We estimate that within our dedicated facility, running the VHP cycles five days a week, we can effectively decontaminate and redistribute approximately 14,000 masks per day (7,000 masks per cycle and two cycles per day) and up to 70,000 masks per week,” Hankenson said. “Over the coming fall and early winter, with a potential second surge of COVID-19 cases in the state (which may converge with influenza season), the MSU VHP decontamination process could ultimately recycle more than one million PPE devices back into the supply for the state of Michigan.”

Having received the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization, MSU can expand its service beyond the original two partners in the pilot phase of the program: Sparrow Health System based in Lansing and Henry Ford Hospital System in Detroit. 

“These health care partnerships will be essential for the successful execution of this project,” Hankenson said. “The Governor’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office and the office of Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin and others have all been heavily invested in the FDA EUA application and share in the success of this approval.”

Masks are critical for the prevention of exposure to pathogenic airborne particulates. According to the emergency use authorization rules, N95 masks can be decontaminated up to three times using MSU’s VHP process. Sanitation extends mask life during shortages as well as saving health care dollars when PPE supply chains are stressed or interrupted.

“This is big: MSU experts working with Sparrow Hospital gave us the ability to sanitize masks for our health care workers fighting on the frontlines against COVID-19 –– and the FDA has approved that sanitization process," Slotkin said. 

"Michigan, like so many other states, has been at the mercy of a medical supply chain with production, middlemen, and customs officials in other countries, and we just can’t let that happen again as we prepare for a potential second wave of COVID-19, said Slotkin, D-Holly. “Now that the FDA has approved this process, our community will be better prepared and protected if cases spike again. I’m grateful to the FDA for its approval and to the professionals at MSU for their hard work, dedication and ingenuity.”

In early 2020, the majority of workplaces in the U.S. transitioned to full-time remote operations due to the spread of COVID-19. Through social distancing efforts, employers aimed to protect workers by minimizing interactions with one another. Today, as states begin to reopen, employers are now challenged with how to continue to keep employees healthy by minimizing the transmission of COVID-19 across their workplace.

While the decision when to return to the workplace—if at all—will vary by company, most employers are investigating methods to decrease transmission of COVID-19. This requires employers to consider tactics from all angles: the people, the workspace, and the disinfection strategy.

Consistent with the CDC’s guidance that people wear face masks in all public settings where they will encounter individuals who do not live in their home, some employers are advising or requiring employees to wear face masks in the office. This requirement stems from reports that face masks can have a notable impact on curbing the spread of the COVID-19. According to a review and meta-analysis funded by the World Health Organization (WHO) and published in The Lancet, the risk of transmitting COVID-19 is 17.4%; with an N95 respirator or face mask, that number drops to 3.1%. Based on these recommendations, employees are often encouraged to wear face masks, particularly in shared or public spaces.

The modern office space is known for open floorplans and shared workspaces. While ideal for collaboration, the COVID-19 pandemic has made employers recognize that such conditions are a breeding grounds for disease. As a result, employers are considering ways to reconfigure the workplace to minimize shared spaces where pathogens may linger on surfaces. Cubicles, although often associated with an outdated workplace, are being considered as they limit contact with high touch surfaces like desks, chairs, and phones. In addition, some workspaces are contemplating plastic, see-through partitions that feel more modern than the traditional cubicle but can act as a sneeze or cough guard.

Prior to the pandemic, corporate cleaning staffs typically “freshened” lobbies every three hours, sanitized restrooms every four hours, and cleaned other areas at night. Today in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many employers are demanding increased cleaning cycles and contemplating solutions that go beyond cleaning to disinfect surfaces. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s List N of products that meet the criteria for use against SARS-CoV-2, the pathogen that causes COVID-19, is being referenced to identify best-fit disinfectants. However, not all solutions deliver the efficacy, flexibility, and usability some workplaces require. For workplaces with electronics like computers and printers, it’s important to find a solution such as the Halo Disinfection System® that’s dry fog delivery can be used around sensitive electronic devices.

Preparing Workspaces for the Return of Employees

Whether employers expect employees to return in the near term or plan to remain remote for the upcoming weeks or months, it’s critical to take a multi-pronged approach to curbing the spread of infection. Whole room disinfection solutions such as our Halo Disinfection System® can play an integral role in these efforts. As a List N solution, our HaloMist™ (EPA Reg. No. 84526-6) is approved for use in office spaces to eliminate pathogens wherever they lurk.

As the summer months wind down and September approaches, students and faculty prepare to return to school and get back into the routine of another academic year. However, as students and teachers get back to school, they also get back to the threat of infection posed by dangerous germs and pathogens that are commonly spread in educational facilities, such as those that cause respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), rhinovirus, enterovirus D68, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), among others.

With approximately 55 million students and 7 million staff attending more than 130,000 public and private schools in the United States, the heightened risk of transmitting dangerous pathogens in schools comes as no surprise. The threat of infection in educational environments at all academic levels stems from the volume of students, frequent sharing of toys and supplies, close quarters of the classroom environment, and increased susceptibility amongst children populations. In fact, schools represent the lion’s share of cases for many commonly known infections.

For instance, most flu activity has been driven by illness in school-aged children, with hospitalization rates among adolescents who are younger than 5 years old (7.7 per 100,000) being the highest among all age groups. Similarly, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) has issued recommendations and guidelines for MRSA protocols in schools and daycares since the bacterium can be easily contracted and cause severe health problems including sepsis, bloodstream infections, and pneumonia.

For school administrations and facilities, disinfection is a necessary aspect of facility maintenance. Following are some pointers to consider when creating a whole room disinfection strategy for your education facility this fall.

Before an effective whole room disinfection plan can be carried out in the classroom, it’s necessary to differentiate between cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting. While these three terms sound similar, they all vary in principle and provide different levels of protection from germs. Cleaning simply removes germs, dirt, and impurities from various surfaces or objects. Although cleaning can decrease the number of germs present, it’s important to note that its use of soap and/or detergent does not kill many of them. In other words, a clean classroom is not necessarily a classroom that is germ free.

Conversely, disinfecting kills almost all germs that are present on surfaces or objects. While this process does not clean surfaces or remove germs altogether, effective disinfection does radically lower the presence of pathogens by killing them. Finally, sanitizing is focused on simply reducing, rather than essentially eradicating, bacterial or viral pathogens on surfaces or objects. Although all three of these approaches are helpful in addressing dangerous pathogens in the educational environment, it is important to note that only disinfecting can truly kill almost all germs that are lurking in the classroom.

However, it’s also important to note that not all disinfection methods are created equal. Sprays and wipes can offer some level of disinfection, but their lack of ability to reach all nooks and crannies present on a wide variety of surfaces in a classroom or locker room can leave pathogens lurking in the shadows. For these reasons, it’s important to trust in disinfection strategies that can offer full area coverage, such as disinfectants that are distributed using a dry fog that fills a room.

While a number of infectious diseases like the flu virus are primarily spread from person to person through the coughs and sneezes of infected individuals, high-touch surfaces are also responsible for spreading disease-causing pathogens. Objects such as desks, countertops, doorknobs, computer keyboards, hands-on learning tools, and toys are just some of the culprits. Frequently used and commonly shared items like these promote the transmission of pathogens between students and teachers.

For obvious reasons, these surfaces and objects need to be disinfected routinely and correctly—not just when they are visibly soiled. When doing so, it’s critical to match your disinfection solution to the types of germs that need to be killed. For instance, the flu virus can potentially cause infection for up to 48 hours after landing on a surface. Meanwhile, bacteria like MRSA can survive on surface areas for hours, days, or even weeks. Since the pathogens of different bacteria, viruses, and fungi have varying life spans on surfaces, it’s best to use a broad spectrum disinfectant that can kill all three of the major classes of organisms with outstanding efficacy.

In order to effectively kill a wide range of germs in the classroom, the CDC recommends (and Federal law requires) the use of product registered under the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); specifically, registered antimicrobial disinfectants. Many of these disinfectants are documented to kill 99.9999% of even the most resistant germs, resulting in temporary, nearly sterilized conditions in the educational setting.

While the EPA has multiple lists of legally registered products, its List K includes disinfectants such as HaloMist® (EPA Registration No. 84526-6) that are extremely effective against C. difficile spores, a form of one of the most difficult pathogens to kill. HaloMist® is also a disinfectant registered under the EPA and proven to be effective against pathogens of the flu virus, the norovirus, MRSA and others. By delivering thorough disinfection as an EPA-registered bactericide, virucide, and fungicide, HaloMist® offers broad spectrum protection against some of the most persistent and dangerous pathogens. Non-corrosive and bleach free, the product can also be safely used around electronics and in environments frequented by children.

Spreading knowledge doesn’t have to mean spreading germs, too. At Halosil, we allow educational environments to leverage our whole room disinfection solution to achieve the highest possible efficacy on the market today. Our proprietary Halo Disinfection System® uniformly distributes our HaloMist™ disinfectant via dry fogging to ensure that every classroom, cubby, and cranny is free of disease-causing pathogens—all with a hands-free approach that requires no rinsing or wiping.