Don’t Throw Away Your N95 Masks!

01 Dec Don’t Throw Away Your N95 Masks!

The Indiana State Department of Health has partnered with Battelle Critical Care Decontamination System (CCDS) on an exciting initiative that give will dentists the ability to reduce waste while also safely reusing hard-to-find N95 masks.

Batelle will decontaminate N95 respirators up to four times, free of charge, for healthcare facilities starting this month. Battelle’s decontamination system uses high concentrations of vapor phase hydrogen peroxide (VPHP) to decontaminate PPE, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for Battelle during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To get started with Battelle CCDS, visit www.battelle.com/decon to enroll in this program. Battelle will then email links to the enrollment contract, instructions and a Battelle point of contact. Each facility will be assigned a 3-digit code.

N95 masks collected must be unsoiled (free of blood, mucus, make-up, lip balm, etc.). We encourage you to start saving your used N95s now for future decontamination. Once the system is up and running, you will receive more information and instructions for shipping masks to and from Battelle. Unfortunately, KN95 masks are not part of the program at this time.

ISDH and IDA are excited to bring this much-needed resource to dentists to aid in our COVID-19 response.