Healthcare Providers need better than N95

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a high-risk situation for all care providers in professional and personal settings. Disposable N95 respirators are often held as the standard for protection, yet they are horrible to wear, easily contaminated, difficult to sanitize and impossible to clean. We owe care providers risking their lives a better solution.

JR: N95 respirators are designed to filter particles, not a virus. A torture path of non-woven fibers is created with a static charge applied to attract and capture particles when fit properly to the face. There is a delicate balance between airflow and filtration, making it difficult to breathe while often requiring a great deal of pressure against the face to provide a proper seal. The perception of low cost and disposable has been established within the healthcare system, and government approvals limit choices due to risk mitigation. The care providers who treat infectious patients deserve a better solution.

JR: One of our core technologies is precision printed circuitry, and we asked ourselves if we could apply our circuit expertise to destroy and disable the virus, not just try and filter the air. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has registered copper to eliminate 99.9% of the SARS CoV-2 virus and we developed a way to suspend pure copper within the airstream of a respirator, backed up with factory-tested N95 materials that have FDA Emergency Use Authorization. The PathoGen1 was created as a comfortable, re-useable, easy-to-fit-and-seal respirator with a virus-eliminating circuit that is suspended within the airstream to protect the user while they breathe in and protect those around them while they breath out. We also made the respirator optically clear to show the person’s face and smile.

JR: The respirator itself is basically a means to place the metalized surfaces in front of the nose and mouth. As the airflow passes through the filter, any virus-bearing moisture that encounters the metalized surfaces is dispersed while a galvanic reaction releases free ions that disable the virus’ ability to infect and replicate. Multiple layers of N95-rated filter materials are stacked and separated to provide excellent filtration that is easier to breathe through.

JR: One of the best ways to help care providers and the healthcare system is to reduce and prevent patient infection in the first place. We created the FrontLine mask with a stiffening polymer to hold the fabric away from the face, creating an air chamber that helps in reducing skin issues and fogged glasses. Controlled airflow is focused through a filter technology based upon the same material set used in the medical respirator, PathoGen1. Our goal was a well-designed, comfortable-to-wear, all-day mask that can eliminate the virus.

JR: We believe that sometimes it takes innovation outside of a given industry to see that the current standard needs to be challenged. The COVID-19 pandemic has cost trillions of dollars and millions of lives, even though the virus is not extremely lethal to the majority of the population. The recent Delta variant spread has demonstrated a mutation that is many times more contagious. If we encounter a variant that is more lethal, the current standards for healthcare providers and the public are not even close to good enough. Domestic production is needed for supply chain security—US-based companies have made millions of N95 respirators, but they sit in warehouses because the healthcare system avoids risk of change. Many companies in the current medical supply chain have made great strides in creating new protective gear that improves comfort and ease of use, and some higher-quality consumer masks have become available for the consumer. The common theme among most is the continued focus on filtration as the key factor providing protection, while viral elimination plus filtration is a superior approach to a cloud of infectious lethal virus.

This product has not been evaluated by the FDA or NIOSH
agencies for medical use. Submissions pending.
 

To learn more, please visit www.lcp-medical.com.