EthBreath Respirator: N95 Alternative

WARNING: This design doesn’t currently have any government/safety standards verification, so please consult an expert about its efficacy before printing it and using it in the field!

I don’t know enough about PPE to know whether this would work or no, but I feel like if I candidly share what I have, people that know better will be able to take it forward. Would love any and all feedback!

Video Showing assembly:

Summary:

The current nCOVID-19 pandemic has blind sided all the public health systems around the world. Specifically in this lack of preparedness is the extreme lack of PPE. According to Vox (2020), “as of earlier this month, the US had 12 million N95 respirators and 30 million surgical masks in its Strategic National Stockpile — which officials acknowledged was just 1 percent of what the country needed in a full-blown pandemic.”

In India, the press is also talking about the possibility of banning the sale of N95 respirators to the general public.

Due to the shortage of N95 Respirators, there is a need in the marketplace for high quality personal protective equipment that can defend against airborne SARS-COV-2, specifically for use by health workers. This problem is particularly pressing since it acts as a double negative to the health-worker to patient ratio; i.e. taking health workers off work and adding to the patient tally. This problem has been highlighted in Spain and Italy where health workers account for 9 and 12 percent of total infected people (ICN,2020). To this end, we propose an alternative that does not rely on already strained supply chains, and looks to create a robust alternative.

Our proposed solution leverages the well-understood mechanics of wetted fabrics and the effect of ethanol on viruses to create a re-usable, low-cost, 3D printable, and mass manufacture-able alternative to the N95 respirator.