I provided information for virologists to study possibility of decontaminating COVID-19: Dr Peter Tsai to WION

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic with hospitals and people around the world struggling hard to find the N95 mask, Mr Peter Tsai, the material scientist and engineer who developed the mask's virus-blocking technology is out of retirement to study safe ways to disinfect the single-use masks for reuse — nearly 30 years after his invention.

In an exclusive interview to WION, Dr Tsai revealed how he has provided information for virologists to study the possibility of decontaminating COVID-19.

WION: When you came up with the N95 mask infiltration 30 years ago what was the kind of reception then and now when you return in the midst of this pandemic sweeping the world?

Dr TSAI: My invention is an ordinary industrial one to do the electrostatic charging of materials to improve the filtering efficiency of air filters including medical face masks and N95 respirators.

This respirator has been used for constructor workers. During SARS, it was used to protect medical workers from getting infected. The spreading of COVID-19 is wider and faster than SARS. People are eager to know if the masks can be decontaminated and reused. I had the experiments in treating the charged media using heat to study its charge behavior under ambient environment and steam for sterilization of the charged media. Therefore, I provided this information to virologists to study the possibility of decontaminating COVID-19.

WION: Why and how did you think of returning after your retirement to aid in the pandemic?

Dr TSAI: When COVID-19 occurred, people needed knowledge that what mask should people wear, and because of this the outbreak happened in a shorter period of time. There is a huge demand than supply. So, there is a shortage of respiratory items and people wantto know ways they can deactivate the virus. After my retirement, I provided the information to deactivate COVID-19.

WION: There are various kinds of masks being prescribed for this contagion what is your outlook for general people and frontline workers?

Dr TSAI: Infected people need to wear a medical face mask to stop their contaminated droplets from being exposed to the environment. Healthy people can wear a medical face mask to stop the infected droplets. Due to the short distance contact with the COVID-19 patients, medical professionals need to wear N95 because it can capture submicron droplets and it has a tight edge seal to prevent the airborne droplets from entering through the edge space.

WION: How do you plan to study safe ways to sterilize the masks for reuse?

Dr TSAI: We had learned that alcohol would erase the charges so it is not recommended to sterilize the masks. Vaporous hydrogen peroxide has been approved by the FDA to denominate COVID-19 on N95.

Several oven manufacturers have sent their ovens and NASA their hot air blower to FDA to get approved to deactivate COVID-19 on N95.