NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Soon hospitals may not be going through quite as many N95 masks thanks to new technology here in our state.
Governor Lamont toured the Battelle facility were thousands of N95s will be sanitized every day for those who are currently on the front lines.
Today was the first Day of operations at the makeshift Battelle facility inside the department of transportation warehouse in New Haven.
This is where N95 masks that were previously used will be decontaminated so they can go back out to workers. Connecticut is one of the first states to partner with the organization on this groundbreaking technology.
“It was just a few weeks ago we heard about this amazing cleansing technology, and what it could mean for upping our capacity to clean the PPE starting with the N95 masks. Through some mutual associates we were able to reach out to battelle at the very highest level and tell them why we thought Connecticut should be there at the top of their list,” said Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont.
This service coming at no cost to local hospitals, thanks to grants from the federal government. Thirty hospitals have already signed up to bring masks. Through this process Battelle will sanitize tens of thousands of masks each day.
“It’s a vaporized hydrogen peroxide that the masks will be in, it’s a couple of hours, about 2 1/2 hours within that solution and then they’re sort of degassed. The whole process lasts about five or six hours,” said Jeff Rose of Battelle.
Battelle expects to serve more hospitals and healthcare facilities going forward as they expand this decontamination operation.