A practical PPE decontamination method using warm air and ambient humidity

Despite a year-and-a-half of Sars-CoV-2 pandemic experience, personal protective equipment (PPE) remains in short supply ¹ . Current decontamination methods are complex, slow, expensive and particularly ill-suited for low to middle income nations where the need is greatest. We propose a low temperature, ambient humidity decontamination method (WASP-D) based on the thirty minute or less half-life of Sars-CoV-2 (and other common pathogens) at temperatures above 45°C, combined with the observation that most PPE are designed to be safely transported and stored at temperatures below 50°C. Decontamination at 12 hours, 46°C (115°F) and ambient humidity should consistently reduce SARS-CoV-2 viral load by a factor of 10 ⁶ , without negatively affecting PPE materials or performance.