The FDA wants healthcare providers to move away from using certain imported disposable masks, such as KN95s.
The recommendation to ease off using non-NIOSH-approved masks comes less than two months after the agency said providers could transition away from reusing decontaminated masks.
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Charlotte, N.C.-based Honeywell expanded operations at the Smithfield eye protection products plant so that the facility could also manufacture millions of N95 masks at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
Get the full story at our sister site, Medical Design & Outsourcing.
N95 respirator (Image from the FDA)
Honeywell is laying off approximately 470 employees on its Smithfield, R.I.-based N95 respirator mask production line.
Charlotte, N.C.-based Honeywell expanded operations at the Smithfield eye protection products plant so that the facility could also manufacture millions of N95 masks at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
The company said at the time that it had plans to immediately start the hiring process to bring on at least 500 new workers to support the efforts, which was slated to deliver masks to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to boost the national stockpile.
A Honeywell spokesperson confirmed that the layoffs pertained only to employees on the N95 production line and nowhere else in the facility. The affected employees received notice of the layoffs throughout the day on Wednesday. The spokesperson told Medical Design &…
Sandia National Laboratories has come up with its own version of a reusable respirator for frontline workers.
Sandia has filed for patent protection, is testing prototypes, and seeking NIOSH approval and potential manufacturing partners for its elastomeric half-mask N95 respirator. It’s the latest entry to a small but growing category of reusable masks designed to filter at least 95% of airborne virus particles from being inhaled and exhaled.
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Calumeo today announced the U.S. launch of a point-of-care N95 mask reprocessing device.
The Morgan Hill-Calif.-based company said its Calumeo Clean countertop device uses dry heat to decontaminate N95 masks for reuse, without the use of toxic chemicals. The process takes just over an hour. The device can process six masks at a time and each mask can be processed this way up to five times, the company added.
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