PASCO, an advanced manufacturing company located in Maplewood, Missouri, has designed and donated a UV-light trailer to sanitize protective masks for reuse by health care workers in the fight against COVID-19. The trailer is capable of sanitizing 180 masks in 10 minutes.
The trailer took about four weeks to create and involved nearly all of the company’s 55 employees, from nuclear engineers to field service technicians.
“Everybody really felt like they were doing something for the community,” said PASCO Chief Operating Officer Jim Nardulli. “Given everything the world is going through, it was good to have something to dig into.”
Nardulli said he read about 30 academic research studies and findings by the NIH and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before selecting the spectrum and strength of the lights and designing their layout inside the trailer.
“I decided to get every paper I could and read them,” said Nardulli. “It turned out to be a massive going-back-to-school undertaking.”
Dr. Matt Broom, Chief Medical Officer for Cardinal Glennon and St. Louis University hospitals, said the donation of the UV light trailer came when they most needed it.
“With the strain on obtaining N95 masks throughout the country,” said Broom, “now we are able to safely reuse these masks and preserve our supply.”
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