Abstract:

The requirement of disposable medical protective clothing and other medial items has been increasing sharply since the novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP/Coronavirus disease 2019, COVID-19) outbreak in January 2020 in Wuhan city, it is demanded to find a fast and reliable way to sterilize or disinfect medical protective clothing. Ethylene oxide (EO) gas has been widely adopted in China to sterilize disposable medical protective clothing, but the total period of this sterilization process normally requires 7~14 d because the release of contaminated EO from clothing takes a long time. However, ionizing radiation sterilization by gamma ray or electron beam can be completed in one day, being much faster than traditional EO sterilization. To promote radiation sterilization of medical protective clothing, China Isotope and Radiation Association (CIRA) organized national experts to draft a temporal standard of radiation sterilization of disposable medical garments by gamma ray or electron beam, in both Chinese and English versions. This standard has already been accepted by radiation sterilization service industry, a large number of medical garments have been disinfected by irradiation. Radiation sterilization is believed to be widely used in the future for disinfection of medical clothing and other items.

Key words: Radiation sterilization, Disposable medical protective clothing, Novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP), Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)