Mack Molding subsidiary adapts snorkel into N95 mask replacement

WOODBRIDGE, Conn.—A subsidiary of injection molder Mack Molding Inc. teamed with a Vermont medical center to adapt a snorkel normally used by divers into protective gear for medical staff.

Staff at Southern Vermont Health Care and Medical Center reached out to Synectic of Woodbridge, Conn., for help with shortages of personal protective equipment.

"We were looking for alternatives to disposable N95 masks because our shipments were not being reliably delivered, and we were concerned about the amount of PPE we had on hand for the staff," Sheila Boni, nursing director and PPE officer at SVHC, told Plastics News.

Kevin Dailey, vice president of administration and chief of human resources at SVHC for the last six years, had previously worked in HR at Arlington, Vt.-based Mack Molding for 15 years.

"I was hearing a lot of anxiety over the availability of personal protective equipment as the pandemic was growing," Dailey said. "I'm very familiar with (Mack Molding's) ability to rapidly design and prototype products."

After reaching out to the company for help on March 23, Dailey said, he gave Synectic President Adam Lehman an N7700 respirator, a "usually readily available respirator that fits over your nose and mouth with filter canisters," as an example for the company's eventual prototype.

He and Lehman spoke a few times a day about the design of the mask, Dailey said.

"We had an extremely tight window," he said. "We needed them almost yesterday."

Synectic redesigned a snorkel mask purchased from a local scuba shop, removing the part that usually sticks out of the water and replacing it with a custom-designed filter component. Within two weeks, it started 3D printing parts for the prototype, which was approved by SVHC doctors.

"The hospital's been great about giving us feedback on the concept, what was liked and disliked and what needed to be changed," Lehman said.

More than 130 employees are using the redesigned snorkel masks, Dailey said, and they're also reporting improvements from wearing traditional N95 masks or N7700 respirators with plastic face shields.

The masks cover the worker's entire face, protecting the eyes, rather than just the nose and mouth, and have a silicone seal around the sides, which forces air to pull through two cartridges with P100 HEPA filter material inside, Lehman said.

The filters Synectic designed for the snorkel mask have "significantly more" HEPA filter material inside than a typical retail filter for an N7700 respirator, which are also in short supply, Dailey said.

Normally, Lehman said, respirators for medical staff would need to be certified by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, but the quickly spreading pandemic created special circumstances.

Boni said the hospital can use PPE without regulatory approval after a risk analysis "to determine if the benefits of the use of the alternative outweigh the risks of not using it."

"The infection prevention coordinator and our infectious disease physician reviewed the product," she said. "Like many other hospitals, we're looking at prolonged reuse of disposable equipment that was not designed to be used that way, or not having appropriate equipment for staff who are going to be exposed to patients who were known of expected to have COVID. In the final analysis, the benefits outweighed the risk."

"Those two filters on the top should last quite a long time if they're only being used by one individual, which eliminates the need to be constantly trying to find and replace these filters," he said.

"Another benefit that the staff (members) are reporting is a large reduction in the amount of irritation of their skin," Boni said. "When they have to wear the N95 mask all day, there's a metal piece that you bend and shape over your nose to form the seal you need. They had so much skin breakdown from having to wear the N95, and the face shields have either a foam or rubber piece that goes against their forehead and that gave them skin breakdown or rashes."

The silicone insert that creates the seal inside the redesigned snorkel mask doesn't create "those pressure points on their face anymore, so that's been a huge help," Boni said.

The singular mask simplifies the amount of PPE workers are wearing, she said, which makes their jobs easier.

It also features filters above the wearer's face, unlike the N700 respirator, which has filters by the chin, diminishing the head's range of motion, Boni said.

"It's a benefit for the staff who have to bend down or bend their head to do procedure like starting IVs or other clinical care," she said.

One limiting factor of the new mask, Boni said, is that staff who require glasses can't be fitted for the mask because frames don't allow for a proper seal.

"There's a lot of our staff, it turns out, who need glasses," she said. "But what it's done is freed up the supply of half-mask reusable respirators or N95s for staff that can't use one of these. … Each staff person who is able to wear one and get appropriately fit-tested for one, it (has) become their personal protective equipment."

The single-person respirators are cleaned inside and out with isopropyl alcohol disinfectant wipes, kept in a vented case and reused by each wearer, she said.

Synectic delivered a total of 500 redesigned snorkel respirator masks to SVHC within three weeks after Dailey's initial request, Lehman said.

"It was really remarkable what they were able to do in a short period of time, and the staff were very, very grateful," Boni said.

"When this conversation started, there were a lot of projections of a major surge of COVID patients," Dailey said. "If the worst-case scenario had happened, probably several more people at this point would be using these masks. Fortunately, so far, knock on wood, we haven't had the surge that was anticipated. … But we take a lot of comfort in knowing we have a stockpile of them, either today, or in this future if this kind of pandemic occurs."

"It's great to be able to use your engineering background and help out," Lehman said. "Especially on the front lines of this pandemic that's going on. Being able to come up with something quickly to keep those people safe. It's one of the most rewarding projects we've worked on here."