NORWICH — SUNY Morrisville’s Norwich Campus recently announced it’s doing its part locally to help alleviate the shortage of personal protection equipment (PPE) for emergency personnel and health-care workers during the coronavirus emergency.

The campus is providing emergency agencies in Chenango County with use of an on-campus ultraviolet (UV) sterilization cabinet that allows for PPE to be used more than once. 

The unit can sterilize up to 30 N95 masks, worn over the face to prevent the inhalation of airborne particles, and eight to 10 full-face shields. Its use allows departments to stretch their current supply, the university contends.

“While not directly affecting the national shortage, sanitizing the PPE allows us to make fewer requests to the county and state,” Jason Gray, a captain with the Norwich Fire Department and a student in the nursing program at the SUNY Morrisville Norwich Campus, said in an April 10 news release. “This decline in need on our part allows those resources to be deployed to areas that are harder hit and in dire need.”

The unit, located in the microbiology lab on the Norwich Campus, is generally used to sanitize PPE, including goggles and safety glasses, used in labs. It uses a special bulb that emits UVC rays that kill bacteria, viruses, and protists by destroying proteins, fats and DNA, according to Eric Diefenbacher, assistant professor of biology at the SUNY Morrisville Norwich Campus. The cabinet is loaded with PPE, the doors are shut, and the dial/timer/switch turned to the desired amount sterilization time. The cabinet turns off automatically. Generally, 30 minutes is enough time to kill germs. 

As of April 10, the Norwich Fire Department, under Gray’s direction, had been the only Chenango County emergency service to utilize the Norwich campus UV cabinet. Gray said he would also be collecting and sanitizing the used PPE from the Norwich Police Department to keep its officers adequately protected during the coronavirus pandemic.