Coronavirus and frequently asked Questions:

Q. Which mouthpiece should I use for testing?

Infection control is paramount in both the design of our products and their accessories, and as such Safebreath® offers the highest bacterial and viral filtration of any smoking cessation filtered mouthpiece, and are classed as the “Gold Standard” infection control in smoking cessation.

SafeBreath mouthpieces are single patient use bacterial and viral mouthpieces independently tested by Public Health England (Report No. 15/015) to offer greater than 99% protection against viruses and bacteria.

  • Bacterial filtration efficacy 99.97%
  • Viral filtration efficacy 99.67%

The tests performed for viral filtration were on viruses much smaller than the current Coronavirus and as such the assumption is made that it would certainly filter much larger viruses such as the COVID-19 corona virus. Due to the risk of testing live respiratory viruses, a non-pathogenic virus model is used (M2-Coliphage). The filters undergo both bacterial filter efficiency (BFE) and viral filtration efficiency (VFE). The virus model is incredibly penetrable, even more so than the majority of human viruses – making it an affective model for virus filtration efficiency (VFE) testing. The test virus is approximately 24-26 nanometres in size in comparison to COVID-19 virus which is approximately 125 nanometres in size1.

These should not be confused with filtered adaptors that claim can be used and replaced after 30 days – this guidance gives no indication of the number of tests that can be performed or the number of clients that can be tested. Asking a smoking cessation advisor or midwife to remove the adaptor multiple times after a client has exhaled into it and wiping the adaptor that is now contaminated is not good practice. 

SafeBreath® are single patient use Gold standard infection control filtered mouthpieces, offering the highest bacterial and viral filtration in smoking cessation equipment whilst maintaining minimal running costs.

Q. Which wipes can I use on the external surfaces of the CO Check Pro/Baby between patient testing?

The wipes chosen must be alcohol free to avoid damaging your device.

Coronavirus (COVID-10) or as it is now called SARS-COV-2 is an enveloped virus meaning it is enveloped in a fatty membrane and so the following wipes can be used to kill it:

MD Diagnostics recommends the use of Trionic™ wipes available from MD Diagnostics, these are cleaning and disinfection wipes proven and tested to be bactericidal, virucidal, fungicidal, sporicidal and tuberculocidal – alcohol free wipes2.

Clinell Universal wipes – proven to kill SARS-COV-2 in 30 seconds.4

It is recommended that between patient testing all external surfaces of the CO Check Pro/Baby are wiped.

Q. Can I use alcohol-based hand gel?

Yes, it is perfectly acceptable to use one of the many available alcohol based gels for sanitising your hands between patients/clients.

In fact MD Diagnostics strongly recommend smoking cessation advisers sanitise their hands between tests but before using your CO Check Pro/Baby allow the hand gel on your hands to dry fully so there are no odours left that could contaminate your device.

Q. What other measures should I take when testing?

Public Health England (PHE) recommend the following additional measures when resuming face to face testing:

  • Carry out the test with a minimum 2m distance between the SSS adviser and the client, using verbal instructions on how to use the monitor.
  • Ensure the client is not facing the advisor when blowing into the machine.
  • Ensure the room where CO monitoring is taking place is well-ventilated.
  • Ask the client to dispose of the mouthpiece into the bin themselves, then wash their hands/use sanitiser.
  • NOTE: CO monitoring is not classed as an Aerosol Generating Procedure (AGP) and so does not require a FFP3 filtration mask for the adviser undertaking the test.

Q. How should I prepare for resuming face to face testing?

  • Ensure all PPI is available including disposable gowns, gloves and masks
  • It is recommended that a new pair of gloves is worn between patients and when handling your device.

These are only recommendations and local infection control guidance should be followed at all times.

  • Turn on your CO Check Pro/Baby and check the battery level indicator, if the indicator is low replace the battery in preparation for testing – the CO Check Pro/Baby use a PP3 9V battery
  • Ensure you have a sufficient supply of Safebreath mouthpieces for the number of tests you intend to perform
  • Prior to testing ensure that your CO Check Pro/Baby is reading accurately, this should be performed by calibrating using the calibration gas supplied by MD Diagnostics.

Video Resources

References:

  1. An Evaluation of Filtration Efficiencies Against Bacterial and viral Aerosol Challenges July 2015.
    HPA Test Report No. 05/15
  2. Quantitative suspension test for evaluation of virucidal activity in the medical area.
  3. Tracking 2019 Novel Coronavirus COM001 Rev 0. BRO 0005 Rev3-San Cloth AF-Universal
  4. Virucidal Efficacy Suspension Test per EN14476:2103=A2:2019 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – related Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (COVID-19 Virus).

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