ReviewResources, conservation, and recycling2021
Personal respiratory protection and resiliency in a pandemic, the evolving disposable versus reusable debate and its effect on waste generation.
Review in Resources, conservation, and recycling, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Conservation Practices for Personal Protective Equipment: A Systematic Review with Focus on Lower-Income Countries.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Pooled it
- Unlocking the Therapeutic Efficacies of Silver Nanoparticles Derived Using the Plant-Based Aqueous Extract: A Comprehensive Review.Applied biochemistry and biotechnology · 2026Review
- Antimicrobial activity of chitosan, alginate, pectin, and cellulose-based biopolymer composites with silver, copper oxide, and zinc oxide nanoparticles.RSC advances · 2025Review
- Harnessing nature for dual action: silver nanoparticles synthesized from guava leaf extract for photocatalytic degradation of methyl red and antibacterial applications.RSC advances · 2025Article
- Lessons learned in establishing and sustaining elastomeric half mask respirator-based respiratory protection programs: An impact evaluation.Journal of occupational and environmental hygiene · 2025Article
- Reusable Personal Protective Equipment Viewed Through the Lens of Sustainability.International dental journal · 2024Review
- Research progress in preparation, properties, and applications of medical protective fiber materials.Applied materials today · 2023Review
- How similar is the antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles coated with different capping agents?RSC advances · 2023Article
- The Covid-19 pandemic in context of climate change perception and resource-saving behavior in the European Union countries.Journal of cleaner production · 2023Article
- Environmental footprints of disposable and reusable personal protective equipment ‒ a product life cycle approach for body coveralls.Journal of cleaner production · 2023Article
- The Environmental Impacts of Disposable Nonwoven Fabrics during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Study on the Francesc de Borja Hospital.Polymers · 2023Article
- To what extent do waste management strategies need adaptation to post-COVID-19?The Science of the total environment · 2022Review
- Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on carbon footprint and strategies to mitigate waste generation.Indian journal of ophthalmology · 2022Article
- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Disease 2019: More Safety at the Expense of More Medical Waste.Ophthalmology. GlaucomaArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic sweeping much of the globe is not anticipated to be short in duration, with contingency plans suggesting that it may last at least eighteen months. In the United States, one of the critical issues in coping with the pandemic has been a lack of essential personal protective equipment (PPE), at the local, state, and national level. As COVID-19 is primarily transferred through respiratory routes, adequate respiratory protection is a dire necessity. The shift from durable and reusable medical supplies in recent years to their single use counterparts has reduced the resiliency of the medical system with respect to PPE and other critical supplies in the current pandemic. This work explores the role of reusable compared to single use respiratory protection in the current pandemic, including reprocessing of single use options, from the perspective of number of equivalent protection devices needed. The current state of literature is also reviewed to provide context to this work, with respect to resource procurement. The economic cost of PPE throughout a pandemic is explored, and it is found that utilizing reusable PPE options depending on filter cycling may be less costly. Increased waste production is another issue with the current pandemic, and this is explored utilizing a mass basis, finding that reusable respiratory PPE would generate less waste than using single use PPE in a business as usual scenario. As future outbreaks of COVID-19 are likely along with other future pandemics, this work provides insights at how to prepare from the standpoint of PPE, and in particular respiratory protection.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.