Quality analysis of non-medical fabric in terms of convenience, air permeability and sterilization

Abstract

In the current Covid-19 era, personal protective equipment (PPE) is difficult to find and very much needed by medical personnel in service. People also need PPE to maintain health. Mask is one of the PPEs that is difficult to find and buy. Mostly, pharmacies run out of it and if there is any, the price goes up highly. UNNES, as a university, formed a COVID-19 Task Force during the Covid-19 period to help prevent the disease spread in the internal campus community. The UNNES Covid-19 Task Force prepared 3000 hand sanitizers and disinfectants, and 5100 masks for lecturers and staff. Fashion Design Major of Home Economics Department of Engineering Faculty of UNNES is appointed by the university to design and produce cloth masks to be distributed to lecturers and educational staff. The production of these UNNES non-medical masks went viral on social media and was even covered by a famous social media account named Lambe Turah. With various limitations, they produced 2-layer masks with pleated design on the outer side and a pocket on the inside that can be filled with a sheet of tissue as a filter. In addition, they also produced 2-layer cloth masks. A total of 4500 masks have been distributed to lecturers and staff for use. Moreover, there are 600 more masks that still need to be studied from the aspect of function, comfort and aesthetic and need to be tested in laboratory, particularly in the aspect of dust, microbes and air, as well as sterilization. Based on the above conditions, it is necessary to conduct research related to the analysis of mask quality developed and produced by Home Economics Department of Engineering Faculty of UNNES during the Covid-19 period. This study aims to describe the quality of cloth masks from the aspect of comfort and medical, such as the mask permeability and sterilization. The research approach was a survey based on user evaluation and experimentation through laboratory tests. The survey used a questionnaire via Google form to reveal the assessment of masks from the aspect of comfort. Experiments were carried out through sample tests for air permeability and sterilization in the health laboratory of PT Sucofindo, Semarang. The result of the research with respondents from lecturers and educational staff showed that the masks that had a very high quality is 50.71%; the ones with high quality is 37.14%; those which are moderate in quality is 3.51 and 0.71 had low quality. The laboratory test result of the UNNES non-medical mask based on the air permeability aspect showed that it had low air absorption because when it was tested using fire blow test, the fire did not go out. The sterility test results for non-medical cloth masks showed that they were not yet sterile. Non-medical masks already have very good quality in terms of comfort, function and aesthetic as well as low air absorption so that they are very useful for lecturers and staff to maintain health from the escalating Covid -19 pandemic. New non-medical cloth mask products are not sterile. Therefore, a thorough clean-up is required before using.