NextSharkNextShark.com
Latest Newsletter🍵 Biden awards Asian artistsRead

Article

Taiwan Has a Brilliant Life Hack to Disinfect Face Masks Using Rice Cookers

rice cooker

    Asian America Daily - in under 5 minutes

    Get our collection of Asian America's most essential stories, to your inbox daily, for free!

    Unsure? Check out our Newsletter Archive

    With protective face masks in short supply due to the growing demand worldwide, any hack to effectively prolong the use of one mask could go a long way.

    In Taiwan, local officials shared how to reuse a mask multiple times by disinfecting it with a rice cooker, Taiwan News reports.

    During a press conference over the weekend, Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director-General Wu Shou-mei (吳秀梅) and Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) head Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) demonstrated how to use a rice cooker to disinfect a mask.

    A fascinating clip of the presentation showed Wu guiding Chen through the steps of dry heating a mask to kill any potentially accumulated bacteria or viruses after use.

     

    In a light moment, Chen fumbled a bit after Wu instructed him to place the metal rack at the bottom of the cooker. Chen can be seen placing it at the bottom of the metal pot, which prompted Wu to joke that the minister apparently has never used a rice cooker before.

    As the audience erupted in laughter, Wu then directed Chen to first place the metal rack inside the cooker before putting the metal pot in.

    Chen was then asked to insert a mask inside the metal pot and then put the cooker’s lid to cover it. Wu drew more laughter from the crowd as she reminded users to remember plugging in the rice cooker for it to work.

    When Wu finally asked Chen to press the “cook” button, he had a difficult time locating the correct button. After being guided by Wu, Chen was able to eventually switch the cooker on with the light indicator showing that it had begun cooking its contents.

    According to Wu, the cooking cycle will finish after three minutes, which would prompt the rice cooker’s button to pop back up.

    She then advised her audience to let the mask sit inside for another five minutes before taking it out to complete the disinfection process.

    Wu warned the public against placing water inside the cooker during the process as it will damage the mask. She also noted that using a rice cooker to disinfect masks is better than spraying disinfectant as this method could damage the mask’s electrostatic layer.

    According to Wu, surgical face masks can be disinfected using the rice cooker method for up to “four or five times” based on research conducted by the FDA.

    Based on its findings, the bacterial filtration efficiency (BFE) of the masks can be maintained at a level of 99% even after dry heating them five times.

    Feature Image via 衛生福利部疾病管制署

    Support our Journalism with a Contribution

    Many people might not know this, but despite our large and loyal following which we are immensely grateful for, NextShark is still a small bootstrapped startup that runs on no outside funding or loans.

    Everything you see today is built on the backs of warriors who have sacrificed opportunities to help give Asians all over the world a bigger voice.

    However, we still face many trials and tribulations in our industry, from figuring out the most sustainable business model for independent media companies to facing the current COVID-19 pandemic decimating advertising revenues across the board.

    We hope you consider making a contribution so we can continue to provide you with quality content that informs, educates and inspires the Asian community. Even a $1 contribution goes a long way.  Thank you for everyone's support. We love you all and can't appreciate you guys enough.

    Support NextShark

    Mastercard, Visa, Amex, Discover, Paypal