Naga Bonagiri, Technical Manager at airmid healthgroup is pleased to have joined the NSAI committee NSAI/TC067/WG02, a national committee that follows the work of the CEN committee CEN/TC205/WG14. This CEN committee is contributing to the revision of “EN 14683 Medical facemasks – Requirements and test methods”
The new EU MDR (Medical Device Regulation) requires that all MD standards are updated to follow the new legislation. However, this is also an opportunity to revise the contents of this standard and there are many aspects that have been suggested to update such as ergonomics, comfort over long periods of use, sizing, and modern test methods.
Naga has also joined the CEN committee to support the development of the following standard under CEN/TC205/WG17, “Respiratory infection prevention devices for self- and third-party protection-Requirements for different performance classes and test methods”. Reducing outward leakage is important to prevent transmission of infection, yet there is no standard for a mask or device which includes this specification, even EN 14683. There is a need for a standard that can be regulated under either MD or PPE regulation, and can be used by all ages, sizes and ability in both vocational and community settings, with various categories of performance. If successful one of these masks could become preferable to an EN 14683 mask.
As part of his contribution to the committee, Naga travelled to Berlin in August 2022 to meet in person with the international members of each of the work groups. The main topics discussed included the requirements and test methods of the new standard.
We look forward to contributing further to the work of the committee.
Further information
https://standards.cencenelec.eu/dyn/www/f?p=205:110:0::::FSP_PROJECT,FSP_LANG_ID:75656,25&cs=1B308E98D567FA714987E4904B925FCC5