The present invention extends to methods, apparatus, and systems for disinfecting articles with ozone. Aspects of the invention use increased concentrations ozone in sealed, confined volumes, such as, for example, carts, lockers, cabinets, etc. to disinfect or sterilize medical articles. A medical article is placed in a confined volume. The confined volume is sealed so that the atmosphere inside the sealed, confined volume is isolated from the external atmosphere. The concentration of ozone in the sealed, confined volume is rapidly increased to a threshold concentration. At the threshold ozone concentration, the medical article can be disinfection or sterilized in a reduce amount of time. When disinfection or sterilization is complete, the concentration of ozone in the sealed, confined volume is rapidly reduced to a safe level. The sealed, confined volume is unsealed. The disinfected or sterilized medical article can be removed from the confined volume.

The following disclosure relates to a home plasma sterilizer that sterilizes household items in a home by using plasma. According to an embodiment, there is provided a home plasma sterilizer including: a plurality of plasma electrode modules configured to generate plasma in order to sterilize a sterilization target object inside a sterilization chamber; a harmful gas removal unit configured to communicate with the sterilization chamber, and provided with a catalytic filter that is intended to remove harmful gas inside the sterilization chamber; a power supply unit configured to supply power to the plasma electrode modules; and a control unit configured to control the supply of power by the power supply unit; wherein the control unit performs control so that the plurality of plasma electrode modules is sequentially supplied with power at predetermined cycles but the supply of power is continuous as a whole.

A method is provided for reducing a duration of an inactivate step of a decontamination process of contents within a chamber of a container. The method includes at least one of directing air in contact with a catalyst to reduce a level of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the air during the inactivate step and/or altering a temperature of air within the chamber during the inactivate step. A system is also provided for performing one or more steps of the method. The system includes the container defining the chamber; the catalyst; a component configured to direct air through the catalyst; and a processor configured to cause components of the system to perform one or more steps of the method.

An ionic oxidation refreshing system for refreshing odorized items, comprising an enclosure to contact the odorized items; an ionizing stage mechanism that produces an ionized ozone gas mixture inside of the enclosure, killing germs, including odor-causing bacteria, viruses, molds, and fungus; and a filtering stage mechanism that neutralizes and filters out any toxic by-products including one or more of ozone, nitric acid, aldehydes, and VOCs resulting from surface oxidation of the odorized items by the ionized ozone gas mixture.

This disclosure relates to a device for disinfecting equipment, such as CPAP components, and a method of using the same. A device for disinfecting equipment according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, a chamber, an ultraviolet (UV) light configured to emit UV light within the chamber, an ozone generator configured to generate ozone within the chamber. The device further includes a control unit configured to activate the UV light and the ozone generator during different periods of time.

Systems and methods for sterilizing an enclosed space using ozone are disclosed herein. Various embodiments of the devices and methods also provide for accelerated degradation of the ozone upon sterilization. The methods can include identifying enclosed spaces, sterilizing enclosed spaces through ozone generation, generating reports and transmitting the reports. The sterilization unit disclosed herein can sterilize a plurality of enclosed spaces, such as a fleet of medical response vehicles.

A cap assembly for attachment to an equalization port on an endoscope, comprising a tubular housing defining an internal chamber, a mounting section releasably attached to the housing in fluid-tight fashion and attachable to the equalization port of an endoscope, wherein the internal chamber communicates with the equalization port; a barrier layer formed of a reactive material disposed within the internal chamber, a first cavity defined between the barrier layer and a first end of the housing; a second cavity defined between the barrier layer and the mounting section, the second cavity dimensioned to receive an indicator test strip that is capable of detecting a gaseous germicide; and a filter layer disposed between the barrier layer and the first end of the housing.

Methods and devices for decontaminating agricultural material, which agricultural material may comprise carboxylic acids are disclosed. The methods involve contacting the agricultural material with a sufficient amount of ethylene oxide, at a temperature of between around 15 and 30 C., for a sufficient time so as to disinfect the products. Ethylene oxide sterilization conducted at these temperatures is sufficient to remove microbial contamination, but not sufficient to cause a sufficient quantity of carboxylic acid groups to react with ethylene oxide and form esters. Representative devices include sterilization bags, optionally stored in sterilization cabinets, sealed drums, and pallet-loaded disinfecting chambers, all adapted to safely purge ethylene oxide from the agricultural material after the sterilization. Representative agricultural materials include, but not limited to hemp and marijuana.

A method is provided for vaporized hydrogen peroxide cleaning of a chamber. The method includes altering a temperature of air in the chamber from an initial temperature to a sterilization temperature over a first time period. The method also includes injecting vaporized hydrogen peroxide into air in the chamber to alter a relative humidity of hydrogen peroxide vapor in the chamber to a sterilization level over the first time period. The method also includes maintaining the temperature at the sterilization temperature and the relative humidity at the sterilization level over a second time period. The method also includes reducing the relative humidity from the sterilization level to a safe level over a third time period. In one embodiment, the method is provided for vaporized hydrogen peroxide cleaning of an interior chamber of an incubation container. In other embodiments, the incubation chamber featured in the method is provided.

Performing a decontamination process by introducing a decontamination agent into a first containment, the first containment is being surrounded by a housing having a primary inlet for admitting a gas medium into the first containment, and a primary outlet for discharging the gas medium from the first containment. The primary outlet leads to an area external to the first containment, into the open atmosphere, or to a second containment and has a gas-technology connection to a first catalyst unit through which the gas medium flows. By means of the at least first catalyst unit, the decontamination agent, which is introduced into the first containment during the decontamination process and enters with the gas medium into the area, open atmosphere or the second containment, can be split into non-critical components and degraded to a non-critical residual concentration.