ECO-FRIENDLY, COST EFFECTIVE, AUTO-STERILIZATION OF ISOLATION GOWN: RECENT AND FORTHCOMING ASPECT
Authors:   Department of Chemistry, St. Stephens College, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India., Bisht Yogita , Pratap Singh Ajay ,   Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India.
Published: April 2021

This review addresses the issue of biomedical waste in the form of PPE (personal protection equipment) kit. COVID -19 pandemic has brought life into standstill. It has affected life of each and every person. This includes both direct effect in terms of health and indirect effect in terms of economic loss, business losses which have also resulted into sudden surge in unemployment. But apart from these directly visible effects there is one particular effect which is far sighted but cruel reality of present condition. It is the problem of biomedical wastage arising due to extensive use of PPE kits especially in the form of face mask and isolation gown. As layman is expected to wear face mask all the time, many countries has made it mandatory. It is very important to think about its effective, environment friendly disposal. Similarly isolation gown has also become very common in many medical and non-medical industries. If we dont dispose off used gown properly then the whole purpose of its use will get defeated as it further leads to disease transmission. While selecting method of disposal, it is very important to consider its adverse effect on environment. Incineration, shredding and deep pit burial are some of the common method of disposal of biomedical waste approved by health authorities of different countries, but these are not environment friendly. There are some other disinfection methods like ultra-violet (UV) irradiation, chemical disinfection with the help of them medical isolation gown can be reused but these methods have many disadvantages including being expensive, non-eco-friendly, some methods require expertise in handling machine, some affect the virus barrier ability of gown etc. Considering these problems, this review explored the idea of reusable isolation gown which doesnt require any expertise for its disinfection at the same time it doesnt adversely affect the environment. We proposed the idea of applying layer of photocatalyst which can inhibit the enzymatic activity of cells of microbes which will stop their replication. This can prove very useful in preventing the disease transmission. There are many reports on antimicrobial properties of various semiconductorphotocatalyst which can further be improved by doping it with metal like Cu or Ag which are already popular for their medicinal properties. Major problem with most of the semiconductor photocatalysts is that they show antimicrobial properties within UV range due to their wide band gap. This is not possible just by drying under sun as earth doesnt receive enough ultra violet radiation to start the photocatalysis effectively. This problem is addressed by suggesting different methods/doping to bring photocatalysis range of these photocatalysts within UV-visible range. This would bring major change in isolation gown uses, as people will be able to reuse gown just after drying it under sunlight for some time. This is expected to lower the biomedical waste in the form of gown and mask by manifolds.