Patent ID: 8407818

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a hood that is placed over a helmet of a personal protection system, said method of hood manufacture including the steps of: providing a transparent face shield; applying at least one transparent removable layer over the face shield using a method that allows the removable layer to be removed from the face shield during use of the hood, wherein said face shield and at least one transparent removable layer form a face shield-removable layer assembly; sterilizing the face shield-removable layer assembly using gamma radiation; after said sterilization of the face shield-removable layer assembly, attaching the sterilized face shield-removable layer assembly to a shell that includes at least a portion formed from a filter medium so as to construct the hood, wherein the at least one transparent removable layer is located on an outwardly facing surface of the face shield; packaging said hood, including both the shell and face shield-removable layer assembly, in a package; and sterilizing the package and contents using ethylene oxide.