Individual medical face mask use behavior and development of Ultraviolet-C irradiation disinfection system in rural areas

The COVID-19 outbreak has impacted on the living of people in communities and around the world.The medical face mask use is an effective way to protect people from the spread and infection of the disease.The objectives of this study were to study the individual behavior of medical face mask use in the community area in Thailand and to evaluate the effectiveness of medical face mask disposal using Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) irradiation.The study also aimed to understand the medical face mask behavior use of people in Chiang Khruea Subdistrict, Mueang District, Sakon Nakhon Province, Thailand.Data of medical face mask use were collected using questionnaires.The results show that people not only used approximately 1-3 medical face masks per day, but also wore them during daily activities and interacting with others.The study also evaluated the effectiveness of infectious medical face masks exposed UV-C irradiation for 5, 10, 15, and 20 minutes for decontamination.The results demonstrate that UV-C irradiation exposed for 20 minutes completely eliminated microorganisms on infectious medical face mask surfaces.Therefore, UV-C irradiation has the effectively ability to kill bacteria on the medical face mask surface.