Why is CPAP sanitizing so important?

We wrote about this many times before…but no matter how many times we write about it, it feels that this topic should be mentioned one more time!

According to Harvard Medical School Health Publishing the mask, water chamber, and tubing should be cleaned every morning. It is important to know that if not maintained properly and cleaned regularly, your CPAP device and equipment can make you seriously ill! Humid and hot air and the inside surface of the CPAP mask and tubing are a perfect breeding ground for germs, bacteria, viruses, fungus, mold... Collectively known as germs, bacteria, fungi, and viruses are microscopic organisms that live all around and even inside us (many germs live in and on our bodies without causing harm; some even help us to stay healthy). And as some germs help us stay healthy, some germs can make us sick. Infectious diseases are diseases that are caused by germs.

It sounds scary (and it is), but there is no need to worry if you do everything right. There is a simple solution, you just need to make sure that you keep your CPAP equipment clean and sanitized!

How to clean and sanitize your CPAP?

Well, the easiest and (probably) most efficient solution is to use an automated cleaner/sanitizer i.e. CPAP Cleaning Machine. There are a lot of different devices on the market, but only 2 come as most efficient: ozone sanitizers and UV sanitizers.

Why is Ozone a perfect solution? We strongly believe that Ozone Disinfection CPAP devices are the safest to use! After all, we decided to use ozone as a sanitizing agent in our product only after we did extensive research, and we found ozone and the technology behind producing it, to be the perfect solution for users. For some time now, ozone is one of the most effective sterilizers used in medicine, in hospitals, and recently very much in use in a household (as Air Purifier, Ozone Sanitizer, CPAP Cleaner…). Although we know probably everything there is to know about ozone, and extensive research is invested in it, in some ways there is still a debate if ozone should be used as sanitizer outside professional usage (in hospitals, medical centers, laboratories, food industry, hotels…). However, according to recent findings, there is no reason for debate at all… According to Greenfacts.org, World Health Organization states: "There is little evidence from short-term effect epidemiological studies to suggest a threshold at the population level. It should be noted that many studies have not investigated this issue. Long-term studies on lung function do not indicate a threshold either. However, there may well be different concentration-response curves for individuals in the population, since in controlled human exposure and panel studies there is considerable individual variation in response to O3 exposure. From human-controlled exposure studies, which generally do not include especially sensitive subjects, there is evidence for a threshold for lung damage and inflammation at about 60 to 80 ppb (120-160 mg/m3) for short-term exposure (6.6 hours) with intermittent moderate exercise. Where there are thresholds, they depend on the individual exercise levels." So, only in higher concentrations and exposures longer than 6 hours, with occasionally elevated air ventilation (faster breathing), ozone is considered potentially harmful to human health, especially for people with respiratory problems (which is not the case if using CPAP Ozone Sanitizing Machine).

What about other solutions? Other solutions can be UV sanitizers, Chemical sanitizers, and hand cleaning/washing.

UV sanitizers are probably the best solution for the remaining three, but they also come with their faults… UV stands for ultraviolet, which is a form of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength from 10nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30PHz) to 400 nm (750THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. Short-wave ultraviolet light (UVC) radiation sterilizes surfaces with which it comes into contact, but it also damages DNA. UV sanitizers destroy viruses and kill bacteria by using their lights to emit UV rays, targeting proteins and genetic material (DNA and RNA). "They speed up cross-linking of this genetic material, which reduces the ability of the genetic material to participate in healthy replication," Karen Dobos, Ph.D., professor in the department of microbiology, immunology, and pathology at Colorado State University, tells Health. Besides that, UV sanitizers use UV lamps (also called "germicidal lamps") and the efficiency of UV sanitizers is the same as the efficiency of the UV lamps used. So UV sanitizers can be less effective if UV lamps used are not strong enough (and since they are simple to produce with cheap UV lamps, they often prove to be not enough effective). Another point to consider when it comes to personal UV sanitizers is that the energy their lights emit wanes over time. "As it decays, it becomes even less effective for its target, and I don't know how a person could tell how these bulbs are decaying," professor Dobos says. "I'm sure there's a 'replace by' date, but most of us only replace a light bulb when it goes completely out. This is well beyond the effective time for a UV source.

So, yes for the UV sanitizers, but with caution about what you are buying/getting.

Chemical solutions. These are to be discussed… Their efficiency is pretty high. Simplicity to use as well. But, they are used with water, and they leave CPAP equipment wet after use. Now, before we analyze chemical sanitizers more, we should mention that some solutions are more complex and use the fan that dries the equipment after sanitizing. Chemical sanitizers are quite simple solutions, just put the CPAP equipment into a container with water, add a chemical agent that will do the sanitizing process, and leave it like that for a while (usually around 10-15min); some models use a type of a water pump instead of a container and push the water with a sanitizing agent through the CPAP equipment. Although they are simple and require almost no space (if you only use a sanitizing agent you can clean your CPAP in a sink), do keep in mind that after use you must make sure that your CPAP equipment is thoroughly dried (or else we loop back to the beginning of the story to the part about germs and hot and humid places).

Manual washing and sanitizing (vinegar). When manually cleaning and sanitizing your CPAP equipment most often as a sanitizing agent (besides mild soap) you will use vinegar. This method, although the cheapest, easily available, and simple, is the least efficient and most time-consuming one. That aside, the problems that come with this method are more-less the same as with chemical cleaning, and that is residue water after the process.

Everything is better than not cleaning!

Every solution is better than no solution when it comes to cleaning and sanitizing your CPAP equipment. We always recommend our new N105 PrimeClean® CPAP Cleaner in the first place as your perfect CPAP sanitizing solution, and if you already have an old version of PrimeClean sanitizer, you might consider upgrading it with super-convenient CPAP Sanitizing Travel Bag with ozone filter!

However, if for any reason you cannot use your PrimeClean sanitizer, but have one of the other options available, do use them as suggested. It is important not to forget to clean your CPAP daily!