COLUMBUS — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new technology to sterilize desperately needed surgical masks in Ohio and other parts of the U.S. The FDA has authorized a Columbus-based company to deploy the groundbreaking technology.

Columbus-based Battelle will use its technology to sterilize as many surgical masks as it can, without a daily cap. The Battelle Critical Care Decontamination System is capable of decontaminating up to 80,000 respirator masks per system each day.

Aside from offering this technology in Ohio, Battelle intends to send one machine to New York City and one to Stony Brook, New York, which will provide sterilization of up to 160,000 surgical masks for New York’s healthcare workers each day. Machines will also be dispatched to the state of Washington.

"I want to thank President Trump for his leadership and Dr. Hahn of the FDA for approving the use of this life-saving technology that Battelle has developed," said Ohio Governor Mike DeWine in a news release. "This will not only help Ohio's healthcare workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis, but Battelle will also be helping health care workers in hot spots throughout the country including New York and Washington state."

Next week the company plans to ship four more units elsewhere in the U.S. and in the coming weeks will send 15 additional machines.

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