In December, at the American Association for Respiratory Care conference, I saw a new device called SoClean. It is a tabletop disinfecting unit, specifically for CPAP masks, headgear, and tubing. It disinfects with ozone gas (O3). It contains a built-in ozone generator that makes ozone from room air, fills the sealed chamber and tubing with ozone gas, holds it for the proper period of time, then exhausts it through a converter to change the O3 back to O2 before exhausting it into the room. The advantage of a disinfecting gas is that it can readily permeate all areas of complex equipment and tubing.
Having not been familiar with ozone disinfection, I read more about it and found that it is used widely in developed countries, including the US, for disinfection of public water supplies. Ozone attacks the cell membrane of microorganisms, and penetrates it in multiple places leading to the demise of the cell. Of course, ozone gas when inhaled, is hazardous to the respiratory system and is also an asthma trigger, which is why the SoClean unit converts it to O2 before exhausting the chamber. Apparently, ozone is somewhat unstable and coverts to O2 readily.
I have no affiliation with the company that makes it and am not endorsing it. I merely wanted to raise awareness of the device because it may represent an effective way of raising the level of disinfection for small respiratory care equipment and parts, including nebulizers. From what I can learn online, the device costs about $300. The manufacturer's web site is:
https://www.betterrestsolutions.com/soclean/. If anyone has any experience with this device, perhaps you will report it here. Thanks.