Safran has partnered with sporting goods retailer Decathlon and Segula Technologies to produce protection masks for frontline workers fighting COVID-19.

The firm, which has a base at Staverton, has adapted Decathlon's Easybreath Subea snorkelling mask, which will help to protect medical personnel from airborne droplets that could transmit the virus.

And Safran and engineering firm Segula Technologies are offering open access to the files needed for 3D printing the adaptation kit, allowing hospitals and healthcare professionals to make their own kits.

With support from the French Armed Forces Biomedical Research Institute, Safran has began 3D-printing the kits and is providing 200 modified masks to university hospitals.

All of which is why Punchline has named Safran as a Business and Community Champion - the campaign backed by the Gloucestershire local enterprise partnership, GFirst LEP, and the Growth Hub, which runs the network of business support centres county-wide.

Fitted with antiviral filtration cartridges found at hospitals, plus accessories and connectors used in intensive care units, Safran says the Easybreath mask fitted with this anti-Covid-19 kit meets the requirements of both care givers and patients on ventilators.

Safran said doctors who had tested this solution found it complements existing Easybreath adaptations and effectively meets their requirements.

A Safran spokesman said: "The modified mask reflects the standard principles of patient oxygen supply - it's directly opposite the mouth, which makes breathing easier.

"Care givers are highly exposed to the risks associated with air droplets carrying the virus in their daily interactions with patients infected with Covid-19 (ambulance and other transport, stretcher transfer and carriage, work in contaminated environments, decontamination of rooms and equipment, intubation, tracheotomy, etc.).

"This risk is exacerbated by the fact that patients with respiratory distress need additional oxygen, which may increase the risk of exposure from exhaled droplets and thus the danger of contamination.

"Safran and IRBA are working on a number of projects to support the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic."

Punchline's Business and Community Champion Awards are sponsored by:

GFirst LEP

https://www.gfirstlep.com 

info@gfirstlep.com 

The Growth Hub Gloucestershire

https://www.thegrowthhub.biz 

talktous@thegrowthhub.biz 

Send us your inspiring stories - you don't have to write them, just tell us about them - and we will do the rest. Email: beth@moosemarketingandpr.co.uk.