By Janet Segal, special to Charleston Currents  | Here’s an idea: Local governments and the state — the county, its libraries, technical colleges and the like — should put idle 3-D printers to use now to print masks to keep our medical workers safe.

I am self-quarantining at home with two sewing machines, fabric, a pattern from the internet and I have been sewing facemasks.

According to my nursing friends, these will be helpful for elderly patients and their caregivers and for people outside the home who must go shopping. But they will fall apart after multiple washings. They are well-made but not designed for long-term use.

There are, however, masks that can stand up to repeated sterilizing — those made of plastic on 3-D printers.