What do you need to pay attention on what to put on your face and what is the main difference between masks you can buy from your local retailer.
Nowadays, the market is flooded with different types of masks. You can get hold of a range of masks with different levels of protection. Any sort of protection covering the mouth and nose should help to stop the spread of droplets, but as recent study suggests – this is not entirely true. Some may ask, why do we need to pay attention to what level of protection we decide to go for when purchasing such products?
DOES YOUR FACE MASK PROTECT YOU?
Wearing a face mask or facial covering is now mandatory in the United Kingdom and many other countries across the globe. Unfortunately, not everyone follows this rule or uses alternative options to cover their face such as items they have found at home. Such items include bandanas or neck fleeces, for example.
Researchers at the Duke University have carried out a simple test which recorded particles passing through the air whilst a person was talking. They used a laser, black box and a camera to record particles.
When performing this test, they compared an unmasked speaker to a masked speaker. They first recorded a visualization of an unmasked speaker talking into a black box and used it as a base line. This was then compared to a speaker using different kinds of facial coverings later on. The particles recorded were visible on camera which allows the viewer to see the difference for themselves. The results were a little surprising.
The public has been told to wear a face covering in order to stop the spread of virus. However, from the test we can see that a neck fleece used as a facial covering spreads smaller particle that hang around longer in the air than a speaker who uses no facial covering.
A 2 layered cloth mask also didn’t perform well and airborne particles were still spreading in the air after speaker said: ‘’Stay healthy people’’.
As researchers said, they want to make sure you wear a mask that works.
The mask that stood out the most was the N95 fitted masks. These kept the particles behind the mask. Another outstanding performer was a surgical mask. These kept most of the particles behind as it has a filter and suggestively has 3 layers of different materials to filter out the different particles.
However, the surgical masks have a quite common design and are easily replicated with fake-layer materials or made in factories with poor hygiene and production standards. Therefore, our team has conducted an analysis that compared ‘’surgical masks’’ commonly found in our local shops and pharmacies within 1 mile of our production facility in Doncaster.
Our findings are shown in the video, and for ethical reasons we are not pointing out which brands and shops have failed the tests we have conducted.
The test’s we have conducted are: pointing out Filtration efficiency through melt blown material adsorption test, flammability of the filter and a breath test.
Blog Post Written by: Katarina Kuzmova.
