I encourage people to go out and try a few different varieties, find what they like and what fits their face. With ample supplies of these masks available and a more transmissible variant on our doorstep, there has never been a better time to up your mask game. Other mask makers such as 3M – with the 9152 (9105 in the US), a mask that helps the wearer breathe as if there were none on their face, while also providing a full range of motion for the jaw – provide great options for singers and choruses. Many KF94 masks feature built-in ear-loop adjusters, making for a comfortable, but tight fit. Mask makers such as Masklab and Posh have created highly decorative designed masks, with bright colours and intricate patterns. In my year of testing nearly 100 different masks, I have found over and over again that there are high-performing masks that outperform cloth masks, while still featuring many things people like about their cloth masks. The KF94 is less affected by this, as it is regulated by the Korean equivalent of the FDA. However it should be noted that the KN95 is a self-reported test standard, and lacks strict government regulation by China, resulting in many underperforming and often flat-out fake masks. Ear-loop masks are available via other international respirator standards, such as the KF94 (in South Korea) or KN95 (China). In the US, the common NIOSH N95 is a great option, but it is limited to headbands only. Photograph: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock Regulator oversight by various EU and UK government bodies helps to ensure a quality product.Ī 3M N95 mask. It features both ear-loop and headband varieties, comes in a variety of colours, and typically costs less than a pound. In the EU and UK, the FFP2 standard is my recommendation for the general public.
This ensures that all the air flows through the mask, not around it. This is what makes respirators such an easy option: you need not worry about anything other than finding one that fits your face.
Respirators provide not only the filtration, but comfort from highly breathable materials, and a tight sealing to the face by the design of the mask. When picking a mask you want to look at three criteria: filtration, comfort and fit. The most amazing thing, though, is that while providing nearly 99% protection from typical Covid respiratory aerosols, these materials also provide breathability that surpasses that of a typical three-layer cloth mask. This material can filter particles that are a just a few nanometres in size. It features tightly spaced micron-sized fibres – about 1/50th the diameter of a human hair – that have an electrostatic charge applied to them to catch even smaller particles. These masks feature a high-tech material called electrostatically charged meltblown polypropylene (quite a mouthful). One might assume based on the technical name, “respirator”, that these would be some Darth Vader-style headpiece – cumbersome and difficult to breathe in. However, it should be noted that being around a contagious person always carries some risk.īeyond the actual increased protection from potential exposure, these masks provide a psychological improvement in day-to-day life, as you no longer need to concern yourself with the fact that those around you may prefer to wear their cloth masks under their chin. However with the use of well fitting, high-filtration masks, this same level of exposure would now take hours to become dangerous.
Analysis and studies suggest that with cloth or surgical masks, the risk of infection may increase within minutes of being around others with either no mask or low-performing masks. In fact, simply wearing a high-filtration mask can buy you significant time if exposed to infectious individuals. Such high-performance masks provide significant protection to the wearer at levels that are between five and 10 times that of a cloth mask, while also providing significant protection to others. These are sometimes called high-filtration masks, or by the technical name of a filtering facepiece respirator.
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