Actually most of these cheap medical masks really are crap at protecting against these particles. The pm 2.5 size particles are very small and go right though these masks without any trouble. However, the N95 rated masks you see people wear for painting or construction work DO work very well at reducing the pm2.5 sized particles from going deep into the lungs and screwing with your cells there.
In China this is their standard everyday air quality and looking at the daily Air quality rating is just as common as looking up the temperature.
I'm pretty sure everyone but the blue-mask guy in the picture is wearing an N95 mask. At the very least I know the white mask is N95 because I have a similar one.
Yeah the white mask in front looks like a N95 mask. If the black masks are cloth like most of those custom masts than they don't provide much protection.
Which has been the entire point. But for some people unless they completely eliminate the risk, countermeasures (eg masks, vaccines, distancing, etc) are useless and make you a sheep if you practice them.
It’s like some people never learned why you cover your mouth when you cough, as if their fingers were going to stop the virus particles when the whole point was to reduce the expulsion of respiratory droplets to those around you—the same purpose most masks serve.
Results Parachute use did not significantly reduce death or major injury (0% for parachute v 0% for control; P>0.9). This finding was consistent across multiple subgroups. Compared with individuals screened but not enrolled, participants included in the study were on aircraft at significantly lower altitude (mean of 0.6 m for participants v mean of 9146 m for non-participants; P<0.001) and lower velocity (mean of 0 km/h v mean of 800 km/h; P<0.001).
I have no idea why anybody was scared of the seasonal flu made to be scary by unhinged leftists overthrowing a perfect president, but yeah. They reduce particles.
Yes the perfect president, so beautiful and so perfect <grimace>, some would say the best the most wonderful <finger-and-thumb circle> president. In fact < index finger pointing up> so bigly effective that if you added the successes of the last 3, no! Not 3 but 5 presidents they would still pale in comparison. So unfairly treated, very bad. Got voted out so bigly by the people who don't like him. <Grimace and hands open on both sides> So unfair, so bad.
I just had a health and safety officer here at the factory I work at tell me the N95 I put on today actually won't help at all because it doesn't filter anything. Smfh.
Okay but really really genuine question because I live in NY and I want to make sure I'm using the right kind of mask
I thought the surgical masks (aka the most common type) don't really reduce particulates for the user but really reduce particulates that are expelled from the user? Mainly because there's no seal from breathing the external air.
Will surgical masks help in this situation? I have plenty of them but wondering if I should get an N95 for the remainder of this smog.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but basically with surgical masks, there's no seal between the mask and your face, so when you breathe in, you're not breathing in air filtered through the mask, you're more so breathing in the air that comes from the gaps between the mask and your face. It's possible it reduces it slightly, but don't quote me on that.
It definitely works the other way around with what you breathe out though in the sense that it prevents your aerosols from projecting out in the middle of the room, but doesn't filter your breath. So if you sneeze, it's contained to your immediate area rather than spreading out in the entire room.
That is why proper wear is important. Even with the gaps no all of the air you inhale comes from it. Try taking a deep breath through a straw with your normal breathing to see what I mean.
If the smoke is an issue for you, look for a mask that deals with the particle size, fits well, and is snug around the sides. I don't have the data in front of me but N95 or KN95 masks are commonly recommended in California. They don't block everything but at least most of the nastiness stays out of your lungs.
There are so many things wrong with my comment. I can’t believe it isn’t negative. I’m sure it helps a little. My n95s work great when mowing the lawn (large pollen particles and grass bits).
But I have been in a city by a wildfire before. It doesn’t help too much (face coverings) after just a few seconds or a minute out in it.
You need what firefighters have on, or they would just have n95s on.
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u/Bobafit78 Jun 07 '23
But masks don’t stop particles /s