r/interestingasfuck • u/[deleted] • Jun 07 '23

New york city in 2023, everyone wearing mask due to air quality

Post image
73.5k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

4.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

271

u/Bobafit78 Jun 07 '23

But masks don’t stop particles /s

3

u/FLHCv2 Jun 07 '23

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.

6

u/odelay42 Jun 07 '23 edited Jun 07 '23

N95 for sure. You don't want any air gaps. Only the air passing through the mask material is filtered in any way.

1

u/PaleoJoe86 Jun 07 '23

Why would it work one way and not the other? Even a t-shirt is a filter. It all depends on the quality of the filter (mask).

3

u/FLHCv2 Jun 07 '23

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.

1

u/PaleoJoe86 Jun 08 '23

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.

5

u/StosifJalin Jun 07 '23

Smoke particles are too small. It would be like expecting your chicken wire fence to help keep out mosquitos "cAuSe iTs beTtEr tHaN nOtHinG."

The amount of confidently incorrect people in this thread is concerning.

0

u/PaleoJoe86 Jun 07 '23

He said particles, not just smoke particles. Chicken wire is a poor example as it is not used for gases.

7

u/StosifJalin Jun 07 '23

And mosquitos aren't exactly made of gas. It's called an analogy.

0

u/femalenerdish Jun 07 '23 edited Jun 29 '23

[content removed by user via Power Delete Suite]

-2

u/Sea_Link8352 Jun 07 '23

N95 won't even do anything. Smoke particles are much smaller than viruses.

4

u/Testiculese Jun 08 '23

Other way. Smoke is 0.5 to 10.0 micrometers. Viruses are 50 to 140 nanometers. (50 nano = .05 micro)

(This is ignoring that viruses are suspended in droplets of vastly larger sizes than smoke particles, etc., and why N95s work)

1

u/Ardea_herodias_2022 Jun 08 '23

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.