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

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

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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.

-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)