Gas Mask? Medical masks? How should the virus be prevented?
05Feb
Trust science without panic. We have listed some masks on the protection of infectious diseases. We hope to help everyone overcome ignorance and rumors, truly protect themselves, protect their families, and reunite with the family for a happy new year.
- Do we need to wear a mask in the context of the emergence of new coronavirus pneumonia?
A: Comprehensive reports from multiple sources have confirmed that the new coronavirus 2019-nCoV will be transmitted through droplets, air, and is highly contagious. At present, the disease has been classified as a type B disease treated according to a type A infectious disease, so wearing a mask is absolutely necessary for basic personal prevention.
It is necessary to wear a mask in public places. After all, if an uninfected patient sneezes, coughs, or speaks in public, a large number of droplets carrying the virus will be produced. Wearing a mask prevents the virus from spreading to healthy people through the droplets. The most effective way.
- What masks should we choose to prevent viruses?
in terms of respiratory protection requirements against viruses and other epidemics, generally speaking, the National Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends that the mask should follow the standards.
The current recommended standards for the use of respiratory protective equipment , GB / T 18664-2002, do not clearly indicate the recommended standards for respiratory protection in virus-contaminated environments. At present, the KP100 level of the GB2626-2006 standard is only used as a reference comparison standard and has not been implemented. However, given that the protective equipment that meets the KP100 standard basically meets the American NIOSH P100 protection standard, the KP100 grade in the national standard can also be used as a recommended standard.
It must be noted that this set of standards is the occupational protection used in the face of severe virus contamination. In other words, this is the recommended protection level for those directly involved in the epidemic situation, and this level of respiratory protection requires the corresponding skin protection (such as protective clothing, protective glasses) to achieve the desired effect.
As for cotton masks, medical masks they have limited protection against virus aerosols and can only partially prevent droplets, and to have a full protection the mask should has a built-in filter.
N95 is a respiratory protection standard formulated by the National Institute of Occupational Safety (NIOSH), where 95 represents that it can filter 95% of non-oily particles with a diameter of about 0.3 microns in the air.
KN95 is a protection standard worldwide, which represents a filtration effect of non-oily fine particles greater than 95%. Similar to the US N95, the protection effect is similar. Similar levels also include EU FFP2.
This class of masks are mainly used in the industry to protect against non-oily particles caused by grinding, cleaning, cutting saws, or particles generated during the processing of ore, coal, flour, metal, and pollen. Compared with P100, KP100, FFP3, which are oil repellent products that can achieve close to 100% barrier, N95 / KN95 products have a lower effect.
But KN95 is not meant to be ineffective against virus protection. For most people's living environment, daily protection against infectious diseases is also sufficient, and the US Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization also believes that N95-level masks can be used as medical personnel to minimize SARS respiratory protection.
- What is the difference between different types and brands of masks?
The main distinction is between use and structure In terms of use, it is mainly divided into medical protection and industrial protection If you pay attention to observation, you can find that most of the masks available on the market with a protective effect greater than or equal to N95, no matter what brand it has another name called "self-priming filter anti-particulate respirator".
This is because the masks you buy on the market are actually used for labor protection in industrial production. This is why many people find that the mask will be affixed with a green LA Labor (Labor Safety) Reason for certification) label.
Why can this mask be used for virus protection? Because they all meet or are equivalent to the specific protection standard NIOSH N95, they are consistent with professional medical masks in terms of protection.
And the kind of medical surgical respirator masks and industrial masks that doctors see when they perform surgery are NIOSH N95. The main difference between the two is that medical masks must be filtered in both directions, while labor protection only needs to consider inhalation filtration.
Traditional folding masks have the advantages of simple structure, low production cost, easy to carry and fold, and do not take up storage space, but the service life and airtightness are worse than cup-shaped masks. Of course, a well-designed folding mask can also solve these problems by optimizing the structure, but the price of this mask is relatively high.
Medical masks will not be equipped with breathing valves, but this is not because the breathing valves will affect the protective effect of the masks, but because the main purpose of medical protective masks is to prevent the exhaled gas of the mask users from contaminating the air. It is to protect the user from being infected, so this type of mask is mostly used in a sterile operating room environment. It is for this reason that the color of the mask is the same as that of the surgical gown. Of course, medical masks also have considerations about the properties of surface moisture resistance and blood barrier. Ordinary people do not need to consider them, so they will not be discussed here.
Structurally, it is mainly divided into folding masks and cup masks