University promotes better masks to combat air pollution scourge

By The Nation

 

Staff at the Chiang Mai University’s Faculty of Medicine wear N95 masks to protect themselves from adverse health impacts from severe air pollution.

 

CHIANG MAI University’s Faculty of Medicine yesterday handed out a more protective type of face mask, the N95, to help its staff cope with serious air pollution.
 

The distribution of 6,000 N95 masks was aimed at raising public awareness of the problem and at educating people about how to protect their health. 

 

“Air pollution now is at its worst in three decades,” the faculty’s dean, Professor Bannakij Lojanapiwat, said yesterday. 

 

 

An N95 mask covers the nose and mouth of its wearers, protecting them from inhaling some hazardous substances, including small particles. It is designed to filter out at least 95 per cent of the dust and mould in the air. 

 

 

Bannakij said as his faculty was a health leader in the country, particularly in the North, it had made it a mission to help people during the smog crisis. 

 

“We are unable to control air quality in our town. But at the very least, we should learn to protect ourselves as best we can,” he said. “If you wear a normal mask, it can’t block out very small particles. You now should go for the N95 if you go outdoors”. 

 

Bannakij added that when air quality dropped this badly, people definitely should not exercise outdoors. 

 

According to www.airvisual.com, Chiang Mai yesterday ranked among the 10 worst big cities in terms of air-quality, with an Air Quality Index (AQI) standing at 148. When AQI ranges between 101 and 150, the air is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups. 

 

 

Assoc-Professor Arintaya Phrom-mintikul, who teaches at the Chiang Mai University Faculty of Medicine, said the number of patients admitted to hospitals with lung and heart problems increased every time the amount of dust particles soared.

 

“Dust can trigger symptoms,” she said. 

 

The university’s Faculty of Science is also distributing facial masks. 

 

Chiang Mai is not the only province suffering from air pollution in Thailand. Airvisual.com showed Bangkok’s AQI was 161 yesterday. 

 

When AQI ranges between 151 and 200, everyone may begin to experience health effects, with members of sensitive groups at risk of experiencing more serious effects.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30342301

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-04-03

1 hour ago, webfact said:

“Air pollution now is at its worst in three decades,”

likely he is right, and it seems destined to get worse due to thailand's usual effectiveness at addressing root causes

Gives a new meaning to duck-face .

Giving out better masks is a good thing, but hardly qualifies as combating air pollution. Coping with it, yes, but does nothing to reduce the pollution at the source

Anstett tries to stop the uncontrolled burning develope a new mask, that will be the future for the world population.

During eating and drinking, they must take down the mask and????

How about instead of better mask,  reduce the amount of pollution. 

Usual Thai response, “crackdown” on the symptoms, ignore the cause.

Thats fine, now go and  fix the root cause of the problem please  

OP - " It is designed to filter out at least 95 per cent of the dust and mould in the air."

In the pics attached, you will not get any more protection than those useless squares of toilet paper everyone uses.

The mask material can remove 95%, but only if it makes an air tight seal around your nose and mouth.

Air follows the path of lease resistance, so will bypass the filter media if it can go around it.

And it will.

Want protection ? Wear something like this ...

Various filter cartridges available.

The rest - smoke and mirrors

 

 

The distribution of 6,000 N95 masks was aimed at raising public awareness of the problem and at educating people about how to protect their health. 

 

It's putting a band-aid on a bullet wound.  It ignores the problem.  Citizen should not have to wear N95 masks in the first place. 

Will the medical staff at CMU be charged with endangering tourism by the local government for promoting the use of masks?

13 hours ago, webfact said:

“We are unable to control air quality in our town."

 

WE the staff at CMU, yes, that's true.

 

We the local and regional government, that's not true. They certainly could, but they simply don't.

 

The wife an I took the escape approach and drove South.  On our drive from Ching Mai to Petchaburi, my observation is that from CM to Bangkok, the country is enveloped in a dense grey-brown envelop of foul haze and smog.  Bangkok is little better than Chiang Mai, for that matter, all point between are about the same - bad!  The air didn't start to improve until we we're well within Petchaburi province. 
We're spending time on the coast, and for the first time in a couple of months the wife and I are feeling normal healthwise considering we are breathing relatively fresh air being blown in from the sea.  What this tells me is that the masks and air filters we use at home are not really that effective.  Next burn season I think we'll just leave the North to it's smog, haze, killer smoke and hunker down for an extended period of time here in the South.  It's just plain unhealthy to remain in the North, or for that matter, North of Bangkok.

3 hours ago, canthai55 said:

OP - " It is designed to filter out at least 95 per cent of the dust and mould in the air."

In the pics attached, you will not get any more protection than those useless squares of toilet paper everyone uses.

The mask material can remove 95%, but only if it makes an air tight seal around your nose and mouth.

Air follows the path of lease resistance, so will bypass the filter media if it can go around it.

And it will.

Want protection ? Wear something like this ...

Various filter cartridges available.

The rest - smoke and mirrors

 

No, that's not true that good N95 masks can't provide good protection and a solid seal.

 

I don't know about the specific masks the CMU staff are shown wearing in the photos, though it looks like they're a particular 3M model.  But the N95 masks made by 3M in particular, if worn and fit properly, will filter out very high levels of even the smallest pollutants, e.g., PM2.5.

 

But as you correctly pointed out, the mask, regardless of the brand, has to be fit to create a firm seal everywhere it contacts with the wearer's face. I've been wearing a 3M 9010 mask outside in BKK the past couple weeks, and I can vouch, it can and does create a solid seal if the wearer fits it properly in accord with the instructions.

 

 

Is it better in CM today, or is someone monkeying with the sensors?

The CM readings seem awfully low...

 

Bangkok:

 

Chiang Mai: