Stuff common face masks with tissue to filter tiny dust in a pinch, research finds

[webfact]

Stuff common face masks with tissue to filter tiny dust in a pinch, research finds

By The Nation

 

 

AS HIGH-quality facemasks to protect against dangerous smog are in short supply, research found that common facemasks with several levels of additional tissue papers or a folded handkerchief inside may suffice to protect Bangkok residents from small airborne dust particles.

 

A foreigner wears protective mask to avoid air pollution in Bangkok. // EPA-EFE PHOTO

 

The research, which is being widely circulated on social media, was conducted by Chiang Mai University biochemistry and clinical chemistry researchers Professor Usanee Vinijketkamnuan and Khanittha Punturee in 2008.

 

It found that a normal face mask plus tissue papers or handkerchief stuffed inside could screen as much as 75 to 90 per cent of dangerous airborne dust particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter, known as PM2.5.

 

The high-quality facemasks recommended by authorities can screen as much as 87-96 per cent of PM2.5, the research found. These include masks of 3M 8210, N95, and 3M 9002A standards.

 

Without the additional stuffed tissues or napkin inside, however, a normal facemask can screen only 48 per cent of small particulates. 

 

A hanky won’t work

 

Home-made masks made from cloth or a handkerchief, however, cannot offer wearers any protection from small particles. 

 

The research also found that a high concentration of dust particles badly affects lung cells, alveolar cells and white blood cells, causing them to die. 

 

 

Without any mask, the particles can kill as much as 40 per cent of alveolar cells, while high-quality masks including 3M 8210, N95, and 3M 9002A can reduce that number to 20 per cent. 

 

However, a normal face mask with or without stuffed tissue papers, cannot protect alveolar cells from the dust particles, the research shows.

 

Meanwhile the government has warned the public not to panic. 

 

PM2.5 are 25 times smaller than a hair’s width and can enter the lungs, causing respiratory problems. 

 

Still, the public should not panic, warned Department of Health Deputy Director-General Dr Amporn Benjaponpitak.

 

People can protects themselves, by wearing two layers of normal facemasks, she said, if they cannot find any N95 facemasks for sale in stores. 

 

Amporn also recommended that city dwellers avoid outdoor activities and stay indoors, especially in the morning when the amount of airborne dust is most severe. She also warned against wearing a common facemask and an N95 mask at the same time as the combination may obstruct breathing.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30362393

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-01-17

[YetAnother]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

as the combination may obstruct breathing.

MAY obstruct breathing ?! the human breathing design never included masks

[JoePai]

Prefer to believe what 3M says :

[Lupatria]

Looks like the colleagues at the Nation found a bypass writing articles about protection, instead of sticking to investigative journalism by name and shame the ones responsible for the mess. Unless they are scared to find some untouchables behind the smoke curtain profiteering from poisoning the people.

[LazySlipper]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

A foreigner wears protective mask to avoid air pollution in Bangkok.

 

Judging by the picture the foreigner is prolly using it to hide his oversized nose...

 

????????   

[hansnl]

25 minutes ago, LazySlipper said:

 

Judging by the picture the foreigner is prolly using it to hide his oversized nose...

 

????????   

That's the type of nose most Thai women want.

[wotsdermatter]

Using activated charcoal is one of the most superior ways to breath easily when there is real smog such as we had in London during and after WWII.  The Pea Soupers were especially dangerous. We were often sent home from school because of it and I had to walk over half a mile to get home.  The only way to do so safely was to touch the walls of building and be careful when crossing roads and not trip over the curb.  Sometimes, if we remembered them before leaving home and expecting to be sent early from school, we took our WWII gas masks which had activated charcoal filters so we could breath easily.  Some of the older things were better than modern stuff.

 

'nuf sef

 

 

[chama]

Sounds like a Thai solution. Low tech but it probably works. Maybe a better solution would have been to get out front of this issue before it got so bad....a very un-Thai solution.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

11 hours ago, wotsdermatter said:

Using activated charcoal is one of the most superior ways to breath easily when there is real smog such as we had in London during and after WWII.  The Pea Soupers were especially dangerous. We were often sent home from school because of it and I had to walk over half a mile to get home.  The only way to do so safely was to touch the walls of building and be careful when crossing roads and not trip over the curb.  Sometimes, if we remembered them before leaving home and expecting to be sent early from school, we took our WWII gas masks which had activated charcoal filters so we could breath easily.  Some of the older things were better than modern stuff.

 

 

Activated charcoal alone does nothing to filter out or prevent breathing of PM2.5 particles.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Is this another episode of "Thai Junk Science"???

 

I'm trying to reconcile the two seemingly contradictory claims in the OP article, as quoted below.

 

If their tissue stuffed masks would filter out a lot of PM2.5 (per the first quote), then why would a tissue stuffed mask not protect alveolar cells in the lungs from the dust particles (per the second quote)?

 

But the other problem here,  I'm afraid, isn't just what material the mask is made from, though that certainly matters too, but also that the common drugstore masks (stuffed or not) do not provide an effective seal between the mask and the face at all the edges, so unfiltered air is pretty much free to flow in from the various sides. In contrast, that leakage is something the N95 masks are specifically designed to prevent.

 

18 hours ago, webfact said:

It found that a normal face mask plus tissue papers or handkerchief stuffed inside could screen as much as 75 to 90 per cent of dangerous airborne dust particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter, known as PM2.5.

 

18 hours ago, webfact said:

Without any mask, the particles can kill as much as 40 per cent of alveolar cells, while high-quality masks including 3M 8210, N95, and 3M 9002A can reduce that number to 20 per cent. 

 

However, a normal face mask with or without stuffed tissue papers, cannot protect alveolar cells from the dust particles, the research shows.

 

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm inclined to think this is just junk science and a social media panacea designed to make all those folks who can't find any N95 masks in the stores to believe and feel better that some kind of home rigged amateur contraption is going to save their lungs....

 

[MaxYakov]

On 1/17/2019 at 6:52 AM, YetAnother said:

MAY obstruct breathing ?! the human breathing design never included masks

The "human breathing design" (as you put it) never included PM2.5 particles nor motorbike crashes at 60 kph. I can think of a few more things it wasn't "designed for" that are often fatal, can you?