In the rush to make homemade masks, many people are wondering whether non-woven polypropylene bags are effective at filtering viruses. These bags are incredibly popular in places like Asia and Africa, where they are a common alternative to flimsy plastic shopping bags. Why Non-Woven Polypropylene Bags Make Great Homemade Masks These shopping bags […]
Category: Coronavirus
The latest info and practical tips on protecting yourself from the Covid19 coronavirus. Information and open-data covering: N95 masks, surgical masks, DIY and homemade masks, air purifiers and disinfecting and washing masks.
Recent Coronavirus Articles:
How Dental Clinics Can Protect Against COVID-19
Dental clinics may be high-risk places for COVID-19 infection. During a dental operation or surgery, patients must remove their mask, and airborne particles and aerosols post a risk of contamination and infection. This article covers masks and air purifiers as possible means of reducing virus transmission for dentists and dental clinic workers. The […]
Half of Chinese N95 Masks Fail Quality Checks
Tests of masks marketed as N95 from 21 manufacturers show that half of Chinese N95 masks fail quality tests–with some masks filtering no better than a cotton cloth. These tests come at a time that many countries around the world are scrambling for masks and other PPE. Factories Spring Up to Meet Mask Demand […]
How to Find Reliable N95 Mask Suppliers
After testing 31 masks from 19 suppliers in China, we discovered that almost half of the masks were not meeting the N95 standards for filtering particles. What’s more, out of the 17 masks that did meet the N95 standard, most of these broke when we tried some simple structural tests. Many people are currently looking […]
Does Wearing Surgical Masks With the Wrong Side Out Affect Their Ability to Capture Viruses?
Amid the rush for masks with the coronavirus, we’ve found that some people are wearing masks the wrong way round! But does wearing surgical masks the wrong way round affect their ability to capture viruses? Some online sources claim it doesn’t matter, like this one. Surgical masks are made up of 3 layers, and […]
Which Way Round Should a Surgical Face Mask Go?
Surgical masks are designed to be worn in one direction only. However, it can be difficult to know which way round the face mask should go. Should the blue side face out, or in? Some face masks are white all over, which way round should these white face masks go? In this post, we’ll cover […]
Sanitizing Masks With Alcohol Degrades Performance
With mask shortages during the coronavirus outbreak, some doctors are sanitizing masks with alcohol so they can re-use them. But this raises questions about whether alcohol actually works and whether it degrades the masks. Does Alcohol Kill Viruses? The research on alcohol is clear. Alcohol kills viruses. Technically, viruses aren’t alive, so scientists focus on […]
The Ultimate Guide to Homemade Face Masks for Coronavirus
One month ago, we published one of the first rundowns of data on the best materials for making homemade masks. Fast forward and the CDC is now recommending face masks for everybody, spurring a worldwide movement to make homemade masks. The first summary (viewed over 4 million times!) was a great start on face mask […]
The Ultimate Guide to Homemade Face Masks – Supplemental Data
This article accompanies our Ultimate Guide to Homemade Face Masks for Coronavirus article, and covers our testing method and provides the original data. WATCH: Smart Air’s Paddy Explain How We Ran These Tests The Cambridge researchers used a fancy piece of kit called a Henderson apparatus to run their tests. This allows for the controlled […]
What’s the Difference Between N95 and KN95 Masks?
With such similar sounding names, it can be confusing to understand the difference between N95 and KN95 masks. What are KN95 masks, and are they the same as N95 masks? This handy chart explains the differences between N95 and KN95 masks (and all characteristics that are the same). N95 vs. KN95 Comparison Chart Source: 3M – […]
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