In the rush to make homemade masks, many people are wondering whether reusable bags such as non-woven polypropylene plastic bags are effective at filtering viruses. These reusable 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 […]
Tag: DIY mask
Can HEPA Filters Be Used to Make DIY Face Masks?
News media like The New York Times and Today have been talking about using HEPA filters as a material to make DIY face masks. There are even YouTube videos showing how to DIY a mask out of a HEPA filter. But just how well can HEPA filters capture virus-sized particles, and can HEPA […]

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 […]

Are Paper Towel Masks Effective at Blocking Viruses?
In a recent study, researchers tested household materials that could be used to make DIY masks, but they left out one common material—paper towel masks (also called “kitchen paper”). Could paper towel be an effective material for making homemade masks in times of crisis and shortages? Smart Air Engineer Paddy tested its effectiveness in the […]

What Are the Best Materials for Making DIY Masks?
With masks sold out during the coronavirus outbreak, many people will have to make do with what some scientists have called “the last resort”: the DIY mask. Data shows that DIY and homemade masks are effective at capturing viruses. But if forced to make our own mask, what material is best suited to make a […]

Can DIY Masks Protect Us From Coronavirus?
DIY masks to protect against from viruses sounds like a crazy idea. Data shows masks work incredibly well, and they’re also really cheap. Surgical masks cost a few pennies, and they’re capable of filtering out 80% of particles down to 0.007 microns (14 times smaller than the coronavirus). However, the coronavirus outbreak brought with it […]
