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Face Masks Provide Chinese With False Hope Against Pollution
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Emily Sohn reports at Discovery Magazine that high levels of air pollution in Beijing, where levels of pollution have spiked above 750 micrograms per cubic meter, have caused a run on face masks as people look for ways to protect themselves from the smog. The capital is on its sixth day of an 'orange' smog alert — the second-highest on the scale — with the air tasting gritty and visibility down to a few hundred meters. But experts say that under the hazards they're facing, the masks are unlikely to help much. In fact, images of masked citizens navigating the streets of Beijing highlight the false confidence that people put in face masks in all sorts of situations, including flu outbreaks and operating rooms. For a step up in protection, consumers can buy a category of mask known technically as N95 respirators, which are generally available at hardware stores. N95 facemasks are often used in industrial workplace situations to protect against things like lead dust and welding fumes, and they are certified by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to trap 95 percent of particles sent through them in testing situations. But in order to work N95 respirators need to be professionally fitted to each person's individual face (PDF) to make sure there is a tight seal with no leaks. If they truly fit right, they are uncomfortable to wear."
Masks are magically thought to prevent everything.
A friend of mine caught a cab in Shanghai during one of its more scary bird flu outbreaks.
The cab driver wore a mask with a hole cut out of it for his cigarette.
No way in hell I'm gonna give up my cheap shit, just so some millions of people can breathe fresh air.
The use of face masks in flu outbreaks is to prevent the spread of droplets from the person with the flu. (Note that it's possible to shed and spread influenza before you realize that you're infected.) But a face mask is worthless at protected you from getting the flu if you touch near your eyes after touching an infected surface. Hand washing and being conscious about touching your face is more important.
But in order to work N95 respirators need to be professionally fitted to each person's individual face to make sure there is a tight seal with no leaks.
Only if you are trying to comply with US regulations, say because you work at Stanford University (the source of the linked document). Since any hypothetical "professional" fitters in China would not be complying with US regulation, there's no guarantee that they would fit properly. It would have been better to link to generic fitting instructions for the masks in question as that would actually be useful.
That's the UK, the pollution in China is worse by orders of magnitude, literally millions of people a year will be dying there from lung diseases.
People don't take traffic pollution seriously because they can't see it, even though the number of deaths caused dwarfs vehicle accident deaths.
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When I was working near asbestos nobody told me that the masks had to be "professionally fitted" so I doubt the journalist knows more than they googled about the topic.
However they certainly are uncomfortable especially with safety goggles pushing them down on your nose.
The capital is on its sixth day of an 'orange' smog alert â" the second-highest on the scale â" with the air tasting gritty and visibility down to a few hundred meters.
You mean it can get worse?!
What Shanghai is going through is that London (and pretty much every participant in the industrial revolution went through) - just this is a bit later.
China will put in place (and actually enforce) environmental controls, and it'll all be fine.
But this seem to be 'as designed'. China also has one of the highest percentage of smoking population on Earth, and the government doen't seem to be doing nothing to curb this. Add to this the fact that chinese workers don't have any official retirement plans, and that now the 'one-child' policy generation is starting to work (meaning, less new people to support old people), and it seems that it's simply not desirable for the governement that the chinese people leave much longer after their working time, as the society is simply not ready to carry the burden. If not, they could invest much more in figthing smoking and pollution.
I hope somebody proves I'm wrong, of course, but the signs seems pretty clear.
In order to safely wear a good particle mask one needs frequent medical checkups as many hearts can not bear up under the stress of breathing through such masks.
Like other societies China is being murdered by growth of population and growth of business. Growth is the great killer yet politicians rant about wanting growth. And much like the US if China had strict enough birth control to go back to a sane level of population they would suffer economic collapse.
The work / factories will just move to the next place that take the jobs at any cost.
Still not a good article. If it's about air pollution (as the title indicates) then why the diversion about flu and no discussion about smog particulate sizes vs. mask design?
As someone who has worked in an industrial environment, and who has had to wear respirators and other PPE, I can say that N95 respirators do not need to be 'professionally fitted'. They do need to fit just right, but the users themselves can do that. Yes, they can be uncomfortable if you've never worn a mask before, but once you are used to them you can wear them all day (as many many workers do everyday).
While the author focusses on fitting, he completely ignores the other issue with N95 masks: there are many different types that are designed to filter different things. There are different masks for dusts and particles, nuisance odours, welding fumes, acid gasses, organic vapors and biologicals. The author ignores that people will need to know what type of respirator they need as buying the wrong type will make it far less effective. Not all N95 respirators are the same. For a sutiation like this, a dust and particle filter with nuisance level acid gas (NOx, SO2, etc) would be better, but unlikely to be found at many hardware stores.
What people don't seem to realise is that the gasses that make up smog (CO, NOx, SO2, ozone, organic compounds) can be just as damaging, if not more, than the dust and particulates. Even N95 masks only filter out nuisance levels of these.
Is most of the smog coming from vehicle exhaust?
If so, I hear a company called Tesla has a car or two they may be interested in.
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Whenever I'm in Beijing, I like to rock my IIT 91440 Twin-Cartridge Respirator with Goggles, ideally with my Day-Glo Yellow Tychem Qc Chemical Protection Coveralls. Authorities don't give me a problem, they just assume I'm from North Korea.
If I were wearing a respirator for something Seriously Important(pathogens, war gasses, beryllium dust, etc.) it would be very important to me that absolutely everything is as it ought to be (and I'd probably be fucked, because good luck getting a nice seal if you get caught with a faceful of stubble, and sucks to be the beard guy, though that isn't a concern of mine personally).
However, if I were just trying to help my odds against something in the 'definitely unpleasant, very probably not good, especially at a population level' category, I'd see a role for something that provides 100% only in the hands of an expert; but 50-90 in the hands of n00bs.
That said, though, most filters impede air passing through them to some degree, so inhalations would likely favor any unfiltered imperfections in fit over a trip through the filters, making even dimensionally modest gaps much more serious in practice.
Does anybody know how badly that effect bites you? Obviously, for viruses or something where literally tens of them, if you aren't lucky, can be enough, it basically doesn't matter; but what's the efficiency drop-off for generic bulk particulate masks as user competence declines? Is it, because of airflow taking the low resistance path, basically all or nothing, or is it a fairly smooth decline in effectiveness, with progressively less competent users getting less protection; but no ugly cliff somewhere in the effectiveness value?
We have to wear N95s in the medical profession if we are interacting with a patient with suspected or confirmed active tuberculosis. They are, indeed, miserable to wear. Try performing a complicated procedure that is hard enough normally with a mask crushing your face and the constant feeling of suffocation.
Heck, cutting out 50% of the particulates would probably help.
Be sure to chew your air for at least 30 seconds before inhaling.
The best stuff is the 3M half masks. You need the double respirator to lower the resistance to breathing through such small filters. I think most of Asia should be equipped with these.
from vision and personal experience, most people wearing masks don't wear them correctly. This includes nurses, builders and people trying to get protection from the rest of us. It's not not just Chinese, it's everywhere. Also, most masks just keep out dust, not fumes or virus, the good ones are more expensive.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
The author has never worn a mask or they wouldn't be spouting such nonsense. Professionally fitted? They usually come in small, medium and large. Pick the right one. They need to make a good seal on your face, so lose the beard if you really need a good seal.Other than that, keep them snug enough so that when you inhale, the air enters through the filter cartridges and not through leaks around the mask. Because the filters slightly restrict airflow the mask tends to pull in tighter as you inhale. Uncomfortable? I guess comfort is a personal thing, but I've worn a half mask with N95 cartridges all damn day without too much discomfort. It sure beats hacking up drywall dust for the next 3 days.
The function of the surgical mask is primarily to prevent contamination of the surgical field. Not to protect the surgeon!!
Yeah, try telling stupid people that. It's much easier to tell people to wear masks to protect themselves than to protect other people. People are such selfish f***s.
prior to the Snowden revelations,
it wasn't always cool to be a tin-hatter.
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Ernest Hemingway
'nuf said
As the FA points out, you need a GOOD fit for a mask worth anything to actually work. The real danger for a mask like this is that correctly fitted or not, once you start using it, you tend to have to mouth-breath to overcome the drag from the filter material. This means whatever you are breathing in bypasses the filtering your nose provides and instead goes deep into your lungs.
This can be a very bad thing, especially if the mask doesn't fit well anyway.
There is also a possibility to hyperventilate by forcibly mouth-breathing for hours at a time. I've done this on work projects where I had to wear a mask the entire time. It's also tiring due to the extra effort just to breathe.
There is a very similar problem with sunglasses. Put on dark glasses and your eyes tend to widen and open. If light is leaking in around the lenses, then just like your lungs and a mask, your eyes will receive more unfiltered light than if you had no glasses on. And worse if the glasses are scratched or damaged, the sunlight can get in that much easier.
The commonality between masks and sunglasses is simply that any system that is expected to protect you has to be used correctly and the human response to it also needs to be understood by the user. You need to know that a mask will make you want to breath deeply AND if you do that with a shitty mask or one that is badly fitted, you will get sicker and/or injured.
Most people think safety warnings are for "the other guy" so they don't care anyway. People think they are invincible. Oddly, not one of them has ever been right.
Sig for hire.
Try working in a fucking coal mine hundreds of feet underground for 20 years with the shittiest filtration system on earth then tell me how you feel about it. At best I could have only hoped for conditions that good compared to the shit I was stuck in.
The west got its present supply of capital from the reinvested surplus profits of child labor, slave labor, unsafe labor etc. The Chinese are building up their supply of capital through the exploitation of their people, so when their exploitable resources are used up, they will have the capital to invest in the next level of technology, education etc. just like us. The communists of the west, unions, etc. want the chinese to pay for expensive union labor and safety regimes so they will not have capital enough when their resources run out, and will have to borrow the capital from western union banks, at 14% interest.
I was actually wondering earlier, if suddenly anarchy reigned supreme and smoking in bars was no longer illegal, what's the most minimally intrusive headgear bar staff could use to protect themselves against secondhand smoke? (Not just assuming the bar would have air purification systems installed out the ying-yang anyway.)
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Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
Being a person who was born and raised on the Los Angeles ares, I came to know the awful smog that once existed there. People sometimes would wear gas masks when the sky was very black. It's interesting how the Chinese have failed to learn from history. The air in Los Angeles is wonderful these day. It's still polluted, of course, to a certain extent but nothing like like it was in the 1950-1980 period and nothing like what you see in China now.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
Remember to take the mask out of the plastic bag before fitting.
The resulting lack of oxygen can cause disorientation as suggested by the above comment.
Cryonics - Keep cool and carry on.
Novel solution solves the problem of complete seal of mask to face especially if user has facial hair.
Think of a scuba mouth piece, a scuba nose clamp and the filtration canisters behind the neck.
The air seal is the user's mouth around the scuba mouth piece.
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For full protection you most definitely need to get the face mask professionally fitted. What this means is that you're shaven clean and strapped to a machine which measured the airpressure inside and outside the mask to establish if any flow is bypassing the filtering elements.
In my case that involved wearing it breathing normally, breathing heavily, nodding, shaking my head, pulling a face, hunched over looking down, while reading a pre-defined sentence, and then breathing normally again. The machines then give you a pass or fail. My work stocks 2 different dust masks and 3 different half face respirators for this very reason and a mark goes on our security card to determine which models we're allowed to wear.
Now all that being said none of this at all means that a mask / respirator which hasn't been fit tested is useless, ultimately it just means that it won't afford you the maximum protection (i.e. 90% of particles filtered rather than 95%). Mind you fit testing is a relatively recent idea. Australian OHS regulations have only included the requirement for fit testing for a few years now. Certainly I doubt anyone would have been tested more than about 5-10 years ago.
I encourage you to do it though. Nothing says waste of time more than putting on a respirator with a P3 filter only to find you can't get more than a P1 rating because it doesn't suit your face. (That P stuff is Australian, I don't know the American ratings)
[N95 facemasks] are certified by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Whose national institute? Ah, I see. I wonder what China's equivalent institute certifies, or if they even have an equivalent institute.
Here's what the FDA has to say:
"To work as expected, an N95 respirator requires a proper fit to your face. Generally, to check for proper fit, you should put on your respirator and adjust the straps so that the respirator fits tight but comfortably to your face. For information on proper fit, refer to the manufacturer’s instructions."
http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/GeneralHospitalDevicesandSupplies/PersonalProtectiveEquipment/ucm055977.htm
Start the nuclear war and kill everyone now.
Bow to our new global overlords ... the cockroaches !!
Try working in a chinese coalmine for 20 years. You'll end up getting arrested on suspicions of fraus, seeing as you haven't been crushed by a cave-in yet.
If you quote this signature there'll be 72 copies of Windows ME waiting for you in Heaven.
an ill fitted mask still does plenty more than no mask - and we aren't talking about immediately poisonous chemicals, so a tiny leakage doesn't matter...
and UV still leaks past sunglasses, so should we discuss how we are all being provided with false hopes wearing sun glasses? no, because the immediate benefit is clear
yes i agree
...Wear a gas mask and a veil/Then you can breathe, long as you don't inhale!
This is what US and most European cities looked like in the 19th century. It's the face of unfettered capitalism.
Any activity that enables our baser nature is destructive. It's what I believed in back in the 90s but after Bush and Obama, don't believe in now. Bush started it when it became clear that while we were willing to accept another quick mid-east war our leaders largely didn't care how long we stayed, Obama showed me how hollow and phony our two party political system is by continuing most of the same Bush policies knowing people would stop complaining once he moved into the White House.
Only the dead have seen the end of War. - Plato
FWIW, I learned a lot from this video, despite the amateurish production values.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxHfxQivkHc
Thanks for the laugh!
Yeah, try telling stupid people that. It's much easier to tell people to wear masks to protect themselves than to protect other people.
People are such selfish f***s.
Said some selfish fuck of a person. Oh the humanity.
Chinese people who wear face masks generally wear them out of respect for others - to protect others from being infected (starting with the humble common cold). We in the West think and act otherwise.
For the paper masks in question you need to fit the metal nose-piece properly to your nose.
I agree, for the rubber/silicone masks with filter(s) and exhalation valves there's no real fitting involved, but most people in China apparently aren't wearing those.
Which needs to have the little metal piece fitted to the bridge of the nose.
And of course this type of mask is nowhere near as nice as a half/full silicone mask with separate filters.
http://www.3m.com/product/info...