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I would wear an N95 mask sometimes in Asia, to mitigate the pollution. I didn't throw it away after each use. I imagine their use by medical professionals to be
by bootlooped 7y ago
I would wear an N95 mask sometimes in Asia, to mitigate the pollution. I didn't throw it away after each use. I imagine their use by medical professionals to be a much different case though.
I think a lot of Asian people wore the cheap cloth ones. I have learned recently that these sometimes have replaceable inserts inside them.
- adrianN 7y agoThe masks filter pollution about as effectively after prolonged use as when they're new. The problem for medical use is contamination with germs.
- Scoundreller 7y ago> The masks filter pollution about as effectively after prolonged use as when they're new. Filters generally get better at filtering as they get dirty. A pore with a mountain of dirt/dust over it gets even better at only permitting gasses through. But that also means less and less flow, until you're letting nothing through at all. I think the other problem for medical use is moisture buildup. A damp/wet/sweaty N95 doesn't let gasses through very well.
- jhanschoo 7y agoDo you have a source for that? The recommendations I've seen suggest otherwise, and this matches my intuition. Wear creates and enlarges pores, and also, pores of the right size get clogged resulting in more flow over pores that are too large to filter.
- Scoundreller 7y agoDepends on what's hitting the filter. All "wear" will enlarge pores by definition, otherwise it's not wear. And in your example, if pores are 0.1-0.3micron, and you have uniform 0.2micron particles hitting it, yes. But reality isn't usually so uniform. Shards of glass will create more problems for the filter media than shredded N95 mask dust :) A mask covered in saw dust will slow down and make a particle hit against the filter more turbulent = less chance of forcing its way through.