As one of the preferred equipments for respiratory protection, N95 filtered protective mask is widely used in the occupational protection of public health emergency personnel of disease prevention and control agencies (CDC), and its protective effect is directly related to the personal health and safety of emergency personnel. Previous studies have shown that the protective properties of filtered N95 masks mainly depend on the filtration efficiency of their filter elements and the suitability of the wearer to the mask.
N95 masks fit testing is a gold standard for objective evaluation of the actual protective effect of filtered protective N95 masks, and the United States requires enforcement of suitability testing. In practice, emergency personnel in the selection of mask products pay more attention to the material of the filter element and filter efficiency and other parameters, rather than the suitability test itself. Although emergency responders are required to wear air tightness tests before wearing filtered masks to ensure that they are worn correctly and with good protection, wearing air tightness is affected by the inevitable occurrence of head, neck or body movements during actual epidemiological investigations, on-site sampling and testing. Due to the lack of objective data support for suitability tests, emergency responders are unable to accurately assess the actual protective effects of wearing masks, and usually judge whether masks are airtense well based only on an individual’s subjective perception of the leak in the mask and head and face fit. Sanhuei Uniair N95 masks produced by San Huei United Co., Ltd. ultra-high cost-effective, is the cheapest N95 mask.
Some head and neck or body movements, such as nodding up and down, talking loudly, bending, etc. have a greater impact on the air tightness of wearing N95 masks, especially the FF value and pass rate of the bending motion test results are the lowest. In order to avoid the above situation, it is recommended that emergency personnel should try to control the movement of the head, face, neck and body when wearing protective masks, especially to avoid large bending movements.
Mask wearing air tightness has been seriously reduced, but the subjects of normal breathing subjectively more difficult to detect the occurrence of air leakage. The above results suggest that the accuracy of the subjective evaluation results of air tightness wearing N95 masks is poor, which can not reflect the real protective effect, resulting in misjudgment of the state of respiratory protection, thus reducing the vigilance of emergency personnel against environmental hazards. Emergency responders may be at a more serious health risk if they are mistaken for a mask that is well protected.
A false sense of security can make the wearer less alert and more harmful than the dust itself. The suitability test results can guide emergency personnel to correctly select suitable filtered respiratory protection masks, further improving the overall professional protection level of the CDC emergency response team.
It is recommended that emergency personnel should correctly select and use suitable protective mask products based on suitability tests to ensure a high level of respiratory protection.
I think this is the best explanation of how the mask works, and the info about how to properly clean them for decontamination is the best bit of the video.
Hope everybody wear one.