Originally published at: Forget sticking your nose out of your mask – now you can stick your mouth out instead with the "kosk" | Boing Boing
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I did hold my breath when I had my mask off during in-flight dinner, so it may make sense as a better option (breathed occasionally through mask, like scuba buddy-breathing).
There are also nose-plug style filter (pre-pandemic, probably for pollens) that may look less ridiculous.
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But why? dot gif
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I’m sure there will be follow-up videos, showing how droplets are spread by diners while they eat.
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Conversely, I want to see masks with more filter material rather than less. Maybe it’s because I’m larger than their model, but I find that most of the failure to filter of the KN95 masks I wear is because they can’t seal against the pressure differential that develops due to the flow rate of my breathing operating on such a small filter area. Why no pleats like in a car or furnace air filter?
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Elastomeric respirator.
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I would actually consider wearing a well-fitted, high filtration nose-only mask at, say, my dentist. There I have no choice but to be unmasked. The dentist and assistants are wearing respirators and eye protection, so I’m less likely to be infected by them or infect them, but the aerosol’s generated by other patients? Those I’m somewhat concerned about. With vaccinations, the office is no longer as interested in using the awkward but effective hepa vacuums right near patient’s faces to filter aerosols as quickly as possible.
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I’d prefer to avoid a full up respirator or any kind of equpment that’s better off being used by medical providers. We’re well away from the early days when supplies were limited, but I still like to avoid stepping on their toes, so to speak. Thank you for the link. We’ve found some 3M mask type respirators that seem to be more available which will meet our needs. I just wish they didn’t print all the model number info on them in such large black type. I’m sure that’s fine in an industrical setting, but not so much on my kid at school. They were fond of the black KN95 masks for that reason–no visible markings.
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Many elastomeric masks feature fan folded filter material. But the king of low pressure drop and large surface area is the Dorma mask, almost zero pressure drop. It has insanely high breathability.
I wish I knew how to get one in the US.
The Dentec Safety NxMD N95 source control mask uses more ordinary felt-like cartridges, but has the same or lower breathing resistance than a good filtering facepiece respirator.
https://dentecsafety.com/comfort_air_nxmd_medical_mask_usd.htm
Note that Dentec has plenty of stock and you won’t be taking masks away from HCWs. They are currently having a hard time getting government and institutions to buy elastomeric source control masks in spite of the fact they work better (better seal), cost less in the long run and waste less.
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It just struck me that this pandemic has served to make Rictus Erectus look like even more of dick
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“chew with your mouth closed, dear”
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No joking at the table, either!
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Available in all popular colors except brown.
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Do they come in black?
Luke… I am your father!
(I’ve been using N95’s (no valve) from “Moldex” sold through Grainger, but have an industrial respirator. Given the amount of selfish no-maskers and dicknosers here behind the orange curtain, I’ve seriously considered wearing it to the grocery store)
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They totally do!
I’d suggest the black because they are made of silicone, which can stain. Black will hide any stains.
I do wear an elastomeric to the grocery store. I’ve given up on wearing nice looking KF94 masks in favor of wearing the most protective mask I have. Covid causes vascular and neurological damage. Do not want. And I’d feel really stupid if I got covid from being indoors with people while wearing a decent, but not perfect, fitting KF94 while an elastomeric source control respirator was hanging on a hook at home.
One caveat, with the white mask the filter cartridge covers are translucent and you can see a bit through them at the edges to verify the filter is properly placed and sealed between the bottom and top. You can’t do that with the black ones.
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I wouldn’t wear such a mask on a daily basis because I think it would be overkill. Besides, I think people would look weird at me. PFF2 (or N95) masks are relatively easy to find in my country and are very cheap. Elastomeric respirators are much more expensive and can only be found in specialized stores that sell Personal protective equipment. A good quality elastomeric respirator can cost the same as 100 PFF2 masks.
Yes. It looks like one of those designer clothing brands that young people love, the ones with the huge logo splashed around. I usually wear a white or blue masks without logos. These masks are so cheap that I don’t understand why the chain retailers or restaurant franchises don’t buy it wholesale and distribute to their employees.
Speaking again about logos, a wise and bold executive could buy a bulk of masks, print the company logo and distribute it as a gift.
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It’s only overkill until it’s not and you catch Covid. And you’ll never know in advance when that instance will be.
Filtering face piece respirators like N95s have very good filtration media, but without a fit test not available to the general public you are probably going to have at least 10% inward leakage, meaning 1 out of every 10 particles will get through. So if it would take 1 minute to infect you without a mask, you’d still get infected in 10 minutes. You are still vulnerable to infection, it just takes 10 times longer (or more or much less depending on your fit, that you can’t confirm), which may not be very long at all given the transmissible of Omicron and the new Omicron variant.
Even without fit testing, the general public can get a good seal with an elastomeric half mask respirator. The rubber or silicone seals are vastly better than FFRs and, unlike an FFR, you can pressure check the seal by covering the filters and trying to breathe in or out to confirm a negative or positive pressure seal.
TFB for them.
I’m done risking inhaling an airborne virus so that I can blend in with people. Social pressure to be less protected is stupid. They are just going to have to deal with it.
They are sold on-line. It is trivial to buy one from a specialized store in the US, don’t know about where you live. In the US, a Dentec source control elastomeric respirator purpose built for healthcare workers can be purchased for $16-24 depending on the vendor. And the filters are meant to be used for full shifts, over and over again for at least 3 months unless damaged. A box of 10 of my favorite N95s from Home Depot, when they are in stock, If they are in stock, is $23.
The long term cost of using elastomeric source control respirators is lower than than for FFRs. And you won’t have to spend your life tracking down current N95 stock or trying to guess if they are genuine,
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