Stay away from such N-95 masks

 

The new variant of Corona, Omicron, is spreading its legs around the world. In the meantime, experts are motivating people to wear masks. According to him, the N-95 mask is the best to avoid corona infection. This gives us up to 95% protection from virus particles. At the same time, surgical masks are only up to 75% and cloth masks are effective up to 60%.

At the behest of experts, you may have replaced the cloth mask with the N-95 mask, but do you have full knowledge of its proper use? Along with wearing an N-95 mask, we also need to know how, how often and for how long it can be used.

Let's understand in detail every aspect related to the N-95 mask.

Why is it necessary to wear n-95 masks to avoid corona?

The N-95 mask is a medical grade mask i.e. it is used by all the health workers of the world. In the medical field, it is considered a mask of gold standard. They are made of polypropylene fibers, which prevent the coronavirus from coming inside your body from the air. The N-95 masks filter out small and large aerosols. At the same time, cloth masks only filter large aerosols. Surgical masks do not fit well on our face. Therefore, the N-95 mask is considered to be better than cloth and surgical masks.

What should your N-95 mask be like?

The fitting of your N-95 mask should be such that your mouth, nose and chin are well covered. At the same time, there should not be the slightest gap on both sides of the cheeks and under the chin. The cords of the mask should not be loose. The N-95 masks are available in different sizes in the market. You can select them in small, medium and large sizes.

 Stay away from such N-95 masks

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), masks should not be used if they have a valve. With such a mask, the breath passes through without filtering. Apart from this, some fake N-95 masks are also available in the market, which it is important to be cautious of. Consider these 3 things to find out the real N-95 mask:

How often should the N-95 mask be used?

It depends on your mask. There are two types of N-95 masks - washable and non-washable. Many packets have it written on how many times you can wash and use your mask. You can use these masks by following the instructions of the packet.

Apart from this, some N-95 masks sold in the market also have a tag of 'single use' on top. In such a situation, whether these masks should be thrown away once by using it or not, people are also very confused on this. Linsy Mar of Virginia Tech Research University in the US says that this tag is valid for health workers. Since these people stay in the high-risk zone throughout the day, they dispose of the masks by using them only once.

According to Linsie Mar, if you are not in the medical field, you can use a single-use N-95 mask for up to 1 week. Some experts recommend using it for up to 40 hours, in which there is no harm. After so much time anyway, this mask becomes dirty, loose and rough.