-Soumyadeep Ghosh, Amity University Kolkata
You must have come across many individuals on the street going around with a handkerchief around their faces. So are we making a fool of ourselves by purchasing an expensive N95 mask when we can just go hand in hand with a twenty rupees worth piece of cloth?
Well, a virus particle is approximately 0.12 microns in size and can be even smaller. So it is evident that it can pass through any pore that is bigger than 0.2 microns in size. While stitching a cloth, no one keeps into account the pore size of the cloth, rather the designs matter. N95 masks on the other hand come with a 0.2-micron filter, which effectively is responsible for the restricted entry of particles present in the air around us. Yes, I too can see that the pore size is larger than the virus size, but viruses too don’t like being alone; so they aggregate among themselves or bind to other airborne particles. So the resulting size is easily trapped by 0.2micron filters but if you are more concerned, get an N99 which traps 99% of the particles. Do check your masks are not having any air valves for added safety.
Source: Performance of N95 Respirators: Filtration Efficiency for Airborne Microbial and Inert Particles, Yinge Qian,Klaus Willeke,Sergey A. Grinshpun,Jean Donnelly &Christopher C. Coffey, American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal, Volume 59, 1998 – Issue 2, DOI:10.1080/15428119891010389.
Look after yourself in this Pandemic
–Raddur Samaddar, Amity University Kolkata The pandemic has been long drawn and Psychiatrists and Health care professionals believe it would cause Mental Health to be a major concern now and, in the Post-Pandemic era. While the health Care workers throughout the world are racing to provide the best available supportive care and treatment to patients, […]