The EarthSmiles Mask (TEM)
Improving on the CDCs reference one, and researching dozens more, we may just have hit the perfect balance between a cloth face covering and a N95 respirator!
Improving on the CDCs reference one, and researching dozens more, we may just have hit the perfect balance between a cloth face covering and a N95 respirator!
Facing our fear
Face masks have become a symbol of the pandemic era – a visual metaphor for the tiny, unseen viral foe that could be lurking around any corner. Some opt for a scarf wrapped around their face, others make do with a t-shirt yanked up over their mouth. The more creative hook colourful homemade varieties around their ears, while a lucky few wear distinctive surgical masks or, rarer still, unless they are medical workers, N95 respirators.
Why masks are important (along with Social distance and washing your hands!)
To understand why face masks might work, it is important to look at how the virus that causes Covid-19 spreads in the first place. When an infected person coughs, they can send showers of tiny droplets – known as aerosols – filled with the virus into the air. A single cough can produce up to 3,000 droplets. There are fears the virus can also be spread simply through speaking. One recent study showed that we spray thousands of droplets invisible to the naked eye into the air just by uttering the words “stay healthy!” Besides aerosol infection, touching one’s mouth or nose with hands, when one has touched a contaminated surface (such as a door handle, table, touchscreen, etc;) can also infect a person. Masks prevent both types of infection – preventing aerosols from being inhaled into uncovered mouths/noses and preventing touching of the nose and mouth directly.
A mask, from EarthSmiles.net
EarthSmilers are always creating little thing to make the planet a friendlier place, so they began a project to address the shortage of good masks with one of their own. The EarthSmiles.net Mask (TEM) was created based on the advisory by the CDC (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) for face coverings (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/diy-cloth-face-coverings.html). A face covering is not to be confused with PPE such as an N95 grade mask, as the protection is much less (how much depends on choice of material) than that the 98% offered by the N95 and similar masks used by care givers. Understandably, though they offer a degree of direct infection prevention; they are also a major help in preventing touching of the face and mouth, which are a primary entry point for the virus.
Identified filter material for use in TEM include:
a) Paper towels/kitchen paper
b) Napkins/serviettes
c) HEPA filter paper
d) Air filtration fabrics (such as AirBliss and Filtrette®)
e) Coffee filters
How's TEM better?
TEM initiative improves on the CDC design recommendations by incorporating a pocket, within which a disposable filter material can be placed, ramping up the protection to near the level of an N95 mask (depending on the filter material) while being much cheaper and accessible/available when manufactured (on whatever scale,) and suitable to adapt for DIY masks people can make themselves. It also uses the best materials identified for masks based on their permeability. TEM is made only of materials identified and tested by independent research of SmartAir, Olson Hospitals, universities and others, as well as the recommendations of the CDC itself.
The more they remain the same
Based on research by leading air filter maker SmartAir, we would recommend paper towel/napkins as the filer in our mask, as the best tradeoff between breathability and protection. For example, CDC has mentioned use of coffee filters stitched in masks, but those filters are very hard to breathe through, making them less that ideal to use as masks - which should not induce a user to remove, because of discomfort.
Besides - you can get a napkin almost anywhere!
EarthSmiles.net has experience in filter fabrics such as Filtrette® as we use it and similar material in our own Home Air Purifier AirSmiles, and thought this ramps up the safety and comfort if used in The EarthSmiles.net Mask, is expensive, not widely available and would impediment mass adoption of the mask, which seeks to address the core idea of our Campaign “Wear One. Gift One.” This campaign is to motivate people to not just get and wear a mask themselves, but get one for a loved one to wear, too. {Watch for more on our FB Page} Thus, affordability and maximum protection are to be balanced. In any event, these masks will be more protective than ordinary face coverings, and very much more effective than the simple Chinese-made “pollution masks” now available at pharmacies, or the rider masks, (meant for motorcyclists,) many are using as a stylish mask alternative. These are not really solutions – as they do not quite do the job.
Incorporating a simple design, improved fitment from the CDC design and the extra filter layer, TEM, in our opinion can be a robust alternative to a face covering or plain cloth mask. Some of the features of TEM as below:
IMPORTANT NOTES: Cloth face coverings should not be placed on young children under age 2, anyone who has trouble breathing, or is unconscious, incapacitated or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance.
If you are a caregiver, you are entitled to and must use surgical masks or N-95 respirators. Cloth based masks such as TEM are meant for members of the general public, in nonspecific risk situations.
About the author:
Cintiya Dempta loves the natural rhythm of Nature. Given the chance she'd only do her writing on some tropical island paradise. But there must be good food,
EARTHUS SAYS!
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