Recognizing information relating to the spread of viruses, including COVID-19, is essential to protecting ourselves and avoiding infection.
Medical organizations and public health did not accept, understand, and promote what we needed to do to protect ourselves effectively from the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
We lacked a vital concern of both aerosols and droplets.
Understanding Masks
Aerobiology is the study of biologic particles — like pollen, fungi, bacteria, and viruses. Aerobiologists study how infectious microorganisms spread within both aerosols and droplets. These aerobiologists conduct sophisticated air testing in laboratories to achieve a detailed understanding of how masks and various other respiratory protection devices work.
Respiratory transmission of dangerous microbes is most daunting. Potentially deadly aerosols and droplets can enter our bodies through our breathing.
When people hear the word “aerosol,” many of them assume an aerosol is any size particle that is floating in the air. In many cases, aerosolized particles include dust, misty rain, fumes, and smoke.
Even though the characteristic between small droplets in the air and floating aerosol particles might seem slight — or even unimportant — it is profoundly critical to understand how we approach disease prevention and pandemic preparedness.
Critical to pandemic preparedness, aerobiologists explain the characteristics of droplets and aerosols.
Aerosols and Droplets
Droplets are tiny globs of liquid that come out of your mouth or nose when you cough or sneeze – or when we sing or shout. Gravity forces droplets to fall to the ground. They are heavier than aerosol particles.
Droplets move short distances…attaching to surfaces in close proximity. For this reasons, during the COVID-19 pandemic, governments, businesses, medical, public, and global health officials and representatives requested we practice “social distancing,” — standing at least six feet away from the nearest person.
Many people were adamant that COVID was spread through droplets. In addition, they assumed and decided that infected droplets would have to be propelled into mucous membranes to take hold. Therefore, the virus would keep from spreading if people would keep six feet away from the next person.
Though, aerosol particles come out of your nose or mouth, as droplets do, aerosols are quite different.
Droplets come from sneezing or coughing. Moreover, like an incoming projectile, the droplet hits you in your nose, eyes, or mouth. Aerosols are present in that same six-foot “social distance” zone as the droplets are.
However, aerosols are also potentially present even yards away. The transmission of a respiratory pathogen via an aerosol versus a droplet is easier for a virus to spread.
Think of how we can smell perfume, or cologne in a room…or even in a shopping mall. And, our breathing emits aerosol particles, as well.
Mask and Masking
From the politicians, to the public health community, to the media, much misinformation on the subject of masks and masking abounds.
A myriad of issues pertain to masks and masking — from what type of masks actually offer protection — to how to make personal protective equipment (PPE) available to everyone who needs it. In addition, the necessity of how to educate people on when and how to wear such equipment.
When COVID started to spread, and with a short supply of medical PPE, we were told to protect ourselves with some sort of nose and mouth covering. But, we were to leave the N95 respirators to front line healthcare workers.
Many people resorted to bandanas pulled up over their noses that hardly did anything to keep them from inhaling viral aerosols.
How a mask protects you from inhaling a virus is all about fit and filtration. Presently, there is only one kind of mask that has the fit and filtration, critical requirements.
A respirator — a face covering that could save your life in the next pandemic.
How a N95 Respirator Works
If an infected and uninfected individual were both using fit-tested N95s, it would take about 25 hours of exposure for an uninfected person to inhale an infectious dose.
Cross section of N95 mask layer showing filtering material made from melt blown polypropylene fibers forming a disordered web, which is smaller with greater surface area than cotton, making them highly effective filters. (Credit: E.P. Vicenzi/Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute and NIST)
Referred to as melt blown fiber is the special filtration material in N95s. An electrostatically charged synthetic material filters out potential airborne pathogenic particles.
In laboratory test conditions, N95 respirators can filter at least 95 percent of particles.
Moreover, the fit of a respirator is just as important as the material for optimal protection. Cloth face coverings and surgical masks do not fit tightly against the face. Consequently, leakage of air particles occurs with both inhalation and exhalation.
N95 respirators can create a good seal if placed firmly and tightly on the face. A mask with some empty space is actually more comfortable to wear. That’s why N95s are cup-shaped or otherwise provide more space within while maintaining a seal.
Providing Safety
Construction workers, people living in areas affected by wildfires, general manufacturing, and artists working with materials that may be harmful if inhaled, commonly use respirators.
N95s protect workers from inhaling dangerous aerosolized chemicals from paints, solvents, and other substances.
To earn a N95 label in the United States, a device must be approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH.) The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is the United States federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related injury, illness, disability, and death. NIOSH is headquartered in Washington, DC, with research labs around the country.
Hospital workers used N95s for a single shift. They would then discard or sanitized, because, a shortage of N95s became prevalent early in the pandemic, Additionally, some healthcare workers reuse N95s after storing them for five days to reduce virus on the respirator surface or trapped in the melt blown fiber.
If kept clean, added research showed that during the pandemic, people could wear N95 respirators for several days during visits to a store.
Protect yourself from aerosol pathogens. Respirators will work in any public setting.
