In 2020, travelling has become more difficult and there is a new item most of us had never thought about buying that now is essential in every trip – face masks.
There has been a lot of confusion about the different types of face masks available and what people should wear. In this post we will explain you all you need to know about face masks to be safe at home and when you travel.
We have been lucky enough to be able to travel a bit this year. We have been surprised by different rules and restrictions when travelling to another country, even within Europe.
Why should I wear a face mask?
Wearing face masks prevents respiratory viruses an infected person exhales from spreading into the air and potentially reaching other people and infecting them, or prevent those who wear from inhaling these viruses (as well as bacteria and particulate matter pollutants that harm your respiratory system).
What kind of face mask should I wear?
We will talk about the different types of face masks there are. WHO and most national authorities recommend using surgical masks and state that even the simplest type I masks are enough. This is because if you manage to avoid 90% of COVID-19 contagions, the R number will decrease steadily below 1 quickly enough.
Concerns of future environmental problems due to a dramatic increase in mask waste have made several countries recommend the use of washable masks to the public. New norms have been written to ensure that these washable masks provide a good filtration level while protecting the environment.
You should bear in mind that a mask should have two main features to be useful: it shall provide a high filtration against the virus, but also let you breathe.
It is not so easy to manufacture a material that has both characteristics at the same time. Intuitively, the more you filter, the more resistance you put to the air, making it more difficult to breathe.
This is why masks are made of non-woven fabrics called spunbound and meltblown, which are polymers manufactured in a way that they provide a high filtration with relatively low resistance to air (pressure differential).
All face mask norms set limits to 2 parameters:
- filtration efficiency: measures the amount of particles that make it through the mask.
- breathing resistance, defined as the differential pressure (Pa in SI units) on both sides of the mask.
PPE masks (N95/FFP2) to protect yourself
PPE masks protect the bearer from inhaling hazardous particles, pollutant particulate matter, bacteria and viruses. They are used every day by people who work in hazardous environments to protect their respiratory system.
PPE masks will help you be safe, but will not protect others (they probably filter something of what you exhale, but are not certified for that). This is why they are especially useful in an environment in which many people don’t wear masks, making others unsafe.
Each jurisdiction has its own norm for PPE masks, and these are often used interchangeably: US’s N95, China’s KN 95 and Europe’s FFP2 are the best-known.
However, you should know that KN95, N95 and FFP2 are not the same. While both Chinese and US norms prescribe the same filtration efficiency, 95% (Europe’s FFP2 sets the limit at 94%), the devil lies in the detail: the way each norm says you should test the mask to certify its filtration efficiency and breathing resistance is quite different!
The Chinese and US norms are quite similar, although USA’s N95 breathing resistance limit is slightly better. On the other hand Europe’s FFP2 (and the Korean norm) prescribe more tests to obtain the certificate, and a more stringent breathing resistance requirement.
The other key difference between these masks is that KN95 is certified by Chinese labs and authorities while N95 is certified by NIOSH and FFP2 by their European counterparts.
It has been found that KN95 masks actually have a considerable lower filtration efficiency when subjected to the tests prescribed by the European norm.
In any case, to protect yourself during the pandemic, any of these masks will suffice. We advise you to check the breathing resistance – the smaller the most comfortable the masks will be.
If you live in the USA, you can follow this link to buy your certified KN95 masks at a great price!
With or without valve?
Some PPE masks have a circular thing sticking on the mask – this is a valve (and not a filter as some people believe).
This valve improves mask breathabilty, as the filtering material of the mask can make it sometimes tough to breathe. This is good if you are working in hazardous atmospheres, but it is not a good idea to protect yourself in a pandemic.
This is because you will be protected but the air you exhale through the valve can infect others. Actually, some regional and national authorities have forbidden the use of these masks for this reason.
So even if you are at risk and prefer to wear a PPE mask to protect yourself against COVID-19, please choose us without a valve and protect others too.
Surgical masks to protect others
Surgical masks are medical devices that filter viruses and bacteria that the wearer exhales when breathing, thereby avoiding these pathogens from spreading into the air and potentially infecting other people.
This is why they are the face masks healthcare professionals usually wear, to avoid infecting their patients with any virus they may have.
However, surgical masks are not intented to protect the wearer. They may provide some protection, and certainly stop someone else’s saliva, but they are not certified no filter inhaling viruses.
WHO and national authorities recommend the use of surgical masks during pandemics. The reason why is because if everyone wears a surgical mask, then no one would be able to infect anyone else, if the efficiency were 100%. In reality, you stop 90-95% of viruses from spreading, which is still a lot.
The problem is, in real life, people also remove their masks when carrying out different activities.
In comparison with PPE masks, surgical masks are less expensive, they breathe better (if they follow the norm), are easier to manufacture and more readily available (because they need less meltbown filtering material).
Types of surgical masks
European norm EN14683 defines 3 types of surgical masks: Type I, Type II and Type IIR. Most surgical masks are Type IIR, that is, with a 98% “outbound” filtration efficiency and splash resistant (that’s what the “R” means).
While a doctor or nurse needs a Type IIR surgical mask, the general population are fine with any of them.
Just make sure that they follow the US or European norm. If they don’t, either they won’t filter enough or, most likely, will not breathe as they should, which would make them quite uncomfortable.
Face masks
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a huge increase in surgical and PPE mask demand that could not be met by the production capacity. This is why many people had to start using other kind of face masks that were not certified as medical equipment or PPE.
Then, several countries decided to set out requirements or to write new standards to ensure that these face masks provided a good level of protection, even if their filtration and/or breathability was not as good as those of surgical masks.
While medical practitioners should wear surgical masks, for the general population these face masks as good enough to decrease dramatically virus propagation.
However, if you are travelling abroad, the main problem of face masks is that they may not be recognised in your destination, as each country has written their own norm (and many haven’t elaborated any).
Washable face masks
After the initial shock of the COVID-19 pandemic and once it was clear people were going to be wearing masks for several months, many alerted about the huge increase in non-recyclable and non-degradable waste this was going to mean.
This is the main reason why washable face masks were developed. Some countries have created new norms to ensure these face masks provide a good filtration efficiency and breathability while protecting the environment.
Washable face masks are tested new and after a few wash cycles. You can use them in the same way as a disposable surgical mask, just instead of throwing it away after 4 hours wearing it, you can wash it (usually at 60ºC) and use it again.
When you buy a washable face mask, check how many wash cycles it resists without any performance loss.
Washable masks will also save you some money as their price can be around 10-15 times higher than a disposable surgical mask but you can use it 30 times or more!
As with disposable face masks (non-surgical), these may not be recognised in your destination if you travel abroad. This will only matter in airports and train stations.
Are there masks that protect others and yourself at the same time?
Technically, it is possible to manufacture a mask that filters both inhaling and exhaling air. However, it is very complex to meet both specifications with one product (filtering both ways AND letting the bearer breath) and we have not seen any in the market.
Our choice
Since they were available, we use washable face masks. We have 3 of them so we also have a clean one ready to use. They are more comfortable, more environment-friendy, they save you money, they look nicer and the are good enough in an environment where everyone wears masks.
However, when you are travelling, you should make sure that your destination country recognises this kind of masks. We have experienced problems with them. In Italy, they didn’t let us wear our Spanish certified washable masks in the airport and we had to buy surgical masks.
Finally, if you are somewhere were most people don’t wear masks and you want to stay safe, or you are person at risk, maybe you prefer to wear a PPE mask (FPP2 / N95 / KN95) without valve.
Where can I travel?
Any traveller has asked himself this question more than once this year. Travel restrictions have changed so quickly during the pandemic that it is very difficult to keep track.
If you are travelling in the European Union, we advise you to check the official website re-open EU before travelling. Otherwise, you can contact the embassy of your destination country and they will inform you.
To be safe, always take some surgical masks with you, especially if you are travelling by airplane – these are recognised everywhere.
